Naked Spirit

"f86sabre" (f86sabre) 03/18/2015 at 12:49 • Filed to: Planelopnik

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The main hall of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is undergoing a refresh. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but things have progressed. As you can see, the iconic turned cowlings of the Spirit of St Louis have been removed. In clear view are some of the engine support struts, some wiring and control lines. You can also see the large fuel tank that Ryan Aircraft and Lindbergh installed to help get the aircraft over the Atlantic. Pretty thrilling to see first hand. For instance, that is a leather strap helping to secure the tank just forward of the cockpit. In addition to the Spirit, Freedom 7 is out of its case and is sitting next to Gemini IV. It looks like they are also getting ready to lower the X-1 as they have a nose gear support and the main gear doors off.

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Jayhawk Jake > f86sabre 03/18/2015 at 13:34

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Even in pictures it's chill inducing.

The fact that these are the actual machines and not just replicas makes it that much sweeter to see beyond the skin. This isn't just any airplane, it's THE Spirit of St. Louis. And those capsules actually orbited the earth before being put on display

So cool

BaconSandwich is tasty. > f86sabre 03/18/2015 at 13:46

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I hate to rain on the parade, but Lindberg wasn't first: http://www.zakkeith.com/articles,blogs…

Still a pretty cool plane, though, and it still took a heck of a lot of guts to do something like that back then.

f86sabre > BaconSandwich is tasty. 03/18/2015 at 13:53

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uh huh

ttyymmnn > BaconSandwich is tasty. 03/18/2015 at 18:39

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AnalogMan105 > f86sabre 03/18/2015 at 19:18

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I've been to the Air & Space Museum at least a dozen times, and it literally gave me goose bumps every time I saw those space capsules.

Seeing the Mercury and Gemini capsules up close, you realize just how primitive the technology was back then. Those things look like corrugated metal garbage cans with a few vacuum tubes and transistors strewn inside. They look disturbingly flimsy, just a thin layer of metal between you and the vacuum of space.

Then to think that people actually got into those capsules, and willingly put themselves on top of converted missiles filled with hundreds of thousands of pounds of highly explosive fuels, which had a habit of blowing up on a regular basis, and allowed themselves to be shot into space , into orbit around the Earth.... and then had to hope that their retro-rockets would fire to bring them back, and that the re-entry path was within about half a degree of optimal (too steep and you burn up, too shallow and you skip off the atmosphere and get hurled into deep space), sizzle through re-entry with the capsule glowing with plasma fire, hoping the heat shield doesn't burn through, and then hoping your parachutes open....

I'll tell you, the people who did that have brass ones the size of bowling balls. I tremendously admire and respect all of the astronauts (and am jealous of them too) - to get literally blasted into space in a tin can on top of an explosive missile takes a lot of courage and guts. They are heroes.

It's also so sad to realize that this country was capable of more 50 years ago than it is today. As a nation, in the 1960's we were launching people into space every couple of months. We went to the moon, 7 times (including the Apollo 13 mission, which is really a test of bravery, courage, and ingenuity). I watched every Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo launch, and stayed home from school if I had to (yes, I'm old, and no, there were no VCR's or DVR's back then). We were proud of what we accomplished as a nation.

Now, we can't do what we could in 1962. As a nation, the only way we have of putting anyone into orbit is to pay the Russians. For over a decade we actually had to buy old rocket motors from Russia to use on unmanned rockets to launch our satellites. It's gotten that pathetic, the country that "won the race to the moon" had to buy rocket motors from it's 'enemy' to be able to launch satellites..... To get to the International Space Station, we have to pay Russia $70 million a seat (that's working out so well, given the warm relations with Putin lately). Some of us remember the pride at "winning" the race to the moon, but 50 years later, the only spacefaring nations left are Russia and China, the 'bad' communists that we were so sure our capitalist system would 'beat' - looks like not so much. Now, they're going to space, and we have to pay them to bum a ride. Something to be proud of now?

McMike > f86sabre 03/20/2015 at 20:11

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I need to go back one of these days. It used to be my favorite museum growing up.

I wish I had a better excuse. I work four blocks from the place.

0.4 mi, 7 mins - I'm lame.

f86sabre > McMike 03/20/2015 at 20:51

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I wish I had known. We could have had lunch. I will try and keep it in mind for the next time I'm up there. We do an annual conference up there.

McMike > f86sabre 03/20/2015 at 21:23

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TOTALLY. My contract is for another 11 months. Hopefully we'll be picked up, or the new folks want the incumbents.

I can't tell you the last time I had astronaut ice cream.