fossils were gathered from utah and surrounding states and how do jensen changed the way fossils and bones are displayed. >> when you can hide the armature and the steel supports, the animal looks more alive in the sense that you get the feeling that these are bones, but it brings life to these bones. >> and jay spencer fluman, professor of history at brigham young university talks about how the mormons settles and 33 mormon families established the settlement of provo in 1849. this weekend watch c-span's cities tour to provo, utah. saturday at noon eastern on c-span2's book tv, and sunday afternoon at 2:00 on american history tv on c-span3. the c-span cities tour working with our cable affiliates and visiting cities across the country. now a visit to the smithsonian national air and space museum facility near

washington's dulles airport. we'll see the airplanes that have carried americans aloft from the earliest days of the 20th century. >> hi. may name is tom crouch. i am the senior curator of aeronautics at the national air around space museum. and we are here this morning at the national air and space museum housing center. this is the place where our museum keeps all of its largest objects and some pretty darn spectacular things when you come right down to it. we are standing almost in front of one of my favorite machines. it's the 1903 langley airplane. aerodrone, as he called it. samuel langley was the third secretary of the smithsonian institution. from the mid 1880s until the time of his death in 1906. he was sort of a self-taught astronomer. he was the founder of the

smithsonian astro physical observatory and he founded the zoo and some of the museums we have today. but he was really fascinated, and had been since childhood, by the idea of flight. and in the late 1880s, he decided to begin flying machine experiments of his own. he began with small models, rubber-powered models. and then larger models powered by steam engines, small steam engines. but still, too small to carry a human being. and then in 1898, the government decided to fund his experiments, and ultimately he received $50,000 to build this, a full-scale version of one of the small steam powered models that he had flown as early as 1896. he began work on this at the very end of the 19th century, and they worked on it for a number of years at the

smithsonian, in the smithsonian shops. it was ready to go finally in 1903. he made two attempts to fly it. one in october of 1903, again in december 1903. both times he launched it from the roof of a house boat anchored in the potomac river. and both times it went off the catapult and nosed right into the water. so it's a fascinating story, but it's an airplane that not only did not fly, but ultimately was incapable of flight. nine days after langley's second crash into the potomac, his pilot survived both times, by the way. his pilot was sort of his chief engineer, a fellow named charles matthews manly, who got out both times. but nine days after langley's last dip into the potomac, two guys from ohio, wilber and

orville wright, flew successfully at the kill devil kills near kitty hawk, north carolina. so one of my favorite machines, but a machine that was in the end not capable of flight. langley had spent all of his time and effort to build a really greatary naug ary nauero, and not enough time and energy thinking about either the aerodynamics or the structure that that motor was going to propel. >> when the united states entered world war i, american aeronautics had kind of slipped behind europe. the europeans, who when we entered the war, had already been in combat for three years. their forged way ahead of ours. as a rilesult, american pilots o began flying in the combat as americans in 1917, in american uniform, flew into combat in airplanes that had been designed and built in foreign countries. and this airplane, a newport 28,

is one of the airplanes in which the first american fighter pilots flew into combat. in fact, a newport 28 -- it was in a newport 28 that the first american to shoot down an enemy airplane while wearing an american uniform was flying a newport 28. eddie rickrickenbacher who beca the american ace of aces flew into combat first in a newport 28. our first generation of great aces began with this kind of airplane. you are looking here at the b-29, enola gay, named after the pilot's mother. the pilot who flew this airplane to hiroshima, japan, on august 6, 1945 and dropped the world's first atomic bomb on an enemy

target. again, he named the airplane after his mother, enola gay. it is certainly the most emotionally laden artifact, i think it's safe to say, in the entire collection of the national air and space museum. however you come down on the issues that it represents, astomastom atomic warfare and that kind of thing. it sort of is an icon that wraps all of those issues up in itself. so people do have interesting reactions to this airplane on all kinds of sides of the issue. it is a b-29 that was built not by the boeing company, which designed the b-29. enola gay was built at the martin plant near omaha, nebraska. and they picked out a string of b-29s on the line at that plant

