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06-22-2008, 01:28 PM
| #1 (permalink) | |
| Community Rank: Explorer   Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Hollywood on the Potomac (DC)
Posts: 7,275
| Friday the 13th Blitz Tour of the NASM! We blitz tour the National Air and Space Museum! We had a few objectives for this trip. We wanted to miss the traffic during the morning (and evening) rush hour, get back home in time for the closing on our re-financing, and finally, not chancing getting a ticket by exceeding two hours on the parking meter. There were a couple of things working against us – there was a power outage in downtown DC that was affecting both the metro subway system and the traffic signals. PLUS, it was Friday the thirteenth! My DW and DS#2 had been on a field trip to the NASM in the spring, so we could afford to skip some exhibits if we needed to. We got downtown in record time and found a working parking meter in the same block as the museum, as there were no available free parking spaces along the National Mall. We put our quarters in the meter and trotted towards the museum… 1012 hours, we approached the mall entrance to the museum, and we walked really fast so we could get there before the Brazilian tour groups could exit their buses.  We got through security quickly and made our way to the WWI gallery:   L: a Pfalz D.XII biplane. R: An exhibit about the Red Baron They made great strides in aviation technology, even though the munitions were somewhat crude..  You can’t have an exhibit about the Red Baron without something to do with Snoopy:  This is a model of a Sopwith 2F.1 Camel. Next up: on to the WWII Gallery!
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06-22-2008, 03:16 PM
| #2 (permalink) | |
| Community Rank: Explorer Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Hollywood on the Potomac (DC)
Posts: 7,275
| 1030 hours, on to WWII Gallery   L: a Top Secret Norden bombsight. R: Part of Flak Bait that flew over 200 missions and was never shot down, even after repeatedly taking heavy damage. It was a Martin B-26B Marauder.   L: a Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIIc (high altitude version). R: a North American P-51D Mustang   L: some of General Doolittle’s medals. R: Mural of a B-17. Up Next: 1040 hours Sea-Air Operations!
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Last edited by emtpej; 06-23-2008 at 01:50 PM.. | |
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06-22-2008, 04:26 PM
| #3 (permalink) | |
| Community Rank: Explorer Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Hollywood on the Potomac (DC)
Posts: 7,275
| 1040 Hours - Sea-Air Operations gallery 1040 hours, to the Sea-Air Operations gallery!   Tail from a Douglas A-4C Skyhawk is displayed with markings of VA-76 on the USS Bon Homme Richard which is the only jet aircraft on display in this gallery.   This display illustrates the development of aircraft carriers from true ‘flat-top’ conversions to today’s super-carriers. This gallery has some really neat carrier bridge displays! Just outside this gallery is a display of UAVs:   L: Lockheed Martin / Boeing RQ-3A Dark Star. R: Above, MQ-1L Predator, Below, Boeing X-45A (J-UCAS) 1055 hours, on our way to the Apollo Gallery, I saw this:  V-1 “buzz bomb” cruise missile. Here is something we are not likely to see on a launch pad anytime soon:  Saturn V Launch vehicle with Apollo Spacecraft  This command module hatch design was one of the results of the Apollo I tragedy that claimed the lives of Grissom, White, and Chaffee. Grissom most likely would have been the first man on the moon, had that tragedy been averted. The new design only requires 5 seconds to open, as opposed to 90 seconds.   L: Lunar Module 2, which was built for testing in earth orbit of the docking procedures and was not used because LM1’s tests were completely successful. R: The boys with an EVA suit (I think from STS Series). Next up: To Lunch, and Beyond!
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Last edited by emtpej; 06-23-2008 at 02:00 PM.. | |
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06-22-2008, 06:27 PM
| #5 (permalink) | |
| Do NOT tap on the glass!  Join Date: May 2004 Location: Virginia Beach, VA
Posts: 22,087
| Cool pics!  We will be there next week, checking everything out! 
