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NASA – Dryden Flight Research Center – News Room: News Releases: NEW NASA DRYDEN MURAL CAPTURES A CENTURY OF FLIGHT

NEW NASA DRYDEN MURAL CAPTURES A CENTURY OF FLIGHT

July 28, 2003

Release: 03-44

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A century of powered flight radiates from a mural six feet by 18 feet to be unveiled July 30 at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture 2003 in Oshkosh, Wis. Painted for NASA by artist Robert T. McCall, the panorama, reminiscent of the heroic murals commissioned in the 1930s to portray other facets of American history, features a host of milestone aircraft and spacecraft swirling around the original Wright Flyer, symbolically airborne in front of the sun at the dawn of the age of flight.
In the foreground, fliers ranging from a happy-go-lucky aviator of World War One to a pair of free-floating astronauts, anonymous behind the reflective shields of their helmets, depict the people who animate the vehicles in the painting.
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe characterized the painting: “Robert McCall is helping us commemorate the Centennial of Flight with a beautiful mural slated for placement in our Dryden Flight Research Center that documents the history of flight from the Wright Flyer to the International Space Station. We should all take note, I think, that in the grand scheme of things, one hundred years is a very short period of time. In that blink of an eye we’ve gone from Kitty Hawk to Tranquility Base and now look forward to our rovers traversing the surface of Mars.”
“Despite the challenges we face, the future we envision, like the future depicted in the artwork of Bob McCall, is a future of boundless possibility,” O’Keefe said.
The painting, titled “Celebrating One Hundred Years of Powered Flight, 1903-2003”, is scheduled to be unveiled by the artist, joined by Experimental Aircraft Association president Tom Poberezny and NASA Dryden Flight Research Center director Kevin Petersen at AirVenture on July 30 at Noon in the Countdown to Kittyhawk Pavilion. On July 31, McCall will give a presentation about creating the centennial of flight mural in the Vette Theater at AirVenture from 5-6 p.m.

-nasa-

Note to Editors: (Media support for the unveiling event July 30 at Oshkosh is provided by Alan Brown from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center’s public affairs office. NASA public affairs phone lines at AirVenture are (920) 233-3967 and (920) 233-3970. The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center public affairs office at Edwards AFB, Calif., can be reached by calling (661) 276-3449.)