and designated them as silver plate airplanes. the silver plate airplanes were the ones that were going to be slightly modified to carry nuclear weapons. they removed all of the armament from them with the exception of the tail gun, and they made some other modifications. they had to change the bomb bay a bit to be able to fit either the uranium bomb or the plutonium bomb. so this is one of the silver plate b-29s. the b 29 box car, which dropped the bomb on nagasaki three days after the hiroshima bomb, has also been preserved. it's at the u.s. air force mu u musemuse museum in dayton, ohio. as i said, paul tibbitz was the

pilot of the airplane, and he was the guy who actually created the 509th composite group that was created specifically to deliver atomic weapons on designated targets. he picked a lot of the guys who were in the unit, did the training, and was just the absolute head of the 509th. so he decided to fly that first mission himself. the airplane survived because the air force specifically saved it. when it came back from the pacific, it was in operational air force hands for a little while. and then it was shipped out to the desert for a while to be specifically preserved. and ultimately it was delivered to an air force base here in washington where it remained for quite a while. it had been designated for the

smithsonian institution as one of the historic aircraft that had fought and won world war ii. and we ultimately moved it to our paul garber center and began restoration of it there, and then moved it here to the housing center when we opened this building. when people think about the end of world war ii, they think about the enormous effort that went in to the creation of the atomic bombs. the uranium and plutonium bombs. and it was an enormous effort. you know, with facilities in new mexico, in the state of washington, in the state of tennessee. thousand is of people involved. but in fact, what they seldom consider is the fact that in addition to building the bombs, you had to have an airplane that could deliver it. the creation of the b-29 was a project actually bigger than the creation of the atomic bomb.

the b-29 had begun aps plans for very long-range bomber. ultimately boeing got the contract to build it. boeing had built the b-17. so they came up with the notion of the b-29. it was really technologically an advanced airplane. it was built to be pressurized so the crew in the cockpit and in the cabin behind the cockpit and in the tail gunner's position, they were in a short-sleeve environment. it was a pressurized airplane. they had special electronic fire control system, not on the enola gay which didn't have all the defensive armament that normal b-29s had. on a normal b-29, one crew member sitting in a blister, in the back of the airplane, could

control guns all over the airplane with a special electronic system that general electric had developed for boeing for the airplane. so it was an extraordinarily advanced aircraft to deliver that historic weapon. you're looking at rj-3 piper cub which is just an extraordinary y ly wonderful and historic airplane. the piper cub really dominated flight training in the united states from the late 1930s, 1937 with bei well into the post war years. a lot of pilots who fought in world war ii in the air learned to fly in a government program called the civilian pilot training program. most of the schools that taught pilots began with this airplane, the piper j-3 cub as their

primary trainer. so they were built in huge numbers and just very historic airplanes. this is the boeing 367-80. it is the prototype of the boeing 707. just an extraordinarily important airplane in the history of world commercial aviation. the british and the soviets actually introduced jetliners first. the british dehavolin comet introduced jet passenger service in the west. but the comets had a fatal flaw that led to crashes and considerable loss of life, and they had to be taken out of service for a while. boeing was waiting with the 707, which was actually a more economical airplane than the comet anyway. it was slightly wider.

in fact, the operational 707s were a little wider than the dash 80 here. but this was the prototype. when boeing decided to build this airplane, they built it out of pocket. they didn't have any customers yet, so it was a company project, and very important to the future of the boeing company. first flight, 1954. and it was being introduced in the summer of 1955. boeing used to invite its airline customers to come to the hydroplane races every year on lake washington. the speedboat races. and that year, that summer, tex johnson, who was boeing's chief test pilot, had been instructed to take the dash-80 off, fly over the hydroplane races with all the airplane customers watching, and turn around and fly back to show the airplane

