Among the all the various ships and crafts that made history that are on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum from the original Kitty Hawk plane to the Apollo 11 Capsule; there sits an artifact that is near and dear to many Sci-Fi fans hearts.

I give you the original model of the USS Enterprise used to film the special effects in the original Star Trek series (circa 1966-1969):

(Notice that one side has no detail, apparently she never filmed from the port side)

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"All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct." -- Carl Sagan

Very cool!

They could have also dressed the detailed side of the model with a backwards-typed NCC-1701 (and other markings) and flipped the negative to appear as the port side of the craft. That's a trick that filmmakers have been using for years (and was used in the making of James Cameron's Titanic).

I always thought the port side was open to allow for the cables and such for the lighting. Did the "create" a side for it?

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"Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars"

That was not indicated anywhere around the display, but if look at the port side picture, you will see 3 rectangular plates that look like they are screwed on. These areas I assume are access to the internal wiring, one for the main body and 2 for each nacelle.

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"All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct." -- Carl Sagan