Aerospace Museum of California

Last Sunday I ventured out in the torrential rain (over an inch!) to the Aerospace Museum of California to check out their new space display, a NASA-created traveling exhibit that will be there through September. I like space well enough, but I didn’t think the exhibit was worth the extra $10 on top of the regular admission price. I did find the huge GM commercial at the end of the exhibit rather amusing… at least they funded it before things went south!

One of the things they had that I thought was interesting was a bicycle-powered centrifuge. I got to take a ride on it – it was fairly neat. Close your eyes, tilt your head the direction it spins, and you just feel like you’re moving. But try to face up or opposite of the way it’s going, and instant stomach-churning. Also, opening your eyes also = a bad idea. For the record, I was only a bit green when I stepped off.

Me trying not to yack.

My favorite part of this was, maybe not surprisingly, a camera. According to the display, astronauts on Apollo 17 used this 70mm Hasselblad aboard the command module during their December 1972 mission to the moon. The docent seemed bemused that I was taking a picture of a camera. I couldn’t explain it to him more than “it’s just cool” because, well, it is cool, or at least to photobug me, anyway.

Space camera.

The reason I wanted to go to the museum yesterday was that this week’s photo challenge is “the moon”. I’ve only got a couple of shots of the moon, and neither is particularly creative. I was hoping to get something more moon-ish here, but alas, this chunk of rock was the best I could do.

Moon rock.

While I thought I’d be more into the space exhibit than the aviation part of the museum, the opposite ended up being true. I really had a good time looking at the planes and plane accessories (sorry, lame King of the Hill joke), and I wish I’d gone on a day where it wasn’t raining, because they have a HUGE outdoor lot with old restored aircraft on display. Inside, along with all of the vintage planes, they also had one that was in the process of being restored, and I spent a long time just checking it out – it was waaaay neat.

Wing struts.

The plane was a 1939 Cessna T-50 “Bobcat”, built as a passenger airplane. I was surprised to see all of the wood used in the plane’s frame, but then put two and two together and realized that they probably were trying to conserve steel for ramping up preparations for war. The accompanying display, which I read after I drew this conclusion, referred to the plane as being built out of “non-strategic materials”, so I figure I guessed correctly.

Wooden wings.

Anyway, the plane had a reputation as being easy to fly, so it was frequently used as a trainer aircraft. When it’s in one piece, it looks like this:

Cessna T-50 Bobcat

As you can see, they have quite a ways to go with the restoration. :-)

I don’t remember what this next plane was, and I forgot to take a picture of the sign that went with it, but it was shiny and therefore captured my attention.

Oooh, shiny!

I saved the most awesome thing for last, though. Right when you walk into the museum is the thing I think they’re most proud of, and rightfully so – a 1932 Curtiss-Wright B-14-B biplane. There were apparently only two of these built, and one of them was destroyed in a crash in the ’30s, so this is the only remaining one. It was built for air racing, but it’s been primarily used for aerobatics instead. It spent seven years (from 2000-2007) being restored, and then was flown to the museum where it sits now. I couldn’t back up enough to get decent pictures of the entire plane (need a wide angle lens. need a wide angle lens.) so you’ll have to content yourself with this picture from someone else’s website, only imagine it a heck of a log brighter and shinier. Seriously, I’m not a huge mechanical stuff buff, but this thing was GORGEOUS. I could have spent an hour cheerfully ogling it.