off. well, as it came over the race course that time, he did a barrel roll with the airplane, went down, turned around, came back, and did it again. it is one of the famous moments in history of commercial aviation. the legend is that the next morning, william allen, who was the president of boeing, had him on the carpet saying, why in the world did you do that? and legend has it johnson's response was, "well, you told me to sell airplanes." but it was -- these airplanes, especially the 707, these were the airplanes that really gave birth to the modern age of mass air transportation. obviously there had been a lot of passengers flying piston-driven propeller airplanes. but it was the advent of the jetliner that made it possible for all of us to fly and link

the world with air routes and literally gave birth to the modern age of commercial air transportation. so just an extraordinary airplane. >> well, let me introduce you to general william mitchell. billy mitchell. one of the great names in the early history of american aviation. billy mitchell entered the army in the late 19th century. by the time world war i came along, he had become an aviator, a pioneer u.s. army aviator. and was in command in 1918 of the american air units that went in to operation when american ground troops went into combat for the first time. and this airplane is the spad 16 that billy mitchell flew during

those campaigns. there is a gunner behind him. the red circle with the silver eagle and the star symbolizes the fact that this is billy mitchell's airplane, the commander's airplane. after world war i was over, billy mitchell came back. and of course he became one of the great advocates for american military air power. that's the billy mitchell that you see in the statue, the historic billy mitchell who was famous for demonstrating that airplanes could sink battle ships and sort of predicting that air power was the wave of the future. he was also incredibly controversial, of course. he was in constant battle with naval officers who didn't always agree with billy mitchell's point of view. or when they did agree with his point of view, saw it moving

more in the navy's direction than the army's. but certainly an incredible voice for american air power in the early years of the 20th century. in this case, we have a japanese balloon bomb, a fugo balloon bomb. in 1944 and 1945, as the americans had begunfire bombfir gentlemanen japan, burning cities to the ground, the japanese came up with the notion in returning that kind of thing to the americans which turned out to be a small way. these balloons were built in japan. they were laumnched from sea coast cities around japan. the balloon -- there is just the bomb and the instrument package -- was actually built out of mulberry paper, paper that was made out of little squares from mulberry trees.

young girls all over japan built the balloons in gymnasiums, concert halls, any place where there was a lot of open floor space where they could build the balloons. and then this is the operational part. they launched them from japan, and they rode the jet stream all the way across the pacific. they had timers on them. the japanese would calculate how long they thought two take a balloon to cross the pacific, depending on the weather and so on. and when they reached that point, the bombs would -- this is an incendiary bomb over here and over here. in the middle you can see a high-explosive bomb. these are balast bags. there is a barometer inside that wooden box. when the balloon gets too low,

the barometer senses it and sets off an electrical charge that will set off squibbs and drop these little ballast bags so the balloon, in an ideal world, will come down in the water. they were supposed to go all the way across the pacific that way. and some of them did. the japanese launched thousands of these from japan. we know of a few hundred that actually made it across. pieces of the bombs were found. they started some forest fires. five people in idaho were actually killed. they were on a picnic and they saw one of these hanging in the trees, went up to it and it went off. and they were killed. one of the balloon bombs actually shut down the electrical network around the hanford nuclear plant for a while. so the bombs did some

destruction initially when the american government realized what was happening with being they put a curtain of secrecy over it. they didn't want the american people to be panicked knowing that these things were arriving along but once the group of five people were killed, they lifted the ban and warned people to look out for them and that kind of thing. so that's it, our japanese balloon bomb. pilgrim, which first took to the air from akron, ohio, in 1925 was the first of the modern goodyear blimps, advertising blimps, that everybody sees and loves today. and all of them began with this little craft, room for a pilot, couple of passengers. and in those days a mechanic to worry about the engine. but this little blimp, pilgrim, made thousands of flights and was really the thing that

launched the modern enthusiasm for goodyear blimps that you see at sporting occasions and parades and all kinds of places. goodyear had built airships, blimps, during world war i for coastal patrol for the navy and for the army as well. before the war, they had thought about the commercial uses for lighter than aircraft or blimps. and so after the war, they thought they would produce this little demonstrator and see how it went, see if people were interested and that kind of thing. and people were incredibly interested. every place a blimp would show up people would congregate. so goodyear then and goodyear now saw the blimp as great advertising, as a way to keep their name before the public in a really neat way.

