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The Smithsonian altered history for bragging rights
The Smithsonian has been a beloved institution to me since I first walked the halls of its incredible museums as a young man. It is an American icon and one of the most prestigious museums in the world.
But clearly not without a few underhand principles. I present to you at least one case where it has altered history to increase its own prestige. I’d like to believe this is a one-off. A museum should proudly uphold history, not rewrite it.
The National Air and Space museum is one of my favorites. It holds treasures such as the Apollo 11 command module, the set used for the Bridge in the original Star Trek series, the Space Shuttle Discovery, The Bell X-1 experimental aircraft flown by Chuck Yeager, the Lockheed SR-71 high altitude spy plane, Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed 5B Vega, an impressive display of WWI and WWII fighter aircraft, and the Wright brothers’s Flyer.
It’s the latter item that is front and center of this scandal.
Supposedly, the Wright Brothers from Ohio achieved the first powered, controlled and sustained manned flight of a heavier-than-air vehicle. Each of them flew the aircraft they had designed and built, the Wright Flyer, on the famous flights at Kitty Hawk in 1903. First in Flight. North Carolina proudly uses this title to this day.