Wright Flyer featured at new museum exhibition

The National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC is set to unveil a new exhibition showcasing the achievements of the pioneering Wright brothers.

The display is part of a wider transformation of the attraction which is scheduled to re-open to the public this autumn.

**The Wright Flyer is lowered to the museum’s first floor earlier this year.** Jim Preston-Smithsonian

At the centre of the new gallery is the 1903 Wright Flyer, undoubtedly one of the most significant artifacts in the extensive Smithsonian collection. In February, National Air and Space staff successfully moved the precious machine out of its former home, gallery 209, and carefully lowered it down to the first floor using a gantry crane. The Flyer is now located in gallery 107 within the museum’s west wing as the centrepiece of the Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age exhibition.

Various artifacts relating to Wilbur and Orville Wright will be on show, along with panels featuring images and information. The museum says that these will “orient visitors to the content of the gallery before they step beyond the panels for the ‘reveal’ of the Wright Flyer at the centre of the space”.