Our RV Adventures

Again, a slow day both at work and at home, so following up on last week’s repost of our visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum and the ‘Spruce Goose’, here’s a repost power of our visit with our friend’s Nick and Terry Russell to The National Museum of the United States Air Force.

September 22, 2012

We headed out on our Dayton daytrip about 9:30, but our first stop was at the McDonald’s in Harrison, right inside the Ohio line. And after a quick breakfast we were back on the road for the rest of our 85 mile trip.

Our first stop was the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, located in and around buildings that housed the Wright Brothers and their businesses.

Most people know about their bicycle shop, but less well-known is the fact they were also in the printing business, printing newspapers, flyers, pamphlets, and other items. And in addition to running two companies, they were also designing the first airplane at the same time.

As their businesses expanded, they moved to bigger buildings but always in this same small area of Dayton.

One of the first things you see inside the Museum is a replica of the Wright’s 1902 Flyer, the first successful powered heavier-than-air craft.

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While we were there we also saw this replica of the Wright’s Bicycle Shop, where they repaired bicycles and built new ones.

Although Jan and I enjoyed here, we both agreed that we liked the Wright Brother’s museum at Kitty Hawk, NC better.

Next we headed about 10 miles away to visit The National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

Like visiting the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, it’s hard to know where to start here. They had pretty much one of everything, including some that I’ve never seen in person before.

There are planes everywhere you look, in front, behind, overhead, etc.

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From the Red Baron’s Fokker Triplane,

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to the Kettering ‘Bug’, essentially a 1917 version of the cruise missile.

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And this Kellett K3 Autogyro.

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This is the last remaining Seversky P-35, the forerunner to the P-47. It was the Army Air Corps first production, singe-seat, all-metal pursuit plane with retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit.

It also has the unique property of being the only plane flown by both the U.S. and the Japanese during World War II. The Japanese government bought 20 of these from the US in 1938 and used them through the war.

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I can only figure that the pilot of this B-24 Liberator either married a redhead, or got a ‘Dear John’ letter from one.

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This is the ME 163B Komet, a WWII German rocket-powered interceptor designed to climb rapidly and bring down the Allied bomber formations. It was hampered by its short range and vulnerability to being shot down while landing.

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The is the ME 262A, the first jet aircraft used in combat.

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This is the P-61C Black Widow night fighter, the first US plane designed specially for that purpose. The radar in its nose allowed to track and shoot down enemy aircraft in total darkness.

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This is one that I’ve never seen in person before. It’s the F-82G Twin Mustang, similar to the P-38 Lightning, in that it has two fuselages joined by a common wing. It was the last propeller-driven fighter aircraft acquired by US.

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And this is the B-29 ‘Bockscar’, only the second plane to drop an atomic bomb in wartime, in this case, on Nagasaki, Japan.

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And this is a replica of the ‘Fat Man’ bomb that was dropped. It derives its explosive power from the plutonium, unlike the ‘Little Boy’ bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier, that was powered by Uranium 235.

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With the ‘Enola Gay’ we saw at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. in 2009, and the ‘Bockscar’ today, we’ve now seen both WWII atomic bombers. Neat!

The next aircraft on the tour was the Convair B-36.

The B-36 was the largest mass-produced piston engine aircraft ever made and had the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built. It was also the only combat aircraft propelled by both piston and jet engines.

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The B-36 was slow and could not refuel in midair, but could stay aloft as long as 40 hours. It was so big it even had 6 bunks and a crew dining area.

Moreover, its phenomenal cruising altitude for a piston-driven aircraft, 50,000 ft. put it out of range of all piston fighters, early jet interceptors, and ground fire.

The photo below shows the relative size of the WWII B-29 and the B-36.

It was operational from 1949 to 1959 when it was finally replaced by the B-52, which debuted in 1955.

This is the A-7D Corsair II ground attack plane.  I used to work on these when I was a DOD contractor.

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And this is the A-37D Dragonfly. Built by Cessna (yes, Cessna) it was originally the T-37 light trainer, but was outfitted as a combat aircraft during the Vietnam War. Another aircraft I worked on.

