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It's now rumored that Van Gogh's craziness has been linked, not to swallowing lead paint, but to consuming too much freeze-dried Neapolitan ice cream.

Other than that, though, there doesn't seem to be a real strong link between the art world and NASA.

On second thought — maybe we haven't been paying close enough attention to what zooms across the starry night sky.

The Springfield Museum of Art will look skyward for us and unveil the biggest exhibit in its history with "Aerospace Design: The Art of Engineering From NASA's Aeronautical Research."

Opening next weekend, the national touring exhibit, stocked with 70 artifacts used in the development of experimental flight, will mark a meeting of the minds — right brain, meet left brain.

"These are objects, yes, scientific objects," explained Mark Chepp, museum director. "But they're also compelling as aesthetic objects."

For starters, the original wind tunnel models featured in the exhibit, many of which helped perfect historically important aircraft, look pretty darn cool.

By the way, the earliest object in the show is a wind tunnel model for the Navy's F4B-2, which first flew in 1934.

The most recent object is a 2002 concept model of an unmanned craft designed to fly through the thin atmosphere of Mars.

"The primary goal is to have a functional object," Chepp added. "But everybody has an aesthetic component."

It's a marriage of form and function — and it's nothing new.

In 1934, the Museum of Modern Art in New York staged its landmark "Machine Art" show.

Ball bearings as serious art? Sure, why not?

"The concept of design has been something that's part of art since the '30s," said Thomas Skwerski, museum curator.

Case in point: The NASA exhibit originated in 2003 at the Art Institute of Chicago to celebrate the centennial of flight.

Springfield is only the fourth venue to host the show. It opens to the public on Nov. 12 and then runs through Dec. 16.

"We knew it would be an eye-popper," Chepp said.

Because the artifacts were crafted for government use, the exhibit technically is available for free to museums — with a slight catch.

The museum had to obtain about $4 million worth of insurance to cover the goods, Chepp said.

Hey, you can only imagine what the wind test model of the Bell X-1 might fetch on eBay if it fell into the wrong hands.

But the $25,000 the museum has put up — that includes the insurance — is money well spent, to hear museum officials talk.

The level of regional interest in aviation could blast the local museum into orbit.

"It amazes me about the depth of interest this stuff has," Chepp said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.

The Springfield Museum of Art, 107 Cliff Park Road, hosts "Aerospace Design: The Art of Engineering From NASA's Aeronautical Research" Nov. 12 through Dec. 16.

The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.

The museum will be open from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12, for the exhibit's public opening.

Admission is $3; free for museum members.

Call 325-4673 for more information.

The Springfield Museum of Art is about to open its biggest exhibit to date — one devoted to NASA design — and if you stacked the flight-related activities from end-to-end, they might reach the moon.

Here's the schedule:

* Nov. 12 — The exhibit, "Aerospace Design: The Art of Engineering From NASA's Aeronautical Research," gets a grand opening from 1 to 4 p.m. with an afternoon of free family fun.

There will be science and art activities, and best of all, admission to the exhibit is free.

After Nov. 12, gallery admission is $3.

Nearby AVETeC (the Advanced Virtual Engine Test Cell) also will lead tours of its Warder Street facility and its virtual reality computer.

* Nov. 16 — Wittenberg University physicist Daniel Fleisch opens a Thursday night lecture series at 6:30 p.m. by talking about the physics of flight.

Admission is free.

* Nov. 18 — From 1 to 4 p.m., students from Russia Local Middle School come to the museum to talk about how they built a replica of the 1902 Wright glider.

Admission is free.

* Nov. 30 — Former astronaut and Dayton resident Mark Brown talks about what it's like to live in space at 6:30 p.m.

Admission is free.

* Dec. 4 — Wittenberg's Fleisch leads free tours of the university's Weaver Observatory beginning at 7 p.m.

* Dec. 7 — Tom Benson, an aeronautical engineer with the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, discusses the aircraft of World War II at 6:30 p.m.

Admission is free.

* Dec. 9 — Nobody had the right stuff more than, uh, Don Knotts. The museum screens a couple of films at 1 p.m. with 1967's "The Reluctant Astronaut" and then 1995's "Apollo 13."

Admission is free.

* Dec. 16 — The exhibit comes in for a final landing with the Women With Wings Heritage Event at 1 p.m.

Mike Madero, director of digital media at AVETeC, will screen his short documentary, "Women With Wings." The film honors the two World War II-era Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) that reside in Springfield.

A panel discussion with the female aviation pioneers will follow.

Admission is free.