Stuck
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| The Spirit of St. Louis on display at the National Air & Space Museum, photographed 20 June 2026. |
Sometimes, I get stuck on an idea.
In May, I flew Warrior 481 into the Flight Restricted Zone around Washington DC to attend a scientific conference ("You KRANT Get There from Here") and became very attached to the idea of revisiting the National Air & Space Museum on the National Mall. Since our previous visit in 2025 ("A Bear's Adventures in the Flight Restricted Zone"), new exhibits had opened and I was excited to see them. I was especially interested in seeing Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis again, now prominently displayed in the new Pioneers of Flight gallery. But due to conditions beyond my control, it was not to be. In the weeks that followed, I watched and waited for schedule and weather to line up just right for a flight back to College Park Airport (KCGS) to visit Air & Space.
Double TFR Jeopardy!
| Date | Aircraft | Route of Flight | Time (hrs) | Total (hrs) |
| 20 Jun 2026 | N21481 | SDC (Sodus, NY) - CGS (College Park, MD) - SDC | 5.0 | 3172.8 |
June 20 proved to be an ideal day with excellent weather for flying. It was hot in Washington DC, but that is expected during summers along the Potomac. I filed an IFR route driven by learnings from my last flight to College Park ("You KRANT Get There from Here"). This route involved tracking the Victor 265 airway to its southern terminus at KRANT intersection, just southwest of the destination. Historically, I had filed to BELTS (11 miles north of KRANT), but have been rerouted en route to KRANT multiple times and adjusted my filed route accordingly.
As usual, Harrisburg carried out the dirty work for Potomac Approach, the massive consolidated TRACON to the south centered on Washington DC. "November Four Eight One, I have a new routing for you. You are cleared to College Park via direct Westminster, then Victor 265 to BELTS, direct." Essentially, it was the same route I was already flying, but ending at BELTS instead of KRANT.
I try to give ATC what they want when I file flight plans. Every time I filed to BELTS, I was rerouted to KRANT. Actually filing KRANT meant a reroute to BELTS. Sometimes, there is just no winning. But it's all fine, those are minor punches to roll with.
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| ForeFlight screenshot taken flying through the Camp David TFR. |
A Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) had gone up around P-40, the prohibited airspace surrounding Camp David. This usually happens when the President is in residence. It is still counterintuitive to me that we intentionally publicize maps with a big red bullseye marking the President's location. Regardless, being on an IFR flight plan meant that I was cleared directly through the outer perimeter of the TFR and it was a non-issue for me.
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| ForeFlight screenshot showing the intersection between the TFR and the SFRA. |
While I was fully authorized to fly there, it still felt odd to be inside an intersection of the Camp David TFR and the Washington DC Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA). It was like entering TFR double jeopardy.
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| Turning a left downwind for runway 33 at College Park. |
While I spotted College Park Airport sooner than usual, I did not find it easily. A northwesterly wind dictated use of runway 33 and, staying mindful of the noise sensitive areas around the field, I entered the pattern on a left crosswind.
Considering the pending celebration of 250 years since signing the Declaration of Independence, I had to give "props" to the owner of this Cessna 150 at College Park for such a patriotic paint scheme.
Staff at College Park were as welcoming as ever. After a brief walk, I boarded a Metro train bound for the Archives station. SmarTrip cards (physical or digital) are no longer necessary to pay subway fares. Any tappable form of payment is now accepted. I used a digital SmarTrip card on my phone anyway because I still had money on it, but it was nice to see that Metro has made paying fares even easier.
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| Washington DC Metro Archives Station. |
I have always found the Brutalist architecture of Washington DC's subway stations to be incredibly striking despite generally not enjoying that aesthetic on buildings. The Archives station is no exception.
Inspired by Titus and Constantine
I exited the Archives Metro station and walked south along 7th toward the National Mall. Crossing Pennsylvania Avenue, a glance to the west revealed the top of the UFC "Claw" still on the White House lawn and looming above the tree line. In preparation for the 250th anniversary of the United States, open turf areas of the Mall were cordoned off with groups of National Guard soldiers stationed at each intersection, standing in full gear under the blistering DC sun. Most nodded kindly at me in greeting as I passed. Despite empathizing with their discomfort in the heat, it was strange to see armed troops deployed throughout the city. On the Mall, a Ferris wheel had been erected across 7th street from a cheap-looking plywood facsimile of a triumphal arch. Beyond the arch, an apparent shantytown of tents lined both sides of the open lawn. I later learned that they were the basis of the upcoming Great American State Fair. Road and sidewalk closures concentrated vehicle and foot traffic onto remaining available thoroughfares, hindering movement of both. As a whole, it all made for a truly odd tableau.
