l: September 2017

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center National Air and Space Museum

Did you guys know that there are two Air and Space Smithsonians?

The Udvar-Hazy museum is located off of The National Mall and is amazing. It was my favorite of the two Air and Space, and perhaps my favorite overall. It is also the newest (which is likely why it was so awesome) besides the National Museum of African History and Culture which we did not tour.

It has a restoration hanger that you can observe. This is Apollo Command Module Columbia in the hanger being restored. See the guy on the ladder hanging up over the edge of the module. It is so amazing to see something that has been in space. This is normally on exhibit in the Air and Space museum on the Mall. It is being prepped for a National tour. It will be on display in St. Louis from April to Sept 2018 (closest to Iowa) otherwise it will be back at the Smithsonian in 2020.

Seeing this was my highlight. It is so awesome. You can stand at one side of the hanger and get this view before you enter. It is very large.
Discovery was the third Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle to fly in space. It entered service in 1984 and retired from spaceflight as the oldest and most accomplished orbiter, the champion of the shuttle fleet. Discovery flew on 39 Earth-orbital missions, spent a total of 365 days in space, and traveled almost 240 million kilometers (150 million miles)--more than the other orbiters. It shuttled 184 men and women into space and back, many of whom flew more than once, for a record-setting total crew count of 251. It looked "quilted" to me up close. I was surprise to see that instead of large panels of metal, the shuttles exterior seems to be made of thousands of 4"x4" squares of what looks like fabric. The shuttle has been at the museum since 2012.

This Fedex plane is special to the family. Dallas Kibbe was on this very plane and helped to "check-ride" it. Fred Smith CEO of Federal Express had a crazy idea he wrote an economics paper in Yale about overnight delivery of packages (1962). I remembers getting a C on the paper because the professor did think the idea was feasible. I guess he went for it anyway. Smith had a general interest in aviation. They took a passenger plane, a Dassault Falcon 20, removed all the seats, and it became "Wendy" - named after his daughter. It was pretty neat to see it in the Air and Space museum (near the Concord!) and hear Dallas tales of working on the plane. I am glad it worked out, and people decided it would be a good idea to get things overnighted!

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. This is possibly the only plane I can identify, so I like it!

Military use for reconnaissance during the cold war and after. I think it is retired, and the military uses drones now. - also the fasted airplane fed by air-breathing engines (I had to look that up) I knew it was fast!

This is a piece of the Concord above the green plane. The smaller plane is Bob Hoover's - The North American Rockwell Shrike Commander 500S. The statue is of Hoover. He was a great test pilot, fighter pilot and then air show pilot. (famous enough that I recognize his name)

It was an amazing place. I would recommend it to anyone. We visited it on our first day in DC, we actually drove directly to the museum from Luray, about 1.5 hour drive and then went on to our hotel afterward. All the Smithsonian's run like any government institution, they are open 10-5:00 pm.

The museum has a control tower you can go up into. It was also amazing. The views were spectacular, and 360 degrees. The Udvar-Hazy museum is near Dulles. I am not sure if there is a connecting runway or not, but I assume they are able to transport all of these planes over somehow, and that they land at Dulles initally. From this "museum control tower" you could see Dulles control tower as well as all the commercial jets lined up to land. Very, very cool.

Luray Caverns

On Sunday Robert went back to Cooters Last Stand to work, he had a video crew for the day. The rest of us had a lazy morning at the cabin and then I decided to brave driving down the rut filled mountain to take us to Luray Caverns.

The caverns are located in the Shenadoah Valley. The cavern was discovered in 1878. Andrew Campbell felt cold air rushing out of a limestone sinkhole atop a big hill West of Luray. The hole was a size of a quarter and the air blew out a candle! Campbell and a few friends and his 13 yr old nephew spent a couple hours digging away loose rock and had the discovery of the caverns. The cave is still active, developing deposits that accumulate at the rate of one cubic inch in 120 years.
Stalactites (hold tight from the ceiling), and stalagmites (grow up from the floor) often come together and form columns or pillars.

We walked the 1.5 mile trail they have made in the caverns.

The Great Stalacpipe Organ is in the cathedral section of the cavern. It is the worlds largest musical instrument covering 3 1/2 acres of the caverns. It took 3 years to select the right
stalacties to precisely match a musical scale. Electronic mallets were wired throughout the caverns and connected to a large four manual console. When a key is depressed a tone is played as the rubber tipped plunger strikes the stalactite. The organ can be played manually, but also plays automatically every hour (or every tour)

This is a wishing well in the cave. Once a year the coins are removed, cleaned and deposited. They still do count the coins by hand as tradition dictates. This wishing well raises $100-200,000 each year. They also have the Counties Veterans memorial in the caverns as it is the most visited place in the area.