Posted 18 October 2014 - 12:29 PM
I had the chance recently to visit the excellent Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum in near Dulles Airport in Virginia recently. It is an amazing place and well worth a visit for anyone with an interest in air or space craft. I took a few shots that you may find interesting. This set is some of the WWII American collection
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Posted 18 October 2014 - 09:00 PM
Cool pics Sir. Might you provide a rundown of the space craft you saw there?
"Weapons are the tools of violence; all decent men detest them. Weapons are the tools of fear; a decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity and, if compelled, will use them only with the utmost restraint. Peace is his highest value. If the peace has been shattered, how can he be content? His enemies are not demons but human beings like himself. He doesn't wish them personal harm Nor does he rejoice in victory. How could he rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men? He enters a battle gravely, with sorrow and great compassion as if he were attending a funeral.: Tao Te Ching
Posted 20 October 2014 - 08:29 AM
Ah well they have one of their two hangers dedicated to space so they have just about every US space craft ever used, with the most notable exception being the X-15, which is located at the main museum in DC. Pictures as they say, are worth at least a 1000 words so let's start with the queen of the space hanger and one of my personal favorites in the place:
Posted 20 October 2014 - 08:36 AM
Yes this is the real Discovery. It is, in a word, even more amazing in the flesh, so to speak. You simply can't appreciate the scale of this beast until you see it. The fact that it flies, well sort of, is amazing it itself. These shots show some detail of the intricate life savling tile network and how the entire craft contributes to its lift when it returns to the atmosphere.
BTW, you can see these and any of the other photos in a larger scale by clicking the photo and clicking on show image at the photo bucket site.
My one regret is not being able to get inside (for any of these exhibits in fact). There are good reasons why you can't but there are also answers to those problems so hopefully the gods of museum budgets will sort that out eventually.
More from both hangers later.
Posted 20 October 2014 - 10:30 AM
Thanks for the photos Bill. I remember back in the 70s after the Air & Space Museum opened and I was employed for a couple of months, I used to spend a lot of time over there, particularly during the weekdays when it wasn't that crowded. An unforgettable experience.
Brad
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Posted 20 October 2014 - 08:49 PM
I took my wife and kids to the Smithsonian more years back than I thought (once I got to thinking about it) on our last trip. Loved their exhibit there, but this looks to rival the Smithsonian for its content. Definitely on my must-see list the next time we're in the area. Thanks for sharing the pix.
Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia
Posted 21 October 2014 - 09:41 AM
Now we come to the proverbial Belle of the Ball (La Reine du Bal), the simply incomparable and yet to be equaled (as well as my personal favorite) SR-71 Blackbird. I only saw this beauty twice operationally and then it was from a distance. Back in the day, they didn't take kindly to even Air Force personnel who weren't in the unit getting too close. Seeing this beauty up close gave me two thoughts. The first is that it is really hard to get a decent photo of her, by design actually. The second evoking my memory of line from a traveling Wilburys' song:
She was long and tall, she was the queen of them all
She certainly has the elegance and beauty of the legendary Wilbury lass from the bar, as well as her lethality if not treated with proper respect; not a date for the timid.
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Posted 21 October 2014 - 09:47 AM
Man, you can't beat all that alien technology they got from Area 51.
Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia
Posted 21 October 2014 - 09:48 AM
Amazingly enough, while entering operation in 1966, nearly 50 years ago (an eon in aviation technology) nothing has come close to equaling her performance of sustained flight at over 85,000 feet and sustained speed over Mach 3.3. Of course this explains why in thousands of hours of spy missions over enemy territory and countless attempted SAM and fighter intercepts, none of these birds even had its paint scratched by hostile fire.
Notably, this particular gem, set four new speed records on its last flight in 1990 from California to Dulles before going on exhibit here. No doubt, THE QUEEN of THEM ALL.
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Posted 31 October 2014 - 05:35 PM
Now we come to the proverbial Belle of the Ball (La Reine du Bal), the simply incomparable and yet to be equaled (as well as my personal favorite) SR-71 Blackbird. I only saw this beauty twice operationally and then it was from a distance. Back in the day, they didn't take kindly to even Air Force personnel who weren't in the unit getting too close. Seeing this beauty up close gave me two thoughts. The first is that it is really hard to get a decent photo of her, by design actually. The second evoking my memory of line from a traveling Wilburys' song:
She was long and tall, she was the queen of them all
She certainly has the elegance and beauty of the legendary Wilbury lass from the bar, as well as her lethality if not treated with proper respect; not a date for the timid.
" The war, it is the war of the men ; the peace, it is the war of the ideas. " - Victor Hugo
Posted 21 December 2014 - 11:33 AM
I thought I would return to this topic with a few more photos of some aviation legends. First let's start with the amazing Tomcat. It may now be obsolete but it was a KA fighter aircraft and an fairly impressive piece of aviation innovation that carried over to many other highly successful cousins. Besides, it looks the part of a "mean machine".
