From Confederate Balloons to Tuskegee Airmen

During the Civil War both the Union and Confederate armies used hot air balloons for advance observation platforms.  (Refer to "Lee's Hill" post dated December 6, 2011)  Now I got to see what the Confederates made one of their balloons out of!  Dress silk!  They oiled the fabric (what a shame!) so that it would hold air better.

This fabric was used to construct a balloon that was used at the battle of Gaines Mill in Virginia.  Federal troops captured the balloon it in July, 1862.

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The Tuskegee Airmen was an air group that fought the Luftwaffe over Europe.  But while part of them were dog-fighting over there, the rest were battling segregation and racism over here!  That's right, the Tuskegee Airmen were black.  This particular plane:

was decommissioned from the Army in 1946 after having been used at Moton Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama as a trainer of primary flight skills.  It was then used for years as a crop duster before essentially being lost to history.  In 2005, Air Force Capt. Matt Quy and his wife, Tina, got their hands on it, named it The Spirit of Tuskegee, restored it, and took it to air shows all over the country to bring its history back to life.

In 2003 Congress established funding for the 19th Smithsonian museum:  the National Museum of African American History and Culture.  It will be built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and is scheduled for completion in 2015.  The Spirit of Tuskegee will be moved there then.  The Quy's did an awesome job restoring this!