World War I: The Birth of Military Aviation

The World War I exhibition uses fascinating artifacts and the distinctive sights and sounds of early combat aircraft to tell the story of how remarkable people adapted the new technology of the airplane to warfare and changed how the world fights and flies.

Some of the war’s best-known aircraft—the beloved Sopwith Camel, deadly Fokker D.VII, and the Dayton-Wright DH-4 (the first American-built combat airplane to see action)—frame displays of breakthrough technologies. One of the only surviving aircraft flown by a wartime ace, the SPAD XIII Smith IV, helps inform the story of the day-to-day heroism and heartbreak of American aviator Arthur Raymond Brooks. A large immersive projection space allows visitors to see and hear the amazing sights and sounds of open-cockpit aerial combat in high definition.