Through My Eyes: Air and Space Museum

And now for the last installment of our East Coast trip. Sorry it took so long. :)

The National Air and Space Museum!

They had all sorts of airplanes in that place!

Here’s an interesting blurb I found there:

The World’s First Scheduled Airline

The St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line began flying across Tampa Bay on January 1, 1914. It lasted only three months. The flight covered 18 miles and took 23 minutes—11 hours less than traveling between St. Petersburg and Tampa by rail.

The Airboat Line safely transported 1,204 passengers across the bay. But without a continuing subsidy from St. Petersburg or steady income from tourist traffic, it could not survive. The airline closed at the end of March.

There were also a lot of airplanes we could actually look around in.

That’s a lot of buttons and controls! I don’t think I could handle it!

Cute flight attendant outfits :). I wish they still wore those today!

Look at that crazy airplane! One of the big ways airlines competed was by putting crazy designs on the airplanes. :)

Another blurb:

Air Travel and Safety

Airline travel is the safest form of transportation. More people die in auto accidents in three months in the United States than have lost their lives in the entire history of commercial flight. It is far safer to fly than it is to get to the airport.

Because air travel is so safe and accidents so rare, when an incident occurs it is often highly publicized, which heightens the unwarranted perception of danger.

That’s the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia! A blurb about that:

The Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia carried astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins on their historic voyage to the Moon and back on July 16-24, 1969. This mission culminated in the first human steps on another world.

The Apollo 11 spacecraft had three parts: the Command Module, the Service Module, and the Lunar Module Eagle. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the Moon in Eagle, Michael Collins remained alone in Columbia. For 28 hours he served as a communications link and photographed the lunar surface. After reclaiming Armstrong and Aldrin from the ascent stage of the Lunar Module, Columbia was the only part of the spacecraft to return to Earth.

Even Snoopy was in the museum!

Tee hee! Love that one! :D

They had a 3D model of the relative size of the planets, and it was really helpful!

I knew the sun was big, but I didn’t know it was THAT big! Listen to what it said about that yellow arc:

This arc represents a segment of the sun at the same scale as the models of the planets. A model of the Sun at this scale would require a sphere 92 feet in diameter, and would not fit in this exhibit gallery.

Wow!

The Spirit of St. Louis!

That’s the real Wright Flyer! Meaning, that’s the actual airplane built and flown by the Wright brothers in 1903! The fabric covering was replaced in 1983, hence the newer appearance.