May the Force be with you
This post is a long time in the coming. Some of you may remember that I was in our nation's capitol for this past New Year's. 
Good friends, good times, and good beer. A good time was had by all, no doubt. But that's not what I came here to write about.
As you all probably know, Washington D.C. is the home of one of our country's greatest national treasures: crooked politicians. If you get tired of them, however, there's always the Smithsonian. My favorite, not surprisingly, the National Air & Space Museum where you can see incredible feats of human engineering such as a model of the Apollo 11 Eagle moon lander.
Yes, surely something every space geek should see in his or her life. Now, as a special treat to all us NASA fans, our federal government has thrown a little money into the pot and opened up an annex to the Air & Space Museum located somewhere near Dulles airport. Fitting, really, since it contains what must be roughly a hundred different types of airplanes, including the one and only SR-71 Blackbird.
For those of you who don't know airplanes, the SR-71 was a top-secret military spy plane was that mostly known for it's ability to leak like a sieve. This was fortunately, ironically enough, since it wasn't able to actually take off with a full tank of fuel. But it looks really cool and it scared the crap out of the commies so it served its purpose.
Now, not quite as well known in the U.S. military spy fleet, but just as effective is this little gem:
It's a little known fact that this aircraft, dubbed the SR-72, actually won the second world war for us. Seriously. Would I lie to you?
Oh, you reader's are too smart for me. Of course, this is not actually a U.S. spy plane. Who was I kidding? It was a Naval battleship. Very advanced. Covert. Top secret.
Still don't believe me? I can never fool you guys. If you don't recognize it, it just happens to be the scale model used during the filming of Spielberg's Close Encouter of the Third Kind. If you've seen the movie then you know this is the truth. If you haven't seen it, then hop in your car and head to Blockbuster. It really is a sci-fi classic. What this is doing in the Smithsonian, I really don't know. However, I'm always up for seeing historical movie memoriabilia. What got my interest, though, was the plaque on the case of this exhibit:
Huh? Inside jokes, sure, but are they serious? Of course they are.
Now I've seen it all.
Good friends, good times, and good beer. A good time was had by all, no doubt. But that's not what I came here to write about.
As you all probably know, Washington D.C. is the home of one of our country's greatest national treasures: crooked politicians. If you get tired of them, however, there's always the Smithsonian. My favorite, not surprisingly, the National Air & Space Museum where you can see incredible feats of human engineering such as a model of the Apollo 11 Eagle moon lander.
Yes, surely something every space geek should see in his or her life. Now, as a special treat to all us NASA fans, our federal government has thrown a little money into the pot and opened up an annex to the Air & Space Museum located somewhere near Dulles airport. Fitting, really, since it contains what must be roughly a hundred different types of airplanes, including the one and only SR-71 Blackbird.
For those of you who don't know airplanes, the SR-71 was a top-secret military spy plane was that mostly known for it's ability to leak like a sieve. This was fortunately, ironically enough, since it wasn't able to actually take off with a full tank of fuel. But it looks really cool and it scared the crap out of the commies so it served its purpose.
Now, not quite as well known in the U.S. military spy fleet, but just as effective is this little gem:
It's a little known fact that this aircraft, dubbed the SR-72, actually won the second world war for us. Seriously. Would I lie to you?
Oh, you reader's are too smart for me. Of course, this is not actually a U.S. spy plane. Who was I kidding? It was a Naval battleship. Very advanced. Covert. Top secret.
Still don't believe me? I can never fool you guys. If you don't recognize it, it just happens to be the scale model used during the filming of Spielberg's Close Encouter of the Third Kind. If you've seen the movie then you know this is the truth. If you haven't seen it, then hop in your car and head to Blockbuster. It really is a sci-fi classic. What this is doing in the Smithsonian, I really don't know. However, I'm always up for seeing historical movie memoriabilia. What got my interest, though, was the plaque on the case of this exhibit:
Huh? Inside jokes, sure, but are they serious? Of course they are.
Now I've seen it all.
posted by The Rube at Saturday, February 18, 2006
2 Comments:
How sad is it that seeing the hidden R2D2 is quite possibly the only reason I have now for ever wanting to revisit the Air & Space Museum?
But I must give you credit for making what seemed impossible actually happen.
Welcome to The Rube's blog, where the impossible comes true.
And people say I can't work miracles.
Post a Comment
<< Home