Barefoot Bandit

Hidden Treasures: Air & Space Museum and beyond

In my new book, Hidden Treasures: What Museum Can’t or Won’t Show You, I’ve included (of course) a few aviation-related items.

The folks at the Daily Planet, the Air & Space Museum’s blog, took notice and this week included a story about the book and the featured items from the museum’s collection.

They started with Katharine Wright’s knickers. The ones she likely wore beneath the lovely, white lace dress she chose to wear when she accompanied her brothers, Orville and Wilbur, to the White house to receive the Aero Club of America award. The dress and the knickers and a wide variety of other items relating to the history of women and aviation are at the International Women’s Air & Space Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

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The Daily Planet story also notes that Hidden Treasures features Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit. It was designed to withstand the trip to the moon and back, but wasn’t expected to last longer than six months on earth – so is now kept in a cold vault at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia.

Neil Armstrong's spacesuit. Courtesy National Air & Space Museum

Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit. Courtesy National Air & Space Museum

Other aviation-related items you may want to read about:

The metal detector that screened terrorists at the Portland, Maine, airport on the morning of September 11, 2001. That’s on display at the TSA Museum at TSA headquarters in Washington, D.C., which is only accessible to employees and invited guests.

A metal detector which screened hijackers on the morning of September 11th.

A metal detector which screened hijackers on the morning of September 11th.

And the manual Colton Harris-Moore – the Barefoot Bandit- purchased (likely with a stolen credit card) to teach himself how to fly after stealing – and crashing – a small plane.

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Here’s another link the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s blog post about the items and here’s another link to the book: Hidden Treasures: What Museums Can’t or Won’t Show You