Winnie Mae Up In The Air Again

Photo by Charles Gosse

A new exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum called Time and Navigation will feature the Lockheed Model 5B Vega flown by famed aviator Wiley Post. The aircraft, known as <i>Winnie Mae,</i> was recently partially disassembled, transported to the museum, and then reassembled and installed. Post circled the globe in this aircraft in 1931 with Harold Gatty as navigator and then again two years later on a solo flight assisted by one of the world’s first practical autopilots, known as Mechanical Mike. Time and Navigation, which will open in March 2013, will also feature the Astro Navigation System used on the Museum's SR-71 Blackbird during its record-breaking transcontinental flight from California to Dulles International Airport outside Washington in 1990.