Tag Archives: facility

JetStar Prototype

I’ve seen the JetStar prototype a few times in various visits to the Museum of Flight restoration facility up at Paine Field. The JetStar is a favorite of mine as might be determined by several of my posts over the years. The prototype is a bit different, though. It was built with two engines – Bristol Orpheus turbojets. After the first two aircraft, the rest were four engined. After it finished testing, it was used by Lockheed for transport duties. It ended up in Vancouver before coming into the museum’s collection. These shots are of it in the restoration shop.

Maritime Fire Training Facility

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A sunny weekend day at this time of year is not to be wasted so I took a bike ride across to Seattle. I was heading for Discovery Park and one of the trails that made up my route took me passed a lot of the local shipyards. As I approached one of them, I saw what looked like a funnel. Then I realized it was a mock up of a whole ship. It even had a helicopter on a pad. One my return journey, I stopped to take a look. I realized that there was a lot of piping underneath the structure and it had a notice about a fire training facility. I guess they can simulate fires in different parts of the vessel and crews can be trained to handle them. I wonder what it is like on the trail when the training is underway.

Seahawks Training Facility

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I have driven past the Seahawks training facility on I-405 more times than I can think of. I have also ridden by a couple of times on my bike when doing the loop around Lake Washington. I was doing another ride but, this time, I wasn’t bothered about keeping my average speed up and so was willing to make stops along the way if there was something worthy of a look. I figured this would be one such thing.

It is called the Virginia Mason Campus and is located alongside the lake. There are outdoors facilities but there appears to be a large indoor training space. A huge twelfth man flag is on the side of the structure. I took a quick look around and grabbed some photos with my phone. I thought I had taken a couple more but the app I use has been misbehaving recently and some of the shots were not saved. As I made my way out, I passed the entry sign which appears more welcoming than the fences and guard houses suggest when you get closer.

Fire Truck Renovation

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Aviation museums tend to be full of airframes of various types but sometimes they have associated items that they work on. The Museum of Flight restoration facility at Paine Field has a fire truck that they have rebuilt. It is tiny compared to current fire trucks but it is a great example of a truck from a time long gone and it is in great shape after all of the work put in to it. I thought I would share it here since it probably won’t get a lot of attention from everyone other than those that worked on it.

Comet Cockpit and Cabin

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The Comet may have been the first British jet airliner and the first in commercial service but it is not too well served by Museums. I guess the stragglers got chopped up when they had served their purpose. Everett is home to a Comet 4 though with the Museum of Flight’s restoration facility being home to one. Progress on it has been slow but steady. I have seen it a few times over the years. You used to be able to walk outside and see the bits stuck outdoors but now there is commercial service at Paine Field, the ramp is a bit more secure.

On my most recent visit, I wandered through the cabin and had a look in the cockpit. The cockpit did result in some HDR shots and I wrote a post about that here that discussed the different results Adobe software provides for HDR. These shots just give you an idea of what the early days of jet aviation brought to the flying public.

Cutlass

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When I was a kid, I saw a picture in an aircraft modeling magazine of the Vought Cutlass. The planes caught my imagination at the time but they were already long gone from service so the chances of seeing one in the UK were not good. However, I did come across one much later when visiting the Museum of Flight’s restoration facility in Everett WA. My first visit to the facility was when it was just a location where work was undertaken and you could drop in. More recently, it has been turned into a visitor location with a shop and entry fee.

Nothing has changed with the Cutlass though. It is apparently a bit of a basket case for restoration purposes with a lot of problems in the structure. Consequently, I don’t know what will happen with it or whether it will remain a work in progress indefinitely. However, it is cool to see a Cutlass at all. When thinking about this, I decided to see whether I had ever come across a Cutlass at any museum. However, I couldn’t find an example anywhere in my files so I guess this is the only one I have seen.