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Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington              May 14, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-1979)

Kathy Barnstorff
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
(Phone: 757/864-9886)

RELEASE: 03-169

NASA HELPS CELEBRATE CENTENNIAL OF FLIGHT IN NORTH CAROLINA

     NASA will unveil a comprehensive new Centennial of 
Flight exhibit at the Festival of Flight 2003, May 19-26, in 
Fayetteville, N.C.

The Festival of Flight is the first official event to use 
NASA's new exhibit during the national countdown to the 100th 
anniversary of the Wright brothers' historic powered flight. 
NASA has played a role in advancing the science of flight 
since 1915, with the establishment of its founding 
organization, the National Advisory Committee for 
Aeronautics. 

During the weeklong Aviation Exposition at the Festival of 
Flight, NASA will showcase many of its innovative aerospace 
achievements in three locations. The main NASA exhibition 
space is 20,000 square feet of the Crown Center Coliseum, 
renamed NASA Center, for this event. Visitors will get a feel 
for how NASA has helped change our daily lives and how NASA 
researchers and astronauts are working to improve our future, 
by better understanding the Earth, exploring the universe and 
searching for life.

The new NASA Centennial of Flight exhibit, "Powering Flight, 
Powering Dreams," features interactive displays, a micro-
gravity demonstrator, airplane and spacecraft models, and 
several NASA scientists and engineers, all intended to 
inspire the next generation of explorers. With the help of 
NASA educators, school groups will have the chance to build 
their own flying machines, including helicopters, kites, 
rockets and airplanes. Visitors will be able to check out a 
moon rock, operate a wind tunnel and take home a NASA 
souvenir. 

Outside the Center, visitors will also be able to enjoy three 
NASA exhibits. They'll have the chance to experience what 
space travel might be like four decades from now, take a walk 
through the "solar system" to appreciate its enormous size, 
and learn more about aeronautics with the help of 10 unique 
work stations.

On NASA Day, May 20, astronaut Jeff Ashby will make a special 
appearance at the Festival. Ashby is a veteran of three Space 
Shuttle flights. He commanded the Space Shuttle Atlantis 
during the ninth assembly flight of the International Space 
Station.

NASA will also have exhibits in two other areas. A "Women in 
NASA" display will grace Heritage Hall. In the Aviation Hall, 
visitors may operate a NASA flight-technology demonstrator, a 
computer simulator similar to a future plane they may fly 
someday.

NASA is also participating in six other major Centennial of 
Flight observances in Dayton, Ohio; New York; Oshkosh, Wis.; 
Los Angeles; Long Beach, Calif.; and Kitty Hawk, N.C.

For information about NASA programs, aeronautics, and space 
flight on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

For information about The Festival of Flight on the Internet, 
visit:

http://www.festivalofflight.org

For information about the national Centennial of Flight 
commemoration on the Internet, visit:

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/

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