Made in the Shade
When I was young, I assumed that most places I visited had existed "forever". I do not mean that in a literal sense, but in that I believed those places were long established. My first visit to the National Air & Space Museum was in the summer of 1977. Though I was young, the experience was memorable because I was enthralled by all things NASA and thrilled to come face to face with Columbia, the Apollo 11 command module that returned Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins to Earth. Recently, I learned that the facility first opened fifty years ago, on July 1, 1976. That magnificent institution was roughly one year old when I first set foot inside.
Recent modifications at Air & Space were not solely focused on revamping and modernizing the exhibits. That was merely a side benefit. Decades after it opened, the museum's very structure required significant repair due to water leaks and physical failures of the building's marble facade. Reconstruction of the building was the driver of the renovation. If the artifacts had to come out to facilitate that effort, then why not refresh the exhibits at the same time?
The most obvious exterior change to the Air & Space Museum is addition of shade to the main entrance. This entryway, which opens directly into the Milestones of Flight Hall, was closed during my previous two visits while that gallery was remade.
As a result, this was my first opportunity to enter the museum through the main entrance in many years.
Because free timed entry passes were still necessary, I had reserved an 11:00 am slot and arrived at the museum about 11:15 am, well timed to simply walk inside rather than wait in line.
Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall
Entering through the airlock into the Milestones of Flight Hall, I was met by the cool embrace of cool air, a welcome antidote to the muggy DC atmosphere.
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| Bell X-1 #46-062, Glamorous Glennis. |
High above the floor, directly over the entrance, hangs a massive orange bullet with wings. Built in Buffalo, NY and inspired by the shape of a 0.50 caliber Browning machine gun bullet, the Bell X-1 became the first aircraft to break the sound barrier on 14 October 1947 with Chuck Yeager at the controls.
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| Bell X-1 #46-062, Glamorous Glennis. |
Named Glamorous Glennis for Yeager's wife, the X-1 was air launched from the bomb bay of a B-29 mother ship at 23,000 feet over the Mojave Desert. Alone, Yeager climbed to 43,000 feet and achieved an airspeed of Mach 1.06 (700 mph) to demonstrate that the so-called sound barrier was indeed penetrable.
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| Bell X-1 #46-062, Glamorous Glennis. |
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| Bell XP-59A Airacomet. |
Nazi Germany debuted the first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262, on 18 July 1942 though operational difficulties delayed its routine use until 1944. Though engineers in the United States were already working the problem of jet propulsion by the mid-1930s, Germany, Japan, and England all developed functional jet aircraft before the U.S. America's first jet propelled aircraft was the Bell XP-59A, first flown on 1 October 1942.
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| Bell XP-59A Airacomet with the North American X-15 #1. |
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| Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne. |
Most of the artifacts in the Milestones of Flight Hall are older than I am, including aircraft from the dawn of the jet age like the Airacomet, record setting rocket planes from the late 1940s and 1950s like the Bell X-1 and the North American X-15, and a series of NASA vehicles that ultimately brought mankind to the moon.
SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites, was the first commercial / private spaceplane. It is the only prominent artifact on display in this hall that flew during my lifetime. Mike Melville piloted SpaceShipOne into space on 21 June 2004. The aircraft was rocket propelled and air launched at an altitude of 46,000 feet from a larger aircraft called White Knight. The feathered configuration of the wings as displayed (the "shuttlecock" design) was a Rutan innovation that stabilized SpaceShipOne's attitude for safe re-entry.
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| Grumman Lunar Module LM-2. |
Grumman's Lunar Module was designed in two parts, with a lower descent stage consisting of a rocket engine and landing gear coupled to an upper ascent stage with the crew compartment and an ascent rocket engine that meant to carry astronauts back to the command module in lunar orbit. LM-2 was originally built for an uncrewed test flight in Earth orbit, but the prior flight test with LM-1 was so successful that LM-2 never went to space.
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| North American X-15 #1. |
Twelve years after the Bell X-1 demonstrated feasibility of supersonic flight, another rocket-powered airplane overshadowed its accomplishments. The North American X-15, first flown 8 June 1959, was truly a spaceplane. It was equipped with aerodynamic control surfaces for flight in the atmosphere as well as a reaction control system of thrusters for operation in the vacuum of space.
