DC Holiday Part 2: The National Air and Space Museum

Now in DC I get to spend time in my favoritist museum ever. One of the first things you find as you walk in the door are some old Apollo capsules (click any picture for the full-size version):


The last time I was here, there wasn't a security checkpoint with metal detectors. (I apologize for the blurry photo - sometimes I forgot to take extra pictures for safety). There's another new addition above my head, this time a welcome one - SpaceShip One, winner of the X Prize:


One of my favorite mainstays in this museum is a full-size, two-storey Skylab that you can walk through:



Here's a model of the station, solar panels and all:


A full size model of the Hubble Space Telescope:


And a model of the Apollo-Soyuz hookup:


I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with 'P':


I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with 'M':


I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with 'E':


(Mouse over the photos for the answers). In fact these are rockets, starting with the V-2. If I get ambitious I will composite some photos I took to show you just how tall these are.

Now we move to first and second-floor views of a model Apollo landing:



On the second floor is an exhibit on astronomy, including an actual backup mirror for the Hubble. At this point my camera got set onto the wrong focus mode, so the next few pictures will be blurry. This is a hilarious accident considering that it started with the Hubble mirror - but I swear it's unintentional.


This is one of my favorite jets. The forward-swept wings and forward canards need computer controls to keep them stable. If the computers fail, the craft falls like a rock. Because of that, it was too fragile for production. Though it flies beautifully in simulators, if everything is working.


The museum has an art exhibit as well, including this stunning piece. Unfortunately the pictures are still blurry. I may go back and take another picture of this piece.


More rocket stuff: this is just one of the engine exhaust bells on the Saturn rocket. Now we can rejoice because the camera has been fixed.


This is a used Apollo module that ferried some astronauts to Skylab; it's hung from the ceiling at an angle so you can see inside.


A picture of my favorite prop plane - the P-51D Mustang:


This is a photo of three pioneering aircraft side by side: the Spirit of St. Louis, which crossed the Atlantic; the Glamorous Glennis, which broke the sound barrier; and SpaceShip One, which reached 100 kilometers above ground twice in two weeks.

Now I have a machine gun. Ho Ho Ho.


This is a "pointee talkee" book, where downed US pilots in China would communicate by pointing to the chinese text next to whatever English matched what they wanted to say. Chinese people could talk to the pilot the same way. My favorite is number 3, "Please help conceal me from the enemy and puppet troops."


There are a few Medals of Honor on display. You can see here that different branches of the service use different medals - I hadn't known that.


Speaking of machine guns, here's the biggest of them all - the Vulcan cannon, used to protect aircraft carriers from missile strikes.


Finally, my tour concludes with a really rare WW2 aircraft - the Messerschmidt 262, the Nazi's jet propelled fighter.