Two new exhibits honoring aerospace engineering are now in place in the library.
The first, on the second floor, details the journey of the Wright brothers in creating the first successful heavier-than-air flying machine. The second, located in the library’s Special Collections, shares the history of Mississippi State’s Aerospace Engineering program.
This week’s exhibits detail the early history of the department and the works of the Wright brothers’ immediate predecessors-George Cayley, Otto Lilienthal, Octave Chantue and Samuel Langley.
The Wright brothers’ exhibit will change four times while the Aerospace Engineering history exhibit will change seven-once for every decade of department history. The exhibits will run through the middle of December.
The exhibits were setup through the combined efforts of the department of aerospace engineering faculty, library staff and aerospace engineering students.
Aerospace professor David Bridges elucidated the purpose behind the cases. He said they are “to educate the faculty, students and library patrons on the development of the first powered aircraft by the Wright brothers as well as the accomplishments of the MSU’s aerospace engineering department over the last 70 years.”
Bridges he is confident that the exhibit will be well received as will ride the publicity wave surrounding the 100th anniversary of powered flight on Dec. 17.
The new aerospace department head, Anthony Vizzini added to Bridges’s purpose. He stated that the purpose is “to gain visibility for the department and for the history of aeronautical engineering for a century of powered flight.”
Students involvement has been an important part of setting up the exhibits. Vizzini credited the officers of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) August Raspet student chapter for helping prepare the material. He expects student involvement to increase.
Angela Spence, president of the AIAA student chapter, participated in the setup of the exhibits. She feels that the exhibit will “heighten the student body’s awareness of our rich aviation history.”
She learned the historical significance of the aerospace department from participating in the exhibits.
“I never realized that the aerospace department had been around for 70 years. We were one of the first four,” she said. She also said she found a predecessor. “The first female engineering student was in this department,” she said.