SAVANNAH AIAA MEMBERS LEND HELPING HAND TO 8th AF MUSEUM ACTIVITIES
by Pat Connor

The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum was built in Savannah, Georgia about five years ago to mainly commemorate the exploits of the Eighth Air Force during World War II. As part of a major initiative to expand their services and programs to community children, the museum hired a fulltime science director, Dr. Vivian Price, last spring. As the Eighth Air Force museum educational program began to take shape last spring, several members in the Savannah AIAA Section were contacted about participating in the planning activities. Section members provided the new science director with a copy of the lesson plan we prepared to discuss how airplanes fly, and we showed her the mini wind tunnel and radio-controlled flight demonstrator we use to illustrate some of the basic principles of flight. We subsequently agreed to keep these demonstration exhibits on permanent loan to the museum. In addition to our demonstration exhibits, a retired Pratt and Whitney engineer, Howard Stryker, has built a working model of a jet engine to discuss how thrust is developed, and he has also made this exhibit available to the museum educational program.

The Eighth Air Force Museum educational program officially kicked off this past summer when visiting Cub Scout groups were given the first science of flight classes. These classes were extremely well-received because of the emphasis on showing how weight, lift, drag and thrust act on an airplane in flight with our demonstration exhibits. Don Freund, Doug McKissack and myself participated at various times with these Cub Scout presentations. Over the course of the summer, several hundred scouts participated in this program.

During this past fall, all fifth grade classes in the Savannah school system were contacted about scheduling a field trip to the museum between January and May of 2000. As part of a field trip to the museum, the children are divided into 2 groups. One part goes to see the museum historical exhibits and shows, while the other half gets a class on the science of flight. After an hour, the 2 groups switch places. While most of these classes are being conducted by the museum science director, Don, Doug and myself have all served as guest presenters when Dr. Price has had other conflicts. Between January and May, over 1000 children have participated in this very worthwhile program.

The museum also started a monthly speaker program this past year. Because of our involvement with the educational programs, Doug, Don and myself were all asked if we would be interested in presenting talks on an aviation-related topics. As a result, I just recently (29 April) made a presentation at the museum on the around-the-world flight of the Voyager. Doug is next with a presentation on the history of Grumman in July, and Don will follow with a talk on World War II airplanes in August. Additionally, both Doug and myself supported an earlier presentation by Howard Stryker on the Wright brothers by dressing up as Orville and Wilbur Wright.