He said that restoring aircraft is not needed to preserve them. NASM commits relatively few resources to aircraft restoration, compared to other museum activities and another federally funded air museum. Once NASM’s mission is clarified, NASM would be better able to develop criteria for what constitutes historically and technologically significant aircraft and, in the context of such criteria, which aircraft it should have in its collection to fulfill its mission, considering available resources and the adequacy of storage facilities. Using additional second-party restorations would help preserve NASM’s collection, alleviate its storage capacity problems, and share its collection with the public. The planned extension at Dulles Airport should help alleviate NASM’s storage facility problems, but funding is uncertain and the extension may take several years to complete. One option that may be available to reduce costs would be to limit the new space to the same size of current storage facilities. In addition to storing aircraft in substandard space, NASM does not have a management plan for each aircraft that describes (1) whether and how the aircraft will be used in future exhibits, (2) to what extent and when it will be restored, and (3) who is responsible for monitoring its condition. We further recommend that the new Director of NASM develop a management plan for those aircraft that are to remain in the NASM collection that includes (1) whether and how exhibits will be developed for purposes of displaying the collection, (2) the extent to which each aircraft will be restored and when such restoration will be done, and (3) which organization will be responsible for monitoring each aircraft; develop a plan to increase the interaction of the curators and collections management staff; and further explore private funding alternatives and the feasibility of options to better care for aircraft, such as constructing a smaller, environmentally controlled facility to house those aircraft that will remain in the collection and are currently in inadequate storage facilities, as an initial phase of the Dulles Airport extension.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed aircraft restoration at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum (NASM), focusing on: (1) the adequacy of facilities for preserving aircraft; and (2) options to improve NASM aircraft restoration efforts.

What GAO Found

GAO found that NASM: (1) commits fewer resources to aircraft restoration than it does to its other museum activities; (2) lacks adequate space to properly display or store restored aircraft; (3) must determine how to better preserve its aircraft collection despite its limited financial resources and lack of space; (4) needs to develop criteria for what constitutes historically significant aircraft and consider which aircraft should be kept in its collection; (5) could help preserve its aircraft collection, alleviate its storage capacity problems, and share its collection with the public by using second-party restorations; (6) expansion plans at Dulles Airport could help alleviate storage facility problems, but funding is uncertain and the extension could take years to complete; (7) could reduce short-term costs by limiting the new storage space to the same size as current storage facilities; and (8) does not have a management plan describing how each aircraft will be used in future exhibits, the extent that each aircraft will be restored, and who is responsible for monitoring the condition of each aircraft.