Armstrong Air & Space Museum

Hello! Sorry! We know! It's been... a long time, I admit. We've both been super busy the past - wait, has it really been NINE MONTHS? No wonder we're both crazed! Okay! On with the reporting!

Armstrong Air and Space Museum! Wapakoneta! Awesomeness!
Today we resumed official staycation activity with a drive up Rt. 33 to Wapakoneta and the impressive-looking Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum.

The Armstrong Air and Space Museum

The museum, a site reminiscent of the Epcot Dome (though not as massive) features replica Apollo and Gemini capsules out on the front, along with a NASA painted F-5 Skylancer aircraft.

Inside and to the right, there is a rather dismal gift shop. Skip it unless you need to pee. Or unless you want to purchase a mission patch from one of the many (MANY) missions NASA has conducted. Friendship, Gemini, Mercury, Apollo, Shuttle, ISS and even some Soviet missions are represented. Instead, hang a left and pay your admission (or get the VIP treatment with your membership in the Ohio Historical Society!) and start checking out the exhibits.

The museum starts with the first baby steps into space, from the Soviet missile and satellite launches (don't miss the model Sputnik!) to the Freedom/Friendship missions that placed Americans in orbit. Incredibly comprehensive coverage lines the walls, documenting the strides taken and sacrifices made along the journey from the briefest glimpses of space to the 363ft. Saturn V rocket standing tall to take man to the moon.

Lynn posing with a Saturn Booster engine bell.

Moving further along the path, you can watch a brief video of the Apollo 11 moon landing near some kind of quasi-voodoo shrine to Neil Armstrong. The bronze bust is especially compelling!
Assuming you can avoid laughing yourself silly at the mental image of an astronaut using a fecal collection bag, the next thing you will see is the excellent display of items and artifacts from the moon landing itself.

Armstrong's (backup) EVA suit, a lunar seismometer, moon camera equipment and A REAL MOON ROCK are all on display. Sure, the moon rock is small and fairly unimpressive to look at. But the rock itself... is 4 BILLION years old. And it was just laying about on the surface of the moon. How old is that? It's certainly older than most stuff laying about on the Earth. Earth... hmm... wait... didn't I hear something somewhere? Oh, right