I work for the National Air and Space Museum. With aircraft, it is easy (and tempting) to takea representative type and paint it to resemble a famous aircraft. However: a personnal experience regarding display of artifacts vs. reproduction: As I showed an interested researcher around our off-site storage area, he continually asked "You mean that's the REAL one?" He stared in awe at the (real) Enola Gay and was amazed when I answered his question that the Wright Flyer in the Mall museum was (you guessed) the REAL Wright Flyer. When an artifact is directly connected to an historical event it does matter to the public that the displayed item is the REAL artifact. People tend to look interested in the reproduction Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, NC; they seem more awed by the original hanging in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. (And yes, the Kitty Hawk aircraft is correctly labelled as a repro duction). It's a matter of mystique, but yes, it does matter to the visitor.