2023-08-19: College Park Aviation Museum visit
Date: Saturday, August 19, 2023
Samantha Ferris, the museum’s Operations Manager, covering many of the most significant events that occurred at the College Park airport.
AAR By Mark Kaczmarek, CC - Membership Director
On 19 August, 2023 the INCOSE Chesapeake Chapter held a Saturday morning social event at the College Park Aviation Museum located near the University of Maryland. Nine members attended a private walking tour which was provided by the museum’s Operations Manager, Samantha Ferris. The museum is a well-preserved collection and operating airport facility. The College Park airfield is the world’s oldest operational airport – KCGS is the field identifier. Members discovered how the museum itself, as well as many of its exhibits, played an exceptional part in America’s aviation history. Several of the precedent aircraft on display were originals built, prototyped, and flown from this airport. Amongst the Wright bi-plane models and many fabric-clad early originals on display was probably the most unique example of an early helicopter design. The 1924 Berliner helicopter exhibit can only be explained as a mash-up between helicopter and tri-winged aircraft. It truly is a unique artifact of American aviation.
In addition to the many aircrafts housed, the museum had artifacts devoted to highlighting early aviation training. Mark Kaczmarek, a former employee of Link Flight Simulation Co., mentioned that there were many trainers built to train the U.S. army pilots to fly the mail around various parts of the country in a Curtiss JN-40 (Jenny) aircraft (on display). Then, later in the tour, a Link GAT-1 (General Aviation Trainer) circa 1971, aircraft trainer was on display. Members were even able to try their hand at “flying” a Wright Model-B Flyer using a step-in simulator. The simulator exposed firsthand the difficulties the Wright brothers had in achieving a full minute of flight as many of the members fell way short of that airtime with their own attempts.
After the tour, each chapter member was given a commemorative museum sticker as well as an INCOSE coin. A few members finished off the afternoon with discussing their tour experiences over a late luncheon at one of the nearby establishments.
