Tag Archives: museum

Command Module

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A day for compiling things from different locations.  The Apollo command modules in this post are a combination of shots from museums across the country.  Since the command module was the only part that made it back from the Apollo missions, it was the part that made it to display.  Even so, there are not too many Apollo missions so not too many command modules.  They do get supplemented though.  There were ground test articles and mockups that were used during the program and have also been preserved.

The thing that is most striking about the early NASA spaceships is the size.  (The current Russian Soyuz capsule is still pretty compact but you aren’t aiming to be in it for too long.) The Mercury capsule was tiny.  Gemini was so-called up but had two people so was still pretty bloody tight.  Apollo was home for three crew for a number of days so had to have a bit more room to play with.  The seating area was not big but there was space behind there to get to and moving around once weightless was a bit easier.

Even so, they are really tiny things in which to spend a lot of time with two other guys.  You were also in space so this little thing was the only hope you had of getting back alive.  You also had to deal with your fellow astronauts, some of whom got a bit ill on journeys.  Read the book on the Apollo 8 mission to learn the unpleasant details.  Those guys were really ready to take on the challenge head on.

Take Your Pick When Refueling

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The F-105 Thunderchief (or Thud) is a beast of a plane. Sadly I never got to seem them in action.  One is parked outside at Cavanaugh in Addison TX.  Its camo is a bit bleached by the Texas sun (it was just over 100 degrees the day I arrived and that was towards the end of the afternoon).  The thing that caught my eye, though, was the refueling receptacle or, more specifically, receptacles.  USAF aircraft have the flying boom refueling system.  This was not always the case and jets like the F-100 had flight refueling probes for the hose and drogue method.

I assume that the Air Force was in a transition mode when the F-105 was being designed so they had both.  On the upper side of the nose there is a ramp for boom refueling to take place.  Below that on the port side is a retractable refueling probe for hose and drogue use.  I didn’t realize that any jets had been built for both (aside from the UK and French E-3s which are a bit larger and more able to accommodate the extra kit.  I wonder which one was more regularly used since the techniques for each type differ.

Pacific Bonsai Museum

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Located in Federal Way, the Pacific Bonsai Museum is not the easiest place to find.  It shows up in my GPS but, when you arrive at the turning, the signage is either too small for me to spot or nonexistent.  I turned in to the entrance, more as an act of faith.  Once on the access road, there were signs but then you drive for a long time before you get to the place.  You do start to wonder whether it is a spoof.

Once there, though, it is worth it.  Entrance is free which was a surprise, particularly given how good the trees were.  Everything is outdoor with the trees displayed in groupings around the space.  Backdrops provide some visual separation and information boards explain their individual histories as well as telling a little about the styles of Bonsai and the history of the art form.

Individual plants are intermingled with compositions that involve many plants, sometimes over fifty different plants being incorporated into one display.  The sizing of some of these is carefully tailored to give an increased sense of depth.  The bases are also chosen to emphasize different elements of the plants.  As with any activity, when you find out a little bit more about it, you discover just how much complexity is involved.  Old trees are not as important as those that appear to be old apparently.

The place is very impressive and, if you are in Federal Way, definitely give it a look.

Lear Fans

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Early efforts at composite business aircraft did not go smoothly.  The Beech Starship ended up being a burden on the company and they bought most of the planes back and destroyed them.  Prior to the Starship, there was the Lear Fan.  A project started by Bill Lear and continued after his death, the idea was a composite aircraft with two engines driving a single pusher propeller.  The light airframe and plenty of power was to provide great performance.  Sadly, the early approach to composite design did not go smoothly, nor did the gearbox design to combine the two engines to one propeller.

The project folded after three prototypes had been built.  All three still remain and I have seen two of the three.  One lives in the Museum of Flight here in Seattle while another is in the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas.  The third one is in Oklahoma City so I am a bit annoyed I never knew that when I traveled there regularly.  Still, two out of three isn’t bad.  The single prop looks pretty chunky (the idea being that single engine handling was identical to twin engine handling) and I imagine the diameter had to be limited to avoid prop strike issues during rotation.  Overall, it is quite a neat looking design.  A shame it was a bit ahead of the technology curve when it was designed and built.

One of the Early F-16s

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The early versions of jets are often repurposed throughout their life.  They serve a role for testing but they are not configured like production jets and to make them so is too expensive to be worthwhile.  Besides, they are instrumented to some extent so they can be useful for carrying out alternate tests.  As a result, they often get used for trials, research tasks or development of alternate concepts.  The early F-16s did a lot of this sort of work and ended up in some odd programs like the AFTI effort.  Sitting outside at the Frontiers of Flight museum is one of these test aircraft.  It spent its life with General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) at Fort Worth and, once it was done with, it found a new home at the museum.  Compared to the average F-16, this jet will have had a lot of interesting experiences!