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| North American X-15 #1. |
Over the course of 199 flights, three X-15s shattered multiple records as the first winged aircraft to reach Mach 4, 5, and 6. X-15 #3 set the standing world speed record for crewed powered flight on 3 October 1967 when it achieved Mach 6.7 at 102,100 feet. Eight of the twelve pilots who flew the X-15 qualified as astronauts by exceeding the U.S. Air Force's 50 mile altitude criterion. Although Neil Armstrong was among the X-15 pilot cohort, he did not earn his astronaut wings until the Gemini 8 mission in 1966.
A thick wedge-shaped vertical stabilizer was necessary for directional stability while hypersonic, though it produced significant drag. The X-15 was powered by a Reaction Motors XLR99 liquid propellant rocket engine, an example of which is on display elsewhere in the museum. The X-15 remains the highest flying, fastest manned aircraft ever flown.
Two years later, the Lindberghs departed again on a 30,000 mile journey that would take them to four continents and twenty-one countries. Their purpose was to gather data on potential commercial air traffic routes across the Atlantic. The Sirius was upgraded with a 710 Wright radial engine and a Sperry gyroscopic artificial horizon. They flew from New York to Labrador, then across open ocean to Greenland where the airplane was dubbed Tingmissartoq, roughly translating to "one who flies like a big bird". They flew from Greenland to Iceland and went on to visit multiple European cities, ranging as far east as Moscow. They continued south along the African coast, crossed the South Atlantic to South America, flew the Amazon, and ultimately returned to the United States via Trinidad and Barbados. While this adventure is often overshadowed by Lindbergh's solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1927, it was an incredible undertaking for the era.
In 1933, early homebuilder Henri Mignet designed a simple aircraft that "anyone" could build and fly. The result was the HM.14 Pou du Ciel (literally, "Sky Louse", but translated into English as "Flying Flea"). In the interests of simplicity, the aircraft had no ailerons, elevator, or rudder pedals. A single control stick controlled the pitch of the forward wing with lateral stick movement directing the rudder. This example was the first HM.14 built in the United States and owned by Powel Crosely, Jr.
At the direction of William Piper, Piper aircraft designer Walter Jamouneau modified the existing Taylor E-2 Cub to create the J-2 (where Jamouneau put the "J" in J-2). Continuing the evolution of the Taylor Cub design, the J-2 boasted more elegantly rounded wings and tail and a fully enclosed cockpit. The Smithsonian's example was the first official Piper J-2 produced at the Lock Haven, PA plant in November of 1937. It served as the Piper corporate aircraft for a time. The J-2 was ultimately superseded by the more refined classic J-3 Cub that featured a more powerful engine (65 hp versus 40 hp), a steerable tailwheel in place of a skid, and a more comfortable interior (in the latter case, "comfortable" is definitely relative).
In 1924, four U.S. Army aircraft set off from Seattle to attempt a flight around the world. The aircraft were stout two passenger biplanes built by the Douglas Aircraft Corporation called "World Cruisers" . They were powered by twelve cylinder liquid cooled Liberty engines.
In 1929, the U.S. Army Air Corps set an airborne endurance record in the Atlantic-Fokker CA-2 Trimotor dubbed the Question Mark. They remained aloft for 150 hours, 40 minutes, and 14 seconds, a feat accomplished through 42 aerial refuelings including nine at night. The flight ended when the Question Mark's left engine failed. While the Question Mark was destroyed in a 1932 crash, her center engine from the endurance flight is preserved at Air & Space.
Referring to it as her "little red bus", Amelia Earhart flew this elegantly streamlined Lockheed Vega 5B from Newfoundland to northern Ireland in May of 1932. It was the first solo flight across the Atlantic since Lindbergh's record setting flight in 1927 and the first trans-Atlantic flight flown by a woman, solo or otherwise.
That same year, Earhart flew the Vega on a solo, non-stop flight from Los Angeles, CA to Newark, NJ. It was the first such flight by a woman across the United States.
There is no denying that the most famous resident of the Pioneers of Flight exhibit is Charles Lindbergh's 1927 custom-built Ryan NYP (New York to Paris), the famous airplane in which he became the first to successfully fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in May of 1927.
Powered by the 223 hp Wright J-5C engine, Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis continuously for thirty-three hours and 30 minutes over 3,610 miles, thus averaging roughly 108 miles per hour. As shown in the above photo, the need to add additional fuel tanks (total capacity was 450 gallons) meant that the forward windscreen was replaced by a nose fuel tank. The lack of forward visibility did not deter Lindbergh. Though he equipped the NYP with a lateral periscope to aid forward visibility, most sources suggest that it was difficult to use and that Lindbergh simply slipped the aircraft to a landing before blindly setting it down.
