So, first of all, they've got a Space Shuttle. I cannot tell you how excited that made me. I really could have just spent my whole time there, but there was too much to see, including this guy who decided to spacewalk in an Earth gravity environment. He's been up there for a while, and I don't think he'd going anywhere anytime soon.
This is one that I'd have missed if I hadn't taken the tour. So you know how the Air Force flies the president around in a plane but the Marines fly him around in a helicopter? I'd always wondered how that arrangement came about. Well, it's because of that helicopter in the middle. As it turns out, President Eisenhower was kind of an important guy when it comes to the history of presidential air travel. He ushered it in to the jet age (on a plane that I've been in many times). He was around when they first started using the call sign "Air Force Once" for presidential flights. And he was also approached by the Air Force about using this helicopter for shorter trips. He took a test flight and reported that the 5-seat helicopter was a bit too small for his needs (since the minimum complement of 1 pilot, 1 co-pilot, 1 secret service agent and 1 president only left 1 seat free). When the Marines heard the news, they approached the President with a "why don't you take a look at one of our Sikorskys" and the rest is history. The Marines simply had a bigger helicopter. Kind of funny how stuff like this works out.
One of Brigham's pics is of a big yellow and red Boeing plane. When I realized what this plane was, and that I'd been hearing stories about it (well, really only the one) my whole life, I got really excited. I could tell you the story, but you might as well hear it from the source, so check out this clip before you read on:
The story goes that Boeing sold a lot of 707s that day. This was the first commercial jet airliner and one of the best selling planes ever and ended up being a huge payoff for the Boeing company (who had basically bet the company on the success of this plane). Growing up as a kid in Seattle, it seemed impossible to meet someone who wasn't connected to Boeing in some way and without this plane the history of the region would be very different. So, I hope you understand why I geeked out when I saw the plane there.
There's so many other things to see at the Udvar-Hazy center, and maybe I'll put some more pics up later, but in the meantime, if you can go, you should go. Before I sign off, I'm going to rip off a bit of another one of Brigham's posts and show you one of my favorite pictures from Capitol Hill Books:
Real attention to detail at that store.
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