Lyon Air Museum

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A weekend in Southern California for work was not my idea of fun but I did have a few hours free on the Sunday morning so I headed down to Santa Anna to the Lyon Air Museum.  It is located on the opposite side of John Wayne Airport from the main terminal building and is not terribly obvious unless you look hard.  Even the entrance road is a bit obscure and could be easily missed.  However, once there, it was definitely worth the time.

The museum is in a modern structure and has an impressive collection.  Supposedly the planes are all airworthy and they have some interesting ones there.  Some of the collection will get their own posts.  For now, here is an overlook of the museum and a few of the side exhibits that don’t get their own story.

Frontiers of Flight Museum

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A work trip to Dallas wrapped up a few hours prior to my flight home.  I was flying out of Love Field so figured a quick detour to the Frontiers of Flight Museum just across the field from the terminal was in order.  What I hadn’t appreciated was that tons of school parties had the same idea.  The place was heaving with kids and being kids, they were doing everything at high speed and high volume.  The inside of the 737 exhibit was not a great place to be!

Southwest has a big influence on the museum including a whole 737 and the front fuselage from another.  They don’t dominate things though and there are plenty of other airframes both inside and out.  I shall pick on a few favorites in due course but here is a sample of what was there.  It was a brief visit but a fun one.

Edmonds Museum

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Downtown Edmonds proved to be a great place to wander around.  Having enjoyed the waterfront, we walked into the town itself to check out the shops and with a lunch place in mind.  There is an interchange with a roundabout in it that has interesting streets heading off in each direction.  One of them takes you to the Edmonds Historical Museum.  As we walked up to it, it seemed like a pretty familiar structure and there was a good reason.

The building dates back to 1910 and it is a Carnegie Library.  We have come across a few of these over the years.  While the needs of libraries have outgrown the buildings, they have often found new uses and museums are a popular second life.  We didn’t go inside on this occasion.  We thought it might be worth a visit another time and we have a visitor coming for whom something like this might be right up their alley.

Return to Evergreen

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I have made one previous visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville Oregon.  That was probably ten years ago.  I was in Portland for the morning Open House at the ANG unit so, having gone that far, I decided to go to the museum to see what had changed.  I underestimated a couple of things.  One, McMinnville is a bit further from Portland than I thought it was so it took about an hour to get there and that hour was also going to be added to my return journey.  Also, a lot of things have changed so I was going to spend more time there than I thought.  I was not getting home early that evening!

When I last went, one building housed the exhibits and a second was being built.  It was close to completion and they were talking of space exhibits and, hopefully, a Space Shuttle.  That didn’t work out but now there is certainly a lot more to see.  There are two main exhibition buildings – pre-Vietnam and post-Vietnam eras – housing civilian and military exhibits.  There is also a theater building.  None of this includes the water park that is close by.

The amount of space means that the exhibits are not crammed upon each other although some areas are a little more cramped than others.  Some helicopters that I rather liked were jammed together.  There is a shortage of space I guess, though, because lots of exhibits are outside and there are a few still scattered around the parking lot awaiting restoration.  That is not a criticism though.  The museum has plenty of great stuff to see (although the Beech Starship was in the parking lot last time I was there and still is, looking a little more forlorn now than it did then).

If I were to try and pick out highlights, it would be tricky.  The Spruce Goose is the main feature of the original building and it still dominates things there.  Indeed, it is so large that, at times, you actually forget it is there because it either is way above you or it fills the view becoming invisible in the process.  The SR-71 is a delight to see at any time and the way that one engine pod is opened up is a nice touch and gives a good idea of the installation for a unique engine.

The rockets and missiles are well displayed and I shall come back to them in another post.  Some of the aircraft are painted up in unusual schemes although these are not always original to the airframe on display.  Even so, they are a change from what you might normally see.  Having a 747-100 parked outside the front of the museum is a nice touch too – a reminder of Evergreen’s operations before the airline went bust.

I only had a couple of hours so I was in a bit of a hurry working my way around but this is definitely a place that you could spend a lot of time.  The journey there is long enough to make doing so something that you should really plan for.  I saw plenty that I had seen before but plenty that was either not there or was not displayed in the same way.  If you are in the vicinity, make a trip to McMinnville.