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06-22-2008, 07:07 PM
| #6 (permalink) | |
| RED SOX NATION!!  Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Connecticut
Posts: 90,679
| Great pictures!! More please
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06-22-2008, 08:15 PM
| #7 (permalink) | |
| Community Rank: Explorer Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Hollywood on the Potomac (DC)
Posts: 7,275
| To Lunch, and Beyond! Well, after looking at all the astronaut food, we were kinda hungry, so we went to the food court:   This is a space-aged place, as you order and pay the cashier first, and then you go pick up your order. You have to fill your own drinks and get your condiments, but it was amazingly FAST! I did not get food photos as it was all the standard McDonalds, anyway. 1130 hours, our next stop was “How Things Fly”, which our son did not get much time in on his field trip.   L: An image of air pressure on an aircraft showing where it is higher and lower. R: David tests the rigidity of various materials and strength vs. weight.   The boys at the Cessna demonstrator. We decided to split up at this point as time was getting short. My DW took David to a gift shop and I took Tim to see the jet aviation gallery and Wright Brothers gallery.   Views of a Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe. The first jet fighter aircraft, placed in service in 1944!   Views of the Lockheed XP-80 Lulu Belle, the P-80 Shooting Star Prototype. Next up: How far we have come, and now we go!
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Last edited by emtpej; 06-22-2008 at 08:24 PM.. | |
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06-23-2008, 12:23 AM
| #8 (permalink) | |
 Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Maidstone, Kent, UK
Posts: 96,711
| Wow, you are cramming a lot into your day.  I can't wait to read more. 
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06-23-2008, 08:38 AM
| #10 (permalink) | |
| RED SOX NATION!! Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Connecticut
Posts: 90,679
| Another great update!!
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06-23-2008, 10:36 AM
| #11 (permalink) | |
| Facebook Addict  Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 36,221
| Terrific pictures!
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06-23-2008, 10:40 AM
| #12 (permalink) | ||
| Community Rank: Explorer Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Hollywood on the Potomac (DC)
Posts: 7,275
| Quote:
I'm sure y'all will love Sea-Air Ops and 'How Things Fly'!
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06-23-2008, 10:45 AM
| #13 (permalink) | |||||
| Community Rank: Explorer Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Hollywood on the Potomac (DC)
Posts: 7,275
| Quote:
Quote:
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06-23-2008, 01:08 PM
| #14 (permalink) | |
| Community Rank: Explorer Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Hollywood on the Potomac (DC)
Posts: 7,275
| How far we have come, and now we go! I like coming to NASM so I can see how far aviation came in less than a century: Here is the four-cylinder cruising engine from the Rutan Voyager aircraft, which flew around the world non-stop, and without refueling in 1986! Compare that with a Wright Brothers Flyer four-cylinder engine!   We managed to get back to the van and pull out of our parking space with five minutes to spare! Hard to believe, I know! I would not expect anyone but a local to try and see NASM in that amount of time as we can come back soon! If you are visiting for possibly once in your life you would definitely want to spend several hours here. When I was a kid, all they had was a Quonset hut out back of Arts and Industries, with a little rocket ‘garden’ -- it is really nice to see how it has grown! We want to get out to Udvar-Hazy center, someday soon. My DW did manage to get me a book of some of the aircraft, but because many of those are housed at the Dulles facility, it did not help me as much as the NASM website, which has many resources for exploring the museum, so there is MUCH more to see than what I included in this TR. Today we walked: about a mile. The weather today was: about 90 degrees and dry. The best thing today was: getting a parking spot in the same block. The worst thing today was: being short on time. The funniest thing today was: David at the controls of a simulator. Today we tried: the food court at NASM. And the result was: we got our meal at the speed of sound!
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06-23-2008, 02:12 PM
| #15 (permalink) | |
| RED SOX NATION!! Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Connecticut
Posts: 90,679
| Great finish  Thanks for sharing your adventure with us 
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About This Page: This is a discussion on Friday the 13th Blitz Tour of the NASM! within the Globetrotting: General Trip Reports, part of the PassPorter Community - Message Boards and Forums; We blitz tour the National Air and Space Museum!
We had a few objectives for this trip. We wanted to ...
Lori
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