Discovering Our CRM Aviation Heritage rom the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Canadian to the Mexican border and all along the Gulf of Mexico there is a host VOLUME 15 NO. 2 of historic sites that illustrate the history of American aviation. 19 9 2 Many of these sites are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The documentation of these sites for listing in Fthe National Register provides a unique database and educational THis resource for the American people. The preservation of these sites, and Issue their associated museums, illustrates an important link with our aviation A New Era for Canada's Parks heritage. No matter where you live in the United States there is proba­ Canadian historian bly an aviation-related historic site James E. Candow talks about near you awaiting your visit. The interpreting cultural resources in national parks following articles illustrate just a PS-21 small seqment of these resources. Bill Chapman's article tells us Saving Sites from Natural Disaster about Wright Brothers National Memorial, now a unit of the national NPS ranger Arthur McDade park system, and the site associated and SC park archeologist in the minds of most Americans Dormie Barker describe efforts with the Wright Brothers and the to repair storm damage at two archeological sites development of the first airplane. pg.18 While the first sustained flight in a (continued on page 3) Surveying World War II Sites Archeologist Dirk Spennemann reports on problems with tourists in the Republic of the Marshall Islands pg. 15 Cultural Resources Management Information for Parks, Federal Agencies, Indian Tribes, States, Local Governments and the Private Sector U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Wilbur and Orville Wright (August Brunsman, 1989); first flight of the original Wright Flyer, photo by the Wright brothers; Little Joe rocket, NASA Wallups Island Field Station, photo courtesy NASA;drawing of Cultural Resources original Wright brothers wind tunnel, NASA Scientific and Technical Information Branch. Content* Features Discovering Our Aviation Heritage 1 CRM Wright Brothers National Memorial: A Short History 4 William Chapman VOLUME 15: NO. 2 Cathleen Turner Published by the National The Birth of Aviation in Dayton, Ohio: Park Service to promote Is a New NPS Unit About to Take Off? 7 and maintain high Ronald W. Johnson standards for preserving and managing cultural An Examination of the Variable Density Wind Tunnel: resources. NASA's Most Unique National Historic Landmark 9 Harry A. Butowsky Director James M. Ridenour The Rogers Dry Lake National Historic Landmark 11 Associate Director Lunar Landing Research Facility 13 Jerry L. Rogers Held in Common: Historic Architecture 14 Editor in America's National Parks Ronald M Greenberg Caroline Bedinger Production Manager Karlota M. Koester Apocalypse Now? The Fate of World War II 15 Sites on the Central Pacific Islands Advisors Dirk H.R. Spennemann Joan Bacharach CRM at East Base, Antarctica 17 Museum Registrar, Nil's Cathy Spude Randall J. Biallas Historical Architect, NPS Robert Spude John A. Burns Architect, NPS Joint NPS-TVA Slump Restoration Project at Harry A. Butowsky Russell Cave National Monument 18 Historian, NPS Arthur McDade Pratt Cassity Acting Executive Director, National Alliance of Stabilization Project: Santee Indian Mound 19 Preservation Commissions Donnie B. Barker Muriel Crespi Cultural Anthropologist, Nl'S Cultural History in National Parks: 21 Craig W. Davis Archeologist, NPS The Case of Broom Point, Newfoundland Mark R. Edwards James E. Candow Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, Spanish Architectural Drawings for the Maryland John Hnedak United States in Foreign Archives 23 Architectural Historian, Nl'S James C. Massey H. Ward Jandl Architectural Historian, Nl'S Roger E. Kelly Departments Archeologist, NPS Washington Report 24 Antoinette). Lee Historian, NPS Capitol Contact John Poppeliers Bruce Craig International Liaison Officer for Cultural Resources, NPS NPS Symposium Calls for Reform Loran Fraser Juliette Tahar Writer-Editor, NPS Preservation Resources 25 Contributing Editors Book Review Betsy Chittenden Steven F. Mehls Information Management Coordinator, NPS New Directions for the National Register Bruce Craig Antoinette J. Lee Cultural Resources Coordinator National Parks and Conservation Information Management 28 Association NPSTV? NPS Enters the Video Age Consultants Betsy Chittenden Mary V. Maruca Editor, NPS Courier Viewpoint 29 Michael G. Schene The Curation of Archeological Materials Historian, NPS Brit Allan Storey Kay D. Weeks Lechnical Writer-Editor, NPS Expanding Public Benefits for the 21st Century Kay D. Weeks Local News 31 Staffing the Preservation Commission in Montgomery County, MD Stephen A. Morris Bulletin Board 33 2 1992 No. 2 Discovering Our Aviation Heritage (continued from page 1) heavier-than-air machine was made here by Wilbur and Orville Wright on December 17,1903, there is more to the story. Before and after the events of that momentous day in