Fully Restored "Star Trek" Enterprise Unveiled at Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
June 28, 2016 | In the PressFrom Popular Mechanics (http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/tv/news/a21574/smithsonian-star-trek-enterpise-restored/)
After nearly two long years, the starship Enterprise has boldly gone where it's never gone before: the front entrance of Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Along with seminal artifacts such as Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis and the Apollo Lunar Module, the Enterprise is part of the museum's new 19,000-square-foot Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall, which officially opens to the public on July 1 to celebratethe museum's 40th anniversary.
Two years later, with the Enterprise is looking pristine. There's the new (old) green paint job. Using original paint found on the saucer's top as a reference, the museum removed layers of old paint while adding new coats as needed. Captain Kirk's ship may look more green than fans will be accustomed to, but that's because the studio lights made it appear more gray on television.
With the help of George Lucas's visual effects studio Industrial Light and Magic,Air and Space added lettering decals and a more authentic deflector dish with the exact specifications of the original, which had been lost prior to the ship's 1974 arrival at the Smithsonian and replaced with what Collum unaffectionately called "the salad bowl." The most noticeable improvement, however, are the blinking and spinning lights throughout the ship, which were based on the 1967 modification. This new version uses LEDs rather than incandescent bulbs, which ran hot and were a fire hazard.
In addition to the restored Enterprise, the newly renovated Flight Hall also features a 16 by 12-foot high interactive touchscreen wall and a plethora of significant space and flight age artifacts, some on public display for the first time, like the collection of Sally Ride artifacts near the Enterprise. Others have been meticulously conserved and preserved so that they can be appreciated for generations to come.
That includes the Spirit of St. Louis, which was in need of a deep clean. "Over the decades, it got darker and darker," says Robert van der Linden, curator of Air Transportation and Special Purpose Aircraft at the museum. "We realized it was mostly just because of dirt... it took them months to (clean it) with cotton swabs and a special water solution... now it looks so much closer to what it looked like in 1927." While inspecting the plane last year, the staff found a lost treasure inside of the plane—a pair of pillars that likely accompanied Lindbergh on his Trans-Atlantic journey.
The Apollo Lunar Module, which was previously displayed in another gallery, is the new exhibit's centerpiece. It has been so well-preserved that, in theory, with a few minor tweaks it could still go to the moon. "The fuel tanks are there, the engines are there, the electronics are there, the gauges are there, the handles and controls, they are all there," says Allan Needell, curator of the human spaceflight collection.
Until the last few years, this large exhibit space at Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, which first opened in 1976, remained largely untouched. The expectation is that this renovation, which was made possible by a $30 million donation from Boeing, will make the museum more accessible to the curious public and better preserved for years to come. The hope is that America's greatest space and aviation artifacts will live long and prosper.
