We went to the National Museum of the United States Air Force today. We saw a few old favorites. For instance, I’m physically unable to walk by a Blackbird, my second favorite vehicle made of titanium, without taking a picture of it.
I also got a decent shot of the MiG-29.
I always like “The Spook,” a logo associated with the great F-4 Phantom II.
But we were there for space artifacts. The museum has the capsule from Apollo 15, the only moon landing whose crew were members of the Air Force.
They also have a space-worthy Mercury capsule (though it never flew).
We got a late start today, and only had a half-hour at the museum before it closed. However, on August 22, the museum received a now-retired Crew Compartment Trainer.
The Crew Compartment Trainer (CCT) was used by NASA to train astronauts for missions on the Space Shuttle.
We actually got to see it this spring, when we went to Space Center Houston. However, we got to go much closer to it today.
The CCT is somewhat of a consolation prize, in lieu of an actual shuttle. While I think the allocation of the shuttles was done in an extremely inappropriately, the docents I spoke with had a good attitude about it.
The museum is raising funds for an expansion–a fourth hanger. This will include the presidential aircraft collection, a section dedicated to global airlift capability, and a space section. The CCT will make its home in this space section. Visitors will be able to walk up and peek inside, to get a sense of what the shuttle was like.
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