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This is the Canberra B-57B light bomber. I worked on these at Otis AFB on Cape Cod during the early 70’s, although I was working on the RB-57 reconnaissance versions and the EB-57 electronic countermeasures version.

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The Canberra was actually a British design built under license by the US. Designed at the end of WWII it was originally slated to have piston- driven prop engines which accounts for the mid-wing nacelles. But it was switched over to jets before it went operational.

It’s also the only plane I ever worked on that had Buick (yes, Buick!) jet engines. Until I saw these, I never even knew Buick made jet engines.

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This is the B-58A Hustler, the first US jet bomber to cruise at supersonic speeds, in this case, over 1300 mph.

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The B-2 Stealth Bomber.

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This is the fabled U-2 spy plane,

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which was replaced by the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane.

The SR-71 still holds the records for both altitude (over 85,000 ft.) and speed (almost 2200 mph) for an air-breathing engine (i.e. not a rocket). It is however, rumored that the Blackbird was easily capable of exceeding these public records when needed.

I got to work on one these one time when I was at Otis AFB.

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The museum also had a great collection of missiles and rockets, from the Jupiter to the Minuteman, and more.

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If you like planes, this is a museum for you. Check it out.

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Tomorrow we’ll be back over at the house, with side trips to Home Depot and Lowe’s checking out what we want to do at the house.

Thought for the Day: 

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.

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First thing this morning, well, after having my coffee, I pulled the Splendide washer completely out of its cubby and rolled it out into the kitchen.

I took the top off first to see if I found any problems up top, but nothing looked wrong. So my next step was to put the top back on and turn the whole thing upside down. And after taking off the bottom panel, I immediately saw the problem. And I understood what had the caused the water leak.

This had bothered me initially, since all I had done was pull the unit partway out, and take off the back panel to check the drive belt. Nothing I did should have affected anything to do with the water or drain hoses. But when I found this, I understood.

This is the output hose from the drain pump that empties the water out after the wash and rinse cycles. I guess it had pulled loose when it was stretched tight when I had the unit partly out.

I feel better now that I know what caused the leak. But the repair will have to wait until tomorrow because I needed to get ready so we could head out lunch and some errands.

Jan and I drove up to Webster about 2pm, bent on having lunch at the local Cheddar’s, another of our favorite local places. We had thought that by not getting there until about 2:30, we would avoid any wait.

We were wrong.

We had an almost 20 minute wait, and they were still on a wait when we left about 45 minutes later. Guess Sunday’s not the best time to come to Cheddar’s if you’re in a hurry. Luckily we weren’t

Jan got her usual Key West Chicken and Shrimp with Green Beans and Baby Carrots, while I got my usual Veggie Plate with a bowl of the Chicken Tortilla Soup, again with Green Beans and Baby Carrots for me too.

One thing kind of funny was that since we both have the Green Beans and the Baby Carrots, we’re aware of what menu says the calorie count for each is – 60 calories for the beans, and 40 calories for the carrots.

But today, the menu still said the carrots were 40, but now the beans were 80, not 60 calories. Now that’s a 33% increase, so what’s up?

When our meals came I did notice that the serving size of the beans seemed to be somewhat larger, but not a third larger. And maybe they tasted better too. Finally, out of curiosity, I asked our waitress. I think she was puzzled that we even noticed, but she said she’d ask.

She came back a few minutes later and smiled as she said that they were surprised anyone noticed. She confirmed that the serving size had been increased and that they were using more bacon in the recipe. Well, more bacon makes everything taste better.

What can I say, I notice things.

Our next stop was on up the Interstate to the Home Depot to take a look at things we want to upgrade or fix, and the prices. We’d made a list of things at the house the other day, so wanted more ideas.

Then it was over to the house for a few minutes to drop some things off. The house looks pretty good, for being almost 40.

I do need to get my hedge trimmer out and even up the foliage in front of the bedroom window.

Coming back toward Santa Fe, we made a quick stop at the storage room to drop off/pick up a couple of things and then it was back home for the night.

Tomorrow it’s back to work.

Thought for the Day: 

“The answer to anyone who talks about the surplus population is to ask him whether he is in the surplus population; or if he is not, how he knows he is not.†— G.K. Chesterton

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