Seattle Take 2

On the 9th day of our trip (this is starting to sound like the 12 Days of Christmas), we decided to go back to Seattle, since our main purpose in going there the day before was to go to the Museum of Flight.  Since we took 5 hours to get there and then getting to the restaurant took so long, we ran out of time.  This time we did NOT take the scenic route (although it was still nice), and just stuck to the freeway and got there in less than 2 hours. 

University of Washington

I like that you can see the Space Needle from the freeway

This truck full of “honey buckets” was beside us at one point.  I’ve never heard them called anything but outhouses, so I thought that was funny.  We were joking about someone being in one of them on the back of the truck!

U.S. Public Health Service Hospital

Found out that this is the baseball field where the Mariners play.  Thank you once again, Google.

The Boeing Factory is right next to the Museum of Flight

The outside of the Museum of Flight

The Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress, called “The Boeing Bee” (you can see the picture of the bee on it)

On the day that we went, they had a helicopter air show (flown in from the American Heroes Airshow), which they don’t normally have, and it was free!  It ended up working out extremely well that we hadn’t gone the day before!

The same helicopter after it landed

A better picture of the US Army twin rotor Boeing CH-47D Chinook.  It’s a heavy lift and troop carrying Chinook helicopter.  It can carry up to 8.85 tonnes, or 19,500 pounds and the main cabin can hold 33 fully equipped soldiers.  It’s faster than many helicopters with speeds up to 315 km/h (195 mph).

My first time in a helicopter…too bad it wasn’t airborne.

US Army Black Hawk

After seeing all of the helicopters outside, we went inside the Museum of Flight.

The one on the bottom is the Lockheed M-21 Blackbird. Conceived nearly 50 years ago, the Blackbirds remain the fastest and highest flying (85,000 feet) air-breathing production aircraft ever built.  It carried unpiloted vehicles for intelligence gathering.

The kids standing underneath it

The plane on top is the Lockheed Martin RQ-3A Dark Star, which is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) used by the US Air Force.  These airplanes could fly high over defended areas, observe and record information, and even locate and mark targets -- without endangering a pilot.

Wright 1903 Flyer Reproduction

The kids kept wanting to play where they weren’t supposed to. 

Inside the plane

The yellow airplane is the Fly Baby, which was the winning entry in the 1962 Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Design Contest.  The little plane specifically met the EAA's requirements for a low-cost, folding-wing plane that can be towed or trailered and is easy to build and fly.

A DC-3, which was built for American Airlines in 1940

This Boeing 100 was part of Boeing’s family of fighters which were nearly indestructible in flight and offered outstanding performance to execute maneuvers unknown to earlier generations of pilots.

Same family as the previous plane

Sikorsky HH-52 Seaguard, used by the US Coast Guard, which is credited with saving 15,000 lives and $1.5 billion in property loss and damage since its deployment with the Coast Guard in 1963.

Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II

The MA-4 was built in 1966 and flew with the Navy in Southeast Asia. Active in Navy squadrons throughout the 1970s, the plane was transferred to the Blue Angels in 1980. This aircraft was often flown in the number 4 or "slot" position. When the Blue Angels fly in diamond formation, the slot flies directly behind the leader, surrounded on three sides by other aircraft.

They had an area that the kids could play in which was pretty cool!

After that part, we walked across the street on the T. Evans Wyckoff Memorial Bridge, which is named after a long time museum supporter.  It was playing the Star Wars theme song inside of it, which made our walk across more exciting!

The Museum’s new Space Gallery

The next 2 planes I was the most interested in.  This is the Concorde.  The supersonic jets offered a luxurious and speedy trip across the Atlantic for 27 years. Capable of speeds over two times the speed of sound and at elevations up to 60,000 feet, the Concorde could fly from London to New York and return in the time it took a conventional aircraft to go one way. Flagging demand and rising operating expenses finally ended Concorde service.

Inside it

The first presidential jet plane, a specially built Boeing 707-120, is known as SAM (Special Air Missions) 970. This aircraft, as well as any other Air Force aircraft, carried the call sign "Air Force One" when the president was aboard. Delivered in 1959 to replace Eisenhower's Super-Constellation, the high-speed jet transport is a flying Oval Office with a modified interior and sophisticated communication equipment.  SAM 970 has carried presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon as well as VIPs such as Nikita Khrushchev and Henry Kissinger.

Inside it

The view before we walked back across the bridge

I had packed a bunch of leftovers for lunch, which we ate in the van in a nearby almost empty restaurant parking lot.  Then we had another scenic drive on the freeway back to our rental house.

I went shopping for a bit and then Jared got Subway for us to eat for supper.  Then it was time to pack up all of our stuff as we were leaving the next day.  Haley watched us.

We were very thankful we had the time to go back to Seattle and see all of that!  We had such a fantastic time with Art + Jenene in Washington and would love to do a trip like this again!  Roger Wilco, over and out (apparently pilots don’t actually say that, but I couldn’t think of a different ending)!