In addition to distance, weather, and tedium, Lindbergh also battled the cold. Somewhat notoriously, Lindbergh eliminated cabin heat to save on weight. That led me to wonder about the apparent heat shroud mounted just aft of the engine. I believe it is a carburetor heat shroud, a feature that Lindbergh also tried to eliminate from the airplane only to add it back after contemplating the dire risk of carburetor icing over open ocean.
Britain's famous Sopwith F.1 Camel occupies center stage in the WWI gallery.
One of the most successful and prolifically produced aircraft of World War I, 8,472 examples of the sturdy SPAD XIII French fighter plane helped defend the skies of Europe.
World War I was truly the era of the rotary engine. Rotary engines superficially resemble the radial engines popular in World War II by virtue of an odd-numbered set of cylinders attached around a central hub. They are both "round engines", but that is where the similarities end. Radial engines function intuitively: the cylinders fire to spin a shaft connected to the propeller. Rotary engines flip this paradigm with a fixed shaft that the entire engine spins around. The propeller is simply attached directly to the front of the engine. Spinning the cylinders through the air was intended to enhance air cooling, but a large mass spinning on the front of a relatively lightweight airframe led to strong gyroscopic effects while maneuvering. This made the aircraft simultaneously nimble, but unstable. This nine cylinder rotary engine type was produced by legendary British automobile designer Bentley and was used to power Sopwith, Nieuport, and Vickers aircraft.
This engine was one that I recognized immediately, it is a Pratt & Whitney J58 turbojet engine designed to push the Lockheed A-12, YF-12, and SR-71 Blackbirds to Mach 3+. The SR-71 Blackbird still holds speed and altitude records for manned, air-breathing flight.
Flamboyant aviator Roscoe Turner was well known for travelling the country with his pet lion, Gilmore. After winning the Thompson Trophy in 1934, Turner contracted the Lawrence W. Brown Aircraft Company to build a customized racer of Turner's design. Turner won the 1938 and 1939 Thompson Trophy events at the National Air Races in his RT-14 racer, becoming the only pilot to win the Thompson Trophy three times.
Started by Vincent Bendix, the founder of Bendix Corporation (now rolled up into Honeywell), the Bendix race was a coast-to-coast speed race. Famous winners of the Bendix race were Jimmy Doolittle, Roscoe Turner, Louise Thaden, and Paul Manz. The last Bendix race in 1949 was won by Joe DeBona flying a modified P-51 Mustang owned with veteran and actor Jimmy Stewart. The trophy itself was sculpted by Walter Sinz.
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| North American X-15 #1. |
A thick wedge-shaped vertical stabilizer was necessary for directional stability while hypersonic, though it produced significant drag. The X-15 was powered by a Reaction Motors XLR99 liquid propellant rocket engine, an example of which is on display elsewhere in the museum. The X-15 remains the highest flying, fastest manned aircraft ever flown.
Until that moment, I had never laid eyes on a 6,855 pound propeller assembly before. This massive fan was one of two powering the Full Scale Wind Tunnel (FST) at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Operational in 1931, the FST was the first wind tunnel large enough to study full size airplanes. Many of the key aircraft from America's "arsenal of democracy" were evaluated in the FST, including the Grumman F4F Wildcat, the Douglas SBD Dauntless, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, the North American P-51 Mustang, and the Vought F4U Corsair. NASA decommissioned the FST in 1995, though it continued to operate privately until 2009. The FST was ultimately demolished in 2011 and this propeller assembly is all that remains.
Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight
The new Pioneers of Flight exhibit focused on some of the big personalities and their big accomplishments from the Golden Age, including Lindbergh, Earhart, and Curtiss.
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| 1929 Lockheed Sirius, Tingmissartoq. |
In 1931, Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh embarked on an ambitious flight to the Asia. To make that flight, they purchased this 1929 Lockheed Sirius, a single engine (680 hp Wright Cyclone) low wing monoplane that they equipped with Edo straight floats. The Sirius was designed for Lockheed by Jack Northrup and Gerald Vultee.
The Lindberghs followed a northerly great circle route through Canada to reach China as chronicled in Anne Morrow Lindbergh's non-intuitively titled North to the Orient. In addition to being an excellent chronicler of their adventure, Anne served as both copilot and radio operator aboard the Sirius.