North Carolina, the Wright Brothers lived and worked on the development of the airplane in Dayton, OH. Ron Johnson's article relates this lesser-known part of the Wright Brothers' story. Wilbur and Orville Wright built the world's first successful airplane in Dayton, making that city the birthplace of aviation. A visitor to Dayton today can walk or bike an aviation trail and see the Wright Brothers Cycle Shop, Hawthorn Hill—the home of Orville Wright, Carillon Park—the home of the Wright Flyer III Machine, and the Huffman Prairie—the site of the world's first flying field. The Huffman Flying field eventually evolved to become the site of Wright- Patterson Air Force Base, now the largest air force base in the United States and the site of the finest aviation museum in the country. In the years after the development of the airplane by the Wright Brothers, American aviation fell into a period of decline. The article by Harry Butowsky on the devel­ opment of the Variable Density Wind Tunnel at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA, illustrates this process of decline was arrested. As a result of the Saturn I and other rockets. Alabama Space and activities of Rocket Center, Huntsville, AL. the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, founded in 1915, American avi­ ation literally soared to the edge of space at the Edwards Air Force Base. In Columbia being prepared for lift off, NASA our final arti­ Space Transportation System - 5, Kennedy Space cle, we see Center, FL. Photo by Eric Delony. that with the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Readers of CRM who are interested in more informa­ Administration we reached for the Moon and beyond. tion on these properties should contact the National These articles illustrate only a small sample of the avia­ Register of Historic Places, Interagency Resources tion-related resources that are now listed on the National Division, National Park Service, P.O. Box 37127, Register and preserved for the enjoyment and use of Washington, DC 20013-7127. future generations. 1992 No. 2 3 Interest in the commemoration of the site began to pick Wright Brothers up in the late 1920s in large part due to a revival of patri­ otic interest in America's contribution to early flight. In 1926, Commander Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett flew National Memorial: over the North Pole in their three-engine monoplane the "Josephine Ford"; and 1927 was the year of Charles A Short History Lindbergh's famous solo flight across the Atlantic, an event that won Lindbergh the coveted Orteig Prize and William Chapman captured the imagination of the world. The next year Cathleen Turner Amelia Earhart and pilots Stultz and Gordon repeated Lindbergh's feat in their monoplane "Friendship" (Gibbs-Smith 1970). he Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Airflight was exciting, romantic and appealed to the Hawk, NC is something of an anomaly among combined American affinity for adventure and ingenu­ historic sites. The original location of Orville ity. It was time, as the Smithsonian Institution's own and Wilbur Wright's successful glider experi­ acquisitions programs demonstrated, for the seminal ments of the early 1900s and also of the first event in flight history to be marked (Crouch 1978; Oehser Tpowered flight of December 7,1903—the 120-foot culmi­ 1970; Boyne 1987). nation of many years of study and experiment—the Kitty Hawk site itself possesses nothing in terms of historic buildings or features directly associated with the Wright Brothers early experiments. During the period when the Wright Brothers lived on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the only distinguishable natural landmark was a large sand dune, known locally as Kill Devil Hill. Orville and Wilbur, who had been attracted to the area by reports from a correspondent in the local U.S. Weather Bureau station on the favorable wind conditions along the North Carolina coast, had added a simple frame "quarters" and a frame hangar for their use while in residence (Combs and Caidin 1979a and 1979b). Both buildings were of board-and-batten construction and did not survive the brothers departure for Dayton, OH (after seasonal use of the Kitty Hawk "camp") to begin what was to become their successful business careers promot­ ing the airplane they had invented (Howard 1988). In the years following the initial experiments, the "quar­ ters" and hangar collapsed and the Kill Devil Hill, which had provided the necessary incline for the track- launched experimental gliders and motor-powered air­ plane, drifted several hundred feet to the southwest. There was little thought given to memorializing the Wright Brothers achievement, which throughout the 1910s and early 1920s was still shrouded in controversy and patent litigation (see Bilstein 1983; Anderson 1985; Kelly 1944). The Kitty Hawk site was threatened by potential future development, as the Outer Banks was opened up to automobile traffic, and vacation homes became more popular in the area (Stick 1958: 245-46).