A Journal, with Pictures

After a smooth trip back from Oshkosh Air­Ven­ture on Fri­day we cooled our jets Fri­day evening, then struck out for the Unit­ed States Muse­um of the Air Force. It had been sev­er­al years since Mike had vis­it­ed and we want­ed to see the big­ger changes that had occurred. We checked and found that three areas had received major updates, the addi­tion of the Space Shut­tle train­er in the Cold War Gallery, the South East Asia Gallery and the Rock­et Gallery. We also want­ed to see the 3D Imax movie “Nor­mandy”. Keep in mind to see the entire muse­um is a mul­ti-day task, so we had almost a full day ahead of us, just see­ing whats new. We start­ed with the shut­tle train­er, which was impres­sive and includ­ed a movie on the pro­gram before tour­ing the sim­u­la­tor itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then did the rest of the Cold War Gallery, which had added a num­ber of the ther­mal nuclear devis­es (Bombs). The ear­ly H Bombs where huge, and you could see the pro­gres­sion to small­er devices such as the Mark 17 shown in with the B‑36. You came to real­ize big bomber were need­ed to car­ry big bombs and the B‑36 is one big bomber, with 6 tur­bo prop and 4 jet engines, the exhib­it also includ­ed the bombers from the end of the Cold War era, such as the B‑1, B‑2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then head­ed for the Mis­sile Gallery to see the pro­gres­sion of mis­siles from the ear­ly Thor and to today’s Minute Men. Also the pro­gres­sion of ther­mal nuclear devis­es to the Mul­ti­ple Tar­get able Reen­try Vehi­cle that could put ten H‑bombs on ten dif­fer­ent tar­gets from one mis­sile. The satel­lite used to detect launch­es of sovi­et mis­siles was also on display.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then had lunch and took in the movie “Nor­mandy” then head­ed for the updat­ed South East Asia Gallery: This was very well done and told the sto­ry of the Viet­nam war very well. The exhib­it includ­ed both the Mig’s used by the Chines and the US air­craft and a whole lot more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We called it a day, but there was some­thing involv­ing avi­a­tion that Mike and I had not done so on the way home we went to the Wood­land ceme­tery to see the Wright Broth­ers grave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well we final­ly reach avi­a­tion sat­u­ra­tion. We had a great din­ner on our deck in per­fect weath­er and Sun­day morn­ing we had Mike at the air­port for his 7:25 flight back to Bend Ore­gon. It was a very inter­est­ing and fun week.