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| 1929 Lockheed Sirius, Tingmissartoq. |
Two years later, the Lindberghs departed again on a 30,000 mile journey that would take them to four continents and twenty-one countries. Their purpose was to gather data on potential commercial air traffic routes across the Atlantic. The Sirius was upgraded with a 710 Wright radial engine and a Sperry gyroscopic artificial horizon. They flew from New York to Labrador, then across open ocean to Greenland where the airplane was dubbed Tingmissartoq, roughly translating to "one who flies like a big bird". They flew from Greenland to Iceland and went on to visit multiple European cities, ranging as far east as Moscow. They continued south along the African coast, crossed the South Atlantic to South America, flew the Amazon, and ultimately returned to the United States via Trinidad and Barbados. While this adventure is often overshadowed by Lindbergh's solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1927, it was an incredible undertaking for the era.
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| 1929 Lockheed Sirius, Tingmissartoq. |
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| 1935 Mignet HM.14 Pou du Ciel, La Cucaracha. |
In 1933, early homebuilder Henri Mignet designed a simple aircraft that "anyone" could build and fly. The result was the HM.14 Pou du Ciel (literally, "Sky Louse", but translated into English as "Flying Flea"). In the interests of simplicity, the aircraft had no ailerons, elevator, or rudder pedals. A single control stick controlled the pitch of the forward wing with lateral stick movement directing the rudder. This example was the first HM.14 built in the United States and owned by Powel Crosely, Jr.
Apparently, FAR 91.117(a) was not yet written in Doolittle's time.
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| 1937 Piper J-2 Cub. |
At the direction of William Piper, Piper aircraft designer Walter Jamouneau modified the existing Taylor E-2 Cub to create the J-2 (where Jamouneau put the "J" in J-2). Continuing the evolution of the Taylor Cub design, the J-2 boasted more elegantly rounded wings and tail and a fully enclosed cockpit. The Smithsonian's example was the first official Piper J-2 produced at the Lock Haven, PA plant in November of 1937. It served as the Piper corporate aircraft for a time. The J-2 was ultimately superseded by the more refined classic J-3 Cub that featured a more powerful engine (65 hp versus 40 hp), a steerable tailwheel in place of a skid, and a more comfortable interior (in the latter case, "comfortable" is definitely relative).
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| Douglas World Cruiser, Chicago. |
In 1924, four U.S. Army aircraft set off from Seattle to attempt a flight around the world. The aircraft were stout two passenger biplanes built by the Douglas Aircraft Corporation called "World Cruisers" . They were powered by twelve cylinder liquid cooled Liberty engines.
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| Got radiator? The Douglas World Cruiser, Chicago. |
Only two of the original four aircraft survived the journey, the Chicago (featured at Air & Space) and the New Orleans (on display in Santa Monica, CA). They arrived in Seattle on 28 September 1924 after accomplishing a 27,553 mile journey lasting 175 days and 371 hours of actual flying time. Two of the original aircraft were lost and all crews encountered logistical, weather, and mechanical challenges throughout the arduous journey. Average cruise speed was a measly 70 mph. Nonetheless, the Douglas World Cruisers managed the first successful circumnavigation of the globe by air.
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| Remains of the Douglas World Cruiser Seattle at the Alaska Aviation Museum. Photographed 11 July 2018. |
I first learned about the Douglas World Cruisers at the Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage when I came across the charred remains of the Seattle on display there. The Seattle crashed in Alaska just 24 days into the months-long endeavor.
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| Provision kit for the Douglas World Cruisers. |
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| Wright Whirlwind radio engine from the Question Mark. |
In 1929, the U.S. Army Air Corps set an airborne endurance record in the Atlantic-Fokker CA-2 Trimotor dubbed the Question Mark. They remained aloft for 150 hours, 40 minutes, and 14 seconds, a feat accomplished through 42 aerial refuelings including nine at night. The flight ended when the Question Mark's left engine failed. While the Question Mark was destroyed in a 1932 crash, her center engine from the endurance flight is preserved at Air & Space.
A collaboration between the U.S. Army Air Corps and National Geographic led to an altitude record set by a helium balloon carrying the Explorer II gondola to 72,395 feet in 1935. The flight produced the first photographs demonstrating curvature of the Earth.
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| 1925 Curtiss R3C-2 racer. |
The Schneider Cup was established in 1912 by French aviation enthusiast Jacques Schneider for an annual race of seaplanes. In 1925, U.S. Army Lt. James H. Doolittle (yes, that Jimmy Doolittle) won the Schneider Cup in this 1925 Curtiss R3C-2 racer powered by a Curtiss 12-cylinder liquid cooled V-1400 engine. Given Glenn Curtiss' affinity for seaplanes, this contest was likely a perfect fit between mission and aircraft design.
