The museum where i work

[Boomerang]

Well as i've mentioned many times before i volunteer as a tour guide at the NASA Langley Visitor center. Well i thought it was kind of cool that space.com actually did an article on our new aviation gallery we opened last weekend. I'm copying and pasting it here becauise its gotten burried under other articles on the website/

A New Reminder NASA's First 'A' is for Aeronautics

NASA's Langley Research Center visitor center in Hampton, Va., has unveiled a new state-of-the-art, interactive gallery celebrating the centennial of flight. The one million-cubic-foot "Adventures in Flight" in the Virginia Air & Space Center (VASC) chronicles the history of aviation, and NASA's contributions to flight.

The $6.4 million gallery features a classic DC-9 airplane where guests can sit at the controls and experience a "glass cockpit" simulator. During the 1970's NASA researchers helped develop glass cockpit technology, which displays information to pilots using computer graphics instead of gauges and dials.

The new gallery helps illustrate NASA's role in the development of modern commercial air transportation and military aviation, and shows how research is creating new technology for the next century of flight. For example, the exhibit depicts next-generation aircraft and systems being developed by NASA researchers studying ways to make planes more fuel efficient, safer and quieter.

Also new to the center is a NASA research aircraft that tested technology to improve the safety and maneuverability of military jet fighters in combat situations. NASA engineers used the F-18 HARV (High Alpha Research Vehicle) to study airflow, aircraft control and engine performance at high angles of attack. Systems tested on the F-18 HARV were applied to new military fighters, including the F-22 Raptor.

The gallery adds to an already impressive collection of NASA artifacts at the VASC. They include the Apollo 12 capsule that carried Americans on the second Moon landing mission, a Moon rock and a NASA aircraft that was repeatedly struck by lightning for safety research.