Heroes of the Sky: Adventures in Early Flight Coming Soon to the Tunica Museum

TUNICA, Mississippi (August 14, 2008)—It is hard to imagine a time when air travel wasn’t a part of everyday life, when the sound of jets passing over a house wasn’t as normal as the ring of a telephone or doorbell.  During the early years of flight, people looked at these creations with a sense of awe and wonder as they flew by.

Heroes of the Sky: Adventures in Early Flight, 1903-1939, opening on November 10, 2008, at the Tunica Museum, celebrates the first remarkable decades of flight through stories of the fliers, businessmen, and inventors who transformed airplanes from the novel inventions of tinkerers into sophisticated machines of transportation, commerce, and war.

Using historic artifacts, documentary videos, graphic panels, and hands-on activities, Heroes of the Sky introduces visitors to the men and women who had the vision to see flight as more than a simple curiosity, to the barnstormers and record breakers who pushed the limits of what the new machines could do, and to the explorers who saw airplanes as a means of expanding our understanding of the world. The Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Donald Douglas, Glenn Curtis, Jimmy Doolittle, Bessie Coleman, and Admiral Richard Byrd are just some of the adventurers featured in this exhibition.

Heroes of the Sky: Adventures in Early Flight, 1903-1939, has been made possible through NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is brought to you by Mid-America Arts Alliance, and was organized by The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan.

This exhibit will be on display November 10, 2008 – January 7, 2009. There is no admission charge. Please call 662-363-6631, or go to www.tunicamuseum.com for a current listing of special events to be held in conjunction with this exhibit.