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| Lockheed Vega 5B. |
Referring to it as her "little red bus", Amelia Earhart flew this elegantly streamlined Lockheed Vega 5B from Newfoundland to northern Ireland in May of 1932. It was the first solo flight across the Atlantic since Lindbergh's record setting flight in 1927 and the first trans-Atlantic flight flown by a woman, solo or otherwise.
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| Lockheed Vega 5B. |
That same year, Earhart flew the Vega on a solo, non-stop flight from Los Angeles, CA to Newark, NJ. It was the first such flight by a woman across the United States.
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| 1927 Ryan NYP, Spirit of St. Louis. |
There is no denying that the most famous resident of the Pioneers of Flight exhibit is Charles Lindbergh's 1927 custom-built Ryan NYP (New York to Paris), the famous airplane in which he became the first to successfully fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in May of 1927.
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| 1927 Ryan NYP, Spirit of St. Louis. |
Powered by the 223 hp Wright J-5C engine, Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis continuously for thirty-three hours and 30 minutes over 3,610 miles, thus averaging roughly 108 miles per hour. As shown in the above photo, the need to add additional fuel tanks (total capacity was 450 gallons) meant that the forward windscreen was replaced by a nose fuel tank. The lack of forward visibility did not deter Lindbergh. Though he equipped the NYP with a lateral periscope to aid forward visibility, most sources suggest that it was difficult to use and that Lindbergh simply slipped the aircraft to a landing before blindly setting it down.
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| 1927 Ryan NYP, Spirit of St. Louis. |
In addition to distance, weather, and tedium, Lindbergh also battled the cold. Somewhat notoriously, Lindbergh eliminated cabin heat to save on weight. That led me to wonder about the apparent heat shroud mounted just aft of the engine. I believe it is a carburetor heat shroud, a feature that Lindbergh also tried to eliminate from the airplane only to add it back after contemplating the dire risk of carburetor icing over open ocean.
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| 1927 Ryan NYP, Spirit of St. Louis. |
Following the successful flight from New York to Paris, Lindbergh flew the airplane on tour through Central and South America where the flags of each nation visited were painted on the cowling. The Spirit of St. Louis flew her final flight from St. Louis to Washington DC on 30 April 1928 where Lindbergh gifted her to the Smithsonian.
WWI: The Birth of Military Aviation
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| Entry to the WWI gallery. |
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| 1916 Voisin Type 8. |
This 1916 Voisin Type 8 bomber is the oldest surviving purpose-built bomber in the world.
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| 1916 Voisin Type 8. |
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| Reproduction 1916 Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.8. |
This reproduction of a British Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.8 fuselage provides a 1916 solution to the ubiquitous WWI conundrum: how to shoot at the bad guys without damaging one's own propeller? The single seat F.E8 was a pusher aircraft and, as such, a nose mounted machine gun could fire freely without interference. I particularly liked the Lewis gun magazine storage on the side of the fuselage. Convenient, but it did not leave much room for a cup holder.
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| Sopwith F.1 Camel. |
Britain's famous Sopwith F.1 Camel occupies center stage in the WWI gallery.
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| Sopwith F.1 Camel. |
Notoriously unstable, the Camel was renowned for its agility in the hands of a skilled pilot. It is widely considered the most successful Allied aircraft of WWI.
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| Sopwith F.1 Camel. |
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| 1917 SPAD XIII. |
One of the most successful and prolifically produced aircraft of World War I, 8,472 examples of the sturdy SPAD XIII French fighter plane helped defend the skies of Europe.
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| Humber (Bentley) B.R.2 Rotary 9 Engine. |
World War I was truly the era of the rotary engine. Rotary engines superficially resemble the radial engines popular in World War II by virtue of an odd-numbered set of cylinders attached around a central hub. They are both "round engines", but that is where the similarities end. Radial engines function intuitively: the cylinders fire to spin a shaft connected to the propeller. Rotary engines flip this paradigm with a fixed shaft that the entire engine spins around. The propeller is simply attached directly to the front of the engine. Spinning the cylinders through the air was intended to enhance air cooling, but a large mass spinning on the front of a relatively lightweight airframe led to strong gyroscopic effects while maneuvering. This made the aircraft simultaneously nimble, but unstable. This nine cylinder rotary engine type was produced by legendary British automobile designer Bentley and was used to power Sopwith, Nieuport, and Vickers aircraft.
