National Air and Space Museum - February 17, 2007
|
|
My Dad and I spent the afternoon at the National Air and Space Museum on
the capital mall. They are renovating the Commercial Aviation
section. As you can see, they've got a 747 nose mounted on the wall. |
|
 |
|
|
I've been to the NASM many times but this is the first time I've noticed
this plane. It's in the Golden Age gallery. In 1935, Fred
and Algene Key were airborne in this Curtiss Robin airplane for 27
straight days. See that scaffolding just above the wheels?
That's so they could exit the cockpit and work on the engine in flight!
|
|
 |
|
|
Somehow they refueled in flight as well as figured out a way to get
resupplied. |
|
 |
|
|
The Polar Star, which flew most of the way across Antartica in 1935.
|
|
 |
|
| I've always liked this huge model
of the U.S.S. Enterprise. I can't imagine building something this big
yet so detailed. Not to mention the airplanes. |
|
 |
|
| The Gossamer Condor, which in 1977
was the first aircraft to demonstrate sustained, maneuverable manpowered
flight. |
|
 |
|
|
The big Airwar over Europe mural with a Spitfire in the foreground. |
|
 |
|
|
A Japanese Zero. Maneuverable yet flimsy and not enough firepower
to shoot down the tough American fighters and bombers.
|
|
 |
|
|
My camera really worked well despite the low light. |
|
 |
|
|
An Me-109G, workhorse of the Luftwaffe.
|
|
 |
|
| Paul Allen's and Burt Rutan's
SpaceShip One. Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1 is at the top. |
|
 |
|
| The Spirit of St. Louise, not much
bigger than the Citabria. Holds more gas, though. But the
Citabria has better visibility! |
|
 |
|
| This is the Sirius that Charles and
Anne Lindbergh flew on their northern flights. Anne Lindbergh wrote
her famous book "North to the Orient" about their flight in this plane. |
|
 |
|
| The Wright 1902 glider. The
Wright Brothers learned to fly in this aircraft, which had wing warping for
roll control, an elevator for pitch control and a rudder for yaw control. |
|
 |
|
| The famous 1903 Wright Flier.
What can you say about the Wright Brothers? Figuring out how to fly. They were giants. |
|
 |
|
| The last thing we did was watch the
IMAX movie Figher Pilot: Red Flag. It was awesome; best aviation flick
I've ever seen. It was about the big Red Flag exercise the Air Force
puts on out of Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. They must have over
100 jets participating in a huge war game out over the desert. They
had USAF F-15s and A-10s, Canadian F-18s, German Tornadoes, Italian F-16s
and British Harriers. Plus KC-10 tankers, AWACS, USAF F-16 aggressors,
and helos. It was amazing to see things like 10+ jets in combat formation
over the desert and an F-16 chasing a F-15 through a canyon. This
was as close to the real thing as I've ever seen. Highly recommended. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|