Aviation BS and Photo Thread

...^^^... These guys never worried about getting a "speeding ticket" ... ... just getting it over the net was their goal ...

Could they get an "air ticket" for this ...

 

Rocket Garden was sweet.

 

Justin approves this message.

 

More, just for you my dear.

 

Space craft I've got a couple of those:



Oops wrong folder.

 

Chris. Those are trains.

 

Hand prints of a Shuttle commander, these are on the columns outside of VA Air and Space:

 

Thanks! He was a very cool dude! I miss him tremendously...

He use to drag me around Grumman's Plant in Fl and Bethpage NY.....I have a picture of me climbing on one of the lunar landing modules somewhere....Sorry for the sideways picture. This Tapestry was given to my Grandfather and all the guys that worked on the program by Neal and buzz when they returned from the lunar landing on the moon in 69 with many hugs and thank you's....

 

Close ups of the Apollo 12 command module:

 

Here is a pic of Discovery flying over D.C. Before it was flown out to Dulles to be enshrined in Hazy air and space.....

 

Marine One Reagan Libary

 

...^^^... In about 1969, when the Presidential helicopters were at the end of Boling AFB (next to Anacostia Naval Center) ... security was not like today and if you had "pilot access" to that area & knew someone ... you could get someone to let you take a peek inside the A/C that was parked there (I believe that they had 3 identical Presidential A/C at that time). Just a 8' chain link fence separated troops at Anacostia Naval Center from the helicopters back then.

Same thing happened when I was a patient at Bethesda Naval Hospital ... got to take a quick peek inside the Presidential hospital suite there and noticed 3 TVs mounted on the wall for the 3 different networks at that time.

Got to do a lot of cool stuff as a patient at Bethesda too ... concerts, Presidential yacht tours, Fords theater, trips & etc. (very different from today).

I remember 2 Christmas's that Princess Grace & Prince Rainer of Monaco invited about 6-8 troops from Walter Reed & Bethesda to come to Monaco for about 10 days and all expenses were paid by them. I knew a guy from WV who went and he said the trip was unbelievable.

Several of the big execs who lived in Chevy Chase, Bethesda & etc. would have cook outs and parties on their lawns of about 20-30 patients each, and they had female secretaries there to be with each soldier as a guest for conversation. If you had to be in the hospital and were ambulatory, Bethesda was the place to be a patient.
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...^^^... My ex-wife's parents lived in LI, NY and her dad worked at Bethpage Grumman (he had a very low employee number) and worked on the space projects and he was given some cool memorabilia for doing the projects. The father's son (her brother) is a retired engineer now and still has those Grumman space memento's.

 

Where is the door gunner's position?

 

My Grandfather spent I believe it was 36/37 years as he started with them in 1939/40 and retired during the Gulfstream Aerospace deal in the late 70's early 80's. He was also on the design teams for some the "cats" airplane programs before transitioning over to the Space Program in the early 60's. He also worked close with Rockwell design teams on the Wings and tail sections.

He told me a story one time when H.W. Bush came to the plant for training when the TBM was being built and told the design team "Thanks for building an aircraft that saved my ass and others" and hugged every person on the Assembly line... and another one when Neal and Buzz told them (design team) their life would not be the same if they didn't return from the Moon. You have one chance to get it right that lives and the future of America's Space program depend on it.

I was extremely fortunate that he loved his Grandson so much to drag me along just about wherever he went that I had to opportunity to meet people and see stuff that the average 8-12 year old only dreamed of seeing at that time in history...

One thing that will stand out in my mind is that I was able to see the first flight of Discovery and it's final ride to Udvar Hazy @ Dulles along with many of the Apollo and Saturn Rocket launches extremely up close from the VIP viewing stands.....Thanks to a very special person in my life...

 

Cockpit windows of Challenger