SPENCER — The traveling exhibit of the Commemorative Air Force’s Red Tail Squadron is on display at the N.C. Transportation Museum.
Coinciding with Black History Month, the CAF Red Tail Squadron’s “Rise Above” Traveling Exhibit will be at the museum through Saturday.
Housed in a 53-foot trailer with expandable sides, the exhibit includes a curved, 160-degree movie screen and theater seating for 30 people.
The audience sees a short, original movie about the Tuskegee Airmen and what the pilots and support personnel had to overcome to fly and fight for the United States during World War II.
The movie includes footage taken from a P-51C fighter plane, the model flown by the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black fighter pilots to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
They trained at a segregated air base in Tuskegee, Ala. The airmen also were supported by black men and women on the ground. They painted the tails of their planes red, and bomber pilots began requesting the “red tail angels” as escorts.
Admission to the exhibit is free, and visitors do not have to pay a separate admission to the Transportation Museum to see it. The display will be open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.