we have this pt-13d cadet at the udvar-hazy center now, but it's ultimately destined for another smithsonian museum, the national museum of african-american history and culture when it opens. and it's going there because this is one of the few surviving airplanes that you can just definitely tie to the tuskegee program, tuskegee university early on in world war ii, where the experiment in training the first generation of black american military aviators began, and they began their flight training on airplanes like this one, the pt-13 cadet. and, of course, they went on to become the 99th fighter squadron and then the larger tuskegee airmen group that fought

valiantly in the mediterranean, in italy and against germany during world war ii. the bell h-13j is an air force helicopter, but the big thing is that it was the first american presidential helicopter. during the eisenhower administration, went into service in 1957 and this, again, was the helicopter that flew ike all around, wherever he wanted to go. ike was never crazy about the helicopter because of all the plaques in front. it was just like an oven inside the helicopter oun a sunny day. and it got him into trouble, political trouble. people began asking if this was a helicopter that ike was flying off to golf courses in and up to camp david and so on and so forth. so it was controversial, but it

led from this helicopter to the helicopters that we see today landing and taking off from the white house with the president and the first family. this is the very first presidential helicopter. this is the overlook to the mary baker engen restoration hangar. we're in the new phase two section of this center where we do preservation, restoration, storage. our archive is here, the museum archive, and you're looking at on the floor where our crafts folks do the preservation and restoration of all of the airplanes that you see on the floor, and the spacecraft, too, here at the steven f. udvar-hazy center. people think of this museum as a place to come and see the aircraft in which people wrote history in the sky, and you

certainly do that. you see some of the most famous airplanes in the world. but, in fact, the other thing that we do is to preserve that history. and that's what happens in this area. down below, for example, you can see a sikorsky airplane, a flying boat, the only survivor of the pearl harbor attack in our collection here at the national air and space museum. you can see as well a grummond avenger, an airplane that became famous attacking the japanese navy during that war. the other little airplane down here in front of the big sikorsky is the curtis wright jr., a private airplane that really looks gorgeous just sitting down there. so you can see the guys working down there on engines and air

frames and everything that goes to make up air and spacecraft. so, again, this is the part that visitors can come see and get an appreciation for what it takes to preserve and restore the airplanes so that they can see them out on the exhibit floor of the building. and that's why we're here after all at the national air and space museum, to preserve and present, interpret, explain, the role that flight has played in the history of the nation and the world. so this is a really special part of that, a really important part of that. the airplanes that you see down here are survivors, after all. they survived great moments in the history of the nation and the 20th century. and by preserving them, we can help people understand those moments better. and we can also understand these aircraft better.

when you restore any one of these airplanes, you just learn an enormous amount about the aircraft itself, about its technology. so you're not only preserving it so that it can be presented to the public and help them understand the importance of flight in history, we're preserving them so that we can better understand these airplanes, too. how they went together, how they operate and all of that kind of thing. and it's only by this kind of meticulous work on the airplane that we can recapture that kind of understanding. on american history tv on c-span3, this july 4th weekend, this evening at 6:00 eastern, american history tv is live at the smithsonian's national air and space museum for the 40th anniversary. we'll see one of a kind aviation space artifacts and speak with the museum's director, and talk

with museum curator jeremy kinney and valerie neal. you can join the conversation as we'll take your phone calls, e-mails and tweets. saturday night at 8:00 on lectures in history. joy howell increasingly focused on her position as a mother, which was driving her support for suffrage, her position as a mother to say that women are different than men, that women really can do society better than men have done. >> boston college professor heather cox richardson on the new roles women assumed in the workforce and politics during the late 19th century and the growth of political organizations run by women that focused on issues like prohibition and women's suffrage. sunday morning at 10:00 on road to the white house rewind, the 1968 republican and democratic national conventions. >> resolute, without being bellicose, strong, w