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Paul Edward Garber (August 31, 1899 - September 23, 1992) was the first head of the National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. Through his work and effort, the most complete collection of historical aircraft in the world was gathered and preserved. It contains the sole survivors of many interesting historical aircraft types.〔 ==Biography== Garber was born at Atlantic City, New Jersey, but spent his childhood in Washington, D.C. and had clear memories of the Wright Brothers flight trials at Fort Myer in 1909. At the age of 18 joined the Army. During World War I he was transferred from the D.C. National Guard to Aviation Service in the Signal Corps. During World War II he was a Commander in the US Navy and later was in the Naval Reserves. World War I ended before he had started the planned flight training. After the war he took a job as a ground crewman and messenger with the Postal Airmail Service. About that time cleared his desire to help the development of aviation by preserving its past. In 1920 he joined the Smithsonian and for the next 72 years worked for the preservation of the world aviation heritage. In 1946 President Harry S. Truman created the National Air Museum as a separate entity of the Smithsonian. Garber played a key role in the process and was assigned as a Curator to the Museum. The present National Air and Space Museum building opened in 1976. Most important, Garber, as first curator and devotee, helped to assemble the most impressive collection of historic aircraft in the world for the Institution. The storage of that collection was not much of a problem prior to World War II - virtually everything that Garber collected was on display at the Arts and Industries Building or on loan to another museum. But when he returned from service as a naval officer, he faced an entirely new set of problems. Gen. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces, presented the Smithsonian with a collection of U.S. and enemy aircraft. When Paul Garber accepted responsibility for this vast collection, it was stored in an abandoned airplane factory in suburban Chicago, now the site of the O'Hare Airport. The U.S. Navy had a similar collection of historic aircraft in storage for the Smithsonian at Norfolk, Virginia. The crisis came with the Korean War, when the U.S. Air Force needed the factory and began to force the Smithsonian out the door. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Paul E. Garber」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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