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| Liberty L-8 engine. |
Liquid cooled inline engines were also in use during WWI, including Liberty twelve-cylinder engines. The pictured engine is the original Liberty L-8 prototype developed in five days by engineers from the Packard and Hall-Scott automotive companies. It was designed to be robust, easy to build, and to possess the high power to weight ratio necessary for aircraft use.
A must-see aspect of the WWI exhibit hall is a large screen film depicting WWI aircraft dogfighting. It's very well done, alternating between exterior video and pilot perspective. I realized that I recognized every one of the aircraft on screen -- it was all filmed at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome.
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| Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome's Sopwith F.1 Camel, photographed 22 September 2024. |
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| Opening frame of the WWI film at the National Air & Space Museum. |
I waited for the film to loop back to the beginning to confirm my suspicions.
At the close of the film, I was moved to see an acknowledgement of Brian Coughlin, skilled aircraft builder and masterful pilot of challenging vintage designs. Coughlin perished on 5 October 2024 in the crash of a Fokker D.VIII he personally built. Just two weeks earlier, we watched him fly the very same airplane with great skill and finesse.
Nation of Speed
This entire exhibit is focused on going fast and not just in the air.
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| Curtiss V-8 motorcycle. |
In 1907, Glenn Curtiss came to Ormand Beach where he rode his V-8 motorcycle to a speed of 136 mph, earning the title, "the fastest man on Earth". Curtiss' focus on powerful, lightweight, air-cooled motorcycle engines was effectively a gateway drug to aviation, a burgeoning field with similar technical needs.
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| Curtiss Conqueror V-1570 V-12 engine. |
Curtiss went on to build aircraft engines as well as the aircraft to which they were mounted. He became known as the "Father of Naval aviation" for his focus on seaplanes. He became a bitter rival to the Wrights, developing aircraft with ailerons that provided a simpler means to effect aircraft roll control than the Dayton brothers' patented wing warping. The Conqueror V-1570 was the last in a long line of Curtiss liquid cooled engines. This particular one suffered a magneto failure during a 1930 attempt for the Thompson Trophy.
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| Pratt & Whitney J58 engine from an SR-71 Blackbird. |
This engine was one that I recognized immediately, it is a Pratt & Whitney J58 turbojet engine designed to push the Lockheed A-12, YF-12, and SR-71 Blackbirds to Mach 3+. The SR-71 Blackbird still holds speed and altitude records for manned, air-breathing flight.
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| Thiokol XLR99-RM-1 Pioneer rocket motor |
Whereas the J58-powered Blackbird still holds the airspeed record for turbojet aircraft, the North American X-15 rocket plane holds the speed (Mach 6.7) and altitude (102,100 feet) records for a crewed aircraft. The difference is that the X-15 was rocket propelled and driven to the edge of space by the Thiokol / Reaction Motors XLR99-RM-1 Pioneer rocket motor. This engine produced 50,000 pounds of thrust and remains the most powerful rocket engine ever incorporated into a piloted aircraft in which the pilot had throttle control of the output.
Sonic Wind 1 falls into the "no way in hell" category for me. Aptly called a "rocket sled", the Sonic Wind was little more than a seat attached to nine solid rocket engines producing a combined total of 40,000 pounds of thrust. In 1954, Air Force Lt. Col. John Stapp strapped himself onto this thing and endured 40g of accelerating force to reach a speed of 632 mph. I cannot help but wonder what that kind of g-force does to the human brain.
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| 1930 Turner RT-14 racer. |
Flamboyant aviator Roscoe Turner was well known for travelling the country with his pet lion, Gilmore. After winning the Thompson Trophy in 1934, Turner contracted the Lawrence W. Brown Aircraft Company to build a customized racer of Turner's design. Turner won the 1938 and 1939 Thompson Trophy events at the National Air Races in his RT-14 racer, becoming the only pilot to win the Thompson Trophy three times.
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| Vincent Bendix Trophy. |
Started by Vincent Bendix, the founder of Bendix Corporation (now rolled up into Honeywell), the Bendix race was a coast-to-coast speed race. Famous winners of the Bendix race were Jimmy Doolittle, Roscoe Turner, Louise Thaden, and Paul Manz. The last Bendix race in 1949 was won by Joe DeBona flying a modified P-51 Mustang owned with veteran and actor Jimmy Stewart. The trophy itself was sculpted by Walter Sinz.
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| Thompson Trophy. |
An elegant Art Deco trophy recorded the names of pilots winning the Thompson race, a closed circuit, low level course marked by pylons that demanded high speed and tight turns. This trophy was also sculpted by Walter Sinz.
America by Air
One last look at the Air & Space museum before departing for the day.
