Paul E . Garber Paul Edward Garber ( August 31 , 1899 - September 23 , 1992 ) was the first head of the National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution , Washington , D . C . With 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 . http : / / home . earthlink . net / ~ ralphcooper / garbpo92 . jpg Biography . Garber was born and spent his childhood in Washington , D . C . and had clear memories of the Wright Brothers flight trials at Fort Myer in 1908 . 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 . Determined to safely relocate the treasures to the Washington area , Garber searched in vain for empty warehouse space in the vicinity of the nation ' s capital . He then persuaded a pilot friend to assist him in conducting an aerial survey of the Maryland and Virginia suburbs from the cockpit of a Piper J - 3 Cub . His search revealed of woodland in Suitland . The National Park and Planning Commission , which controlled the land , was more than pleased to turn it over to the Smithsonian in 1952 . " When I first went out there and walked around , " Garber later commented , " my only companions were the bullfrogs and mockingbirds . " There was no budget for this project . " I had to scrounge , " he recalled with pride . His powers of persuasion were legendary . Army engineers at nearby Fort Belvoir provided a bulldozer to clear trees and brush from the site . Garber persuaded a local contractor to donate any excess cement remaining aboard his trucks at the end of the workday . Navy officials agreed to provide , at cost , the first of the prefabricated buildings that would soon dot the site . Garber : " I ' ll beg or do whatever is necessary to get the old , famous airplanes for display at the museum . " Paul E . Garber spent his later years giving programs and relating the stories about the beginning and progress of flying history . He came to be a leading figure of the Smithsonian Kite Festival ( now renamed the Blossom Kite Festival ) , Smithsonian ' s annual kite - flying celebration held on the National Mall in downtown Washington , D . C . . He was also instrumental is getting a DC law changed . Previously it had been illegal to fly a kite on the Mall . He was also a talented aircraft model maker . The Smithsonian ' s Paul E . Garber Preservation , Restoration , and Storage Facility was named for him before his death . He died in his sleep on September 23 , 1992 , at the age of 93 . Garber ' s final resting place is in Arlington National Cemetery . He was preceded in death by his wife Irene and survived by two sons , James Paul and Edgar William and a daughter Barbara Jane ( passed in 1993 ) .