National Air and Space Museum (August 31, 2013)

 Was a remarkable time at the National Air and Space Museum on the last day of August....my first time to check out this remarkable place (though had been to the museum at Dulles Airport a few years ago, which is the other part of it. An amazing collection of historic air and spacecraft including these two: a left SpaceShipOne and at right the Bell X-1. SpaceShipOne was the first private spacecraft (and it won the X-Prize) and the X-1 was the first plane to fly supersonic. Two remarkable sights of many to be seen in the museum. It was a wonderful thing to be here.   

Plane at left is the Spirit of St. Louis which was flown by Charles Lindbergh on May 20-21, 1927 from New York to Paris. It was the first non-stop flight, and was one of the most amazing achievements in aviation in my opinion. A long solo flight in a plane with limited visibility ( he could not see from the front of the plane) and during a time when navigation by air in a plane was very, very basic. The place was custom built, had a top speed of around 130 and cruised around 100-110. Very cool that this aircraft can still be seen today, and enjoyed seeing it. 

Even more amazing is the Wright Flyer which flew from the sands of Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks of North Carolina on December 17, 1903 making the first four flights by a manned and controlled powered aircraft. Damaged  by winds at the end of the day, the plane was stored by the Wrights for 9 years, and then restored by Orville (Wilbur had died before it was displayed). The plane due to a dispute over the museum over who was first was displayed in England, but then when that was resolved was brought to the museum in 1948 and has been on display ever since.   

 Some of the older planes that lead to the planes of today are seen in the photo at left. One of my favorite scenes in the museum were the planes seen here. Most of the planes were grouped into eras or themes such as WWI planes, WWII, and different eras of spacecraft (the space craft went back to designs by Robert Goddard and also such spacecraft as the V-2 and Russian Rockets. There was even a Soyuz spacecraft (which was flown manned in space) which was cool because the Russians still fly that old design to this day.   

THIS was pretty cool, speaking of spacecraft an actual Lunar Lander. The Apollo test program went well during the on-orbit tests and this one was not needed so is in the museum, but it was a fully flight capable Lunar Lander. I had seen reproductions of the spacecraft, but never the real thing. A number of them, at least the lower (golden covered) sections are still sitting on the moon to this day. Those were the landing stages, the two crew men rode back to Apollo Command Modules in orbit (with the third crewman) after landing on the moon. A number of other spacecraft can been seen above the LM.    

Finally, here is yours truly standing in front of the Apollo 11 Command Module "Columbia" (the LM was "Eagle") which flew Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins to the moon and back. Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. Launched on the giant Saturn V rocket, this was the only portion to return to Earth. The US space program is planning to go back into space using spacecraft much along the lines of Apollo after a long period using the Space Shuttle with a number of designs undergoing design and development. All in all a most remarkable place to visit.