17,533 Steps
Partway through my visit to Air & Space, I ducked out for lunch. As it happened, I was in Washington DC as the whole "reflecting pool" debacle was ramping up and I decided to see it for myself. Besides, I needed to get my daily exercise and needed to pick up a handful of steps.
Along the way, I walked past the Waldorf Astoria, situated in the elegant 1899 Post Office building.
Somehow, I managed an uncluttered view of the Washington Monument.
From the World War II Memorial, a faint green cast to the reflecting pool water was visible. As it turned out, I was at the pool around the same time that a former Olympian was arrested for vandalism when he reached into the water. I am glad that, while I was curious about the pool, I was not that curious.
The algal growth was more apparent at different angles.
Still, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, it did not look terrible. Bubblers were operating in the water and this disrupted the surface so that the pool did not reflect the Washington Monument with the clarity intended by the original designers.
I reserved a new timed entry pass at Air & Space for 2:00, so I had plenty of time to explore the Lincoln Memorial.
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| Smithsonian Castle. |
I returned to Air & Space right about 2:00. A long line had formed on the west side of the vestibule entry. Then I noticed a sign indicating that lines were usually shorter on the east side. In full view of everyone slowly trickling in, I walked from the end of the line on the west side directly to an open door on the east side of the vestibule. No waiting! People should pay more attention to signs.
A Familiar Face
After I wrapped up my visit to Air & Space, I returned to the Archives Metro station and took the train back to College Park. When I went outside to preflight Warrior 481, a V-tail Bonanza came over the field in the same left crosswind entry for runway 33 that I used that morning. It was Chris K, another WFC member who lives in DC and bases his aircraft at College Park. I always appreciate encountering a familiar face when hours from home. I met him at his airplane and helped him push it back into his tiedown.
Next, Chris helped me pull Warrior 481 over to the fuel pump for a top off. When it's "DC hot" outside, help moving the airplane is always appreciated.
One Little Victory
From the cockpit of Warrior 481, I called Potomac for a clearance out of the FRZ.
"November Four Eight One," crackled the voice from my iPhone speaker. "You're cleared to the Sierra Delta Charlie airport via as filed (!), climb and maintain two thousand, expect seven thousand one zero minutes after departure, departure frequency is 125.65, squawk 5652."
Score! It was my fifth flight out of College Park, but my first time being cleared as filed. The secret was obvious: I filed KRANT as the first fix instead of BELTS.
After a pause, the controller continued. "Of course, I can't have you go to KRANT, so on departure...turn to...." He paused, clearly thinking.
"How about BELTS?" I offered.
"Yes! That's perfect! On departure, plan to turn toward BELTS."
Facepalm.
Departures from College Park always feel busy. It is likely a combination of the heat, thermal turbulence, traffic above with urban sprawl below, multiple vectors and altitude changes, and a rapid succession of different Potomac controllers in the first few minutes of flight. Within 15 minutes of departure, I had exited the SFRA, was cleared to the filed cruise altitude of 7,000 feet, and the pacing of radio calls dropped off significantly.
While south of Harrisburg, a storm cell stood ahead in my path. I studied the chart and realized that I could turn prematurely direct to Selinsgrove. Doing so would take me around the weather to the east and return to the filed route in relative short order.
"Harrisburg Approach, Cherokee Four Eight One requesting direct Selinsgrove for weather."
The controller did not even miss a beat. "November Four Eight One, proceed direct Selinsgrove." I prefer to request these types of concrete deviations from ATC rather than the engage in the "ten degrees right for weather / advise when back on course" dance.
I stayed out of the weather, but nonetheless had quite a show off my left wing.
Just seven miles past Selinsgrove, I passed Sunbury Island Airport (71N), a nice turf runway occupying the eastern half of Sunbury Island in the middle of the Susquehanna River ("Dr. Kent and the $100 Ice Cream Cones").
It seems like there are always clouds and weather near Elmira, NY.
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| Williamson-Sodus Airport (KSDC). |
In all, it was another enjoyable day trip. I was gone for twelve hours total, from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. I flew five hours, accumulated 17.5 kilosteps, and saw familiar favorite artifacts while learning many new things at Air & Space. The ability to reach Washington DC in just a couple of hours is truly a wonderful privilege and I wish that I had pursued it sooner. Maybe someday I will figure out how to get there and back again without an IFR reroute. (Ha! Fat chance.) Additional Air & Space exhibits were scheduled to open in July of this year and the entire museum is scheduled to be complete by year's end. I will definitely be back.
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