Aviation BS and Photo Thread

I haven't gone yet but I would like to.
The Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle is pretty good. They have an SR-71 (Sled) as well as a Concorde.
They have a bunch of Apollo Program stuff for a limited time too.

 

Weighing all my gear for Oshkosh. I depart tomorrow!

 

Will it live up to the classic? The filming looks pretty amazing.

https://youtu.be/qSqVVswa420

 

I think it will be entertaining and hopefully have some good Hornet scenes but I was a little disappointed that it looks like they are pretty much ripping off at least a couple scenes from the original.

 

That ending in the clip is awesome! Even though it was CGI, but seeing a F14 is absolutely beautiful!

I know some scenes they use an actual F14 brought out from a museum but of course not air worthy.

 

Here is my little piece of history from the Apollo 13 Space Program....Growing up in Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach 60's and early 70's I had an AMAZING opportunity to see some great stuff,and with my grandfather doing what he did I was out at KSC a lot.

My Grandfather was a Aero Space Engineer for Grumman's he was on the Saturn, Apollo and Mercury programs and then started on the Shuttle program in 71 or 72.

This bill was signed at a little bar in Cape Canaveral called the Lamp Post inn where the Astronauts hung out. My grandfather gave me a dollar bill and had me go and get them to sign it Jack Swigert ,James Lovell ,Fred Haise I think I was about 7/8 yrs old. I have some pictures around somewhere with all of them and me on Jacks knee.

 

I had opportunity to go to KSC on Tuesday (Apollo 11 launch day) and visit Firing Room 1 at the Launch Control Center. Yes - the room that controlled the launch!

There was a reunion of all the people that were there on that fateful day. I was fortunate enough to be a guest of one of those guys...

Today, the room has been reconfigured for SLS, and I was able to talk with some of those guys, and meet the Launch Controller - even got a picture with her!

I will post some pictures this weekend.

 

I was lucky we never had to be in the crowds as we were always in the employee viewing sections but I do remember the causeways and beaches being jammed with 1000's of people.

One of the greatest memories I have is being able to get in the VAB and other restricted areas of KSC during that time. I also had the opportunity to visit the space shuttle orbiter maintenance hangers where they were turned for the next mission

 

The KSC Visitor's Center is really awesome. Some years ago, they re-designed things, with more of an "amusement park" feel - but not corny. It is really well done. Both kids and adults enjoy it, and learn plenty of our history from it.

A definite must see.

 

They have the cockpit section from a crashed SR71 that you can sit in (I may or may not have made vroom vroom sounds when it was my turn). The aircraft on display is actually an M21, one of the predecessors to the SR71.

I also took a crap ton of pictures of the inside of The Barn when I was there, just in case I win the lottery and get to build my dream workshop

I think it's cool that many of the docents flew or were involved in the aircraft on display. I talked for a bit with a guy who flew Corsairs in Korea. I only had six hours to spend in the museum...should have planned two days.

 

One really neat thing they do every year (usually in February) is they host an event called Hops and Props. They bring in a bunch of local brewers and have them setup all over the museum doing beer tasting. So you get to walk around the whole museum while sampling more beers than you can imagine.

They also have a caterer with some with banquet style food, when I went a few years ago they had the food setup underneath the Blackbird which was kind of neat. Tickets were a little spendy at around $85-90 but it was a fun event and you get a decent amount of beer, towards the end of the night the brewery folks start pouring a little more and then a little more trying to empty out their kegs.

 

Speaking of museums around here, what used to be Paul Allen's Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum right next to where I work is doing their Sky Fair tomorrow so I've been lucky enough to watch them practicing the past few days.

Just now walked back inside from watching a de Havilland Mosquito, Supermarine Spitfire, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang and Hawker Hurricane land in that order one after the other. They had their B-25 out flying yesterday too which is always fun to watch.

 

Everyone here at VBT is getting out of town today and tomorrow and taking all the planes with them. Hoping to get in a few hours tomorrow if winds allow, but am limited on what I can fly.

This guy has been in the hanger this week:

 

Flew right over you today on my way north

 

Don't worry. I'll post some. I already have a bunch to go through and I haven't even made it to Airventure yet...

 

OK...I live very close to DIA, which means a lot of aircraft pass overhead. I also live pretty close to Buckley AFB which gives me the same result.

This is always accompanied by engine noise.

Tonight, sitting on the front porch, an aircraft passes directly over the house. I was too slow to get a pic, but it had a single red strobe on the rear...maybe the tail?...and two very bright white flashing strobes on what I assumed were the wingtips. No sound. At all. Not even a whisper. It flew low and slow, and honestly I don't think it ever gained altitude. It didn't appear to have taxi lights on when it went over, which I can normally see.

Any thoughts on the type? I've lived at this location for for 5 years and have seen/heard nothing like it. It came from the direction of DIA, and stranger still it didn't follow the flight path of any of the other aircraft that I have seen tonight...before or since.

Not a lot of info, I know...but man the silence of it was unnerving.