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Museum of Flight Unveils Plans for Daring New Exhibit

Displays to humanize the story of flight

SEATTLE – The Museum of Flight today announced plans for a daring new exhibit unlike any seen before. The display will give new meaning to an exhibit with “personality.” It will feature real personalities-deceased people accessioned, conserved and cataloged into the Museum’s collection.

The Museum-of-Flight“Traditionally, an aerospace museum accessions an aircraft or spacecraft at the end of its service life to conserve and protect it for the enlightenment of future generations,” said Museum spokesman Ted Huetter, “we now aim to treat the people in aerospace the same way. It’s that simple. And thanks to recent advances in the art of preserving human tissue, the exhibition of an aviator is no different from that of an old propeller or clock.”

Museum officials say that because the history of powered flight is so young-barely 112 years-it is still possible to populate its collection with people directly associated with all but the earliest days of flight. “We have planes dating back to the 1920s and 1930s, like our DC-2 airliner,” Huetter continued, “and there are people alive today who flew in these planes. When they pass away we will reunite them with the aircraft forever. For more recent artifacts representing vehicles still in service, we can fill them with people of all ages-former passengers, engineers, flight attendants and pilots!”

The Museum is not at liberty at this time to release the names of the people who have already pledged to donate their bodies to the institution, but the list is large and growing. As a world-class museum, officials insist they will need to evaluate the quality and historical significance of every donor to decide if he or she is a proper fit for the collection. “We don’t accept every flying machine that shows up at the curator’s doorstep,” Huetter concluded, “we want the best of the best, and our visitors expect nothing less.”

For general Museum information, please call 206-764-5720 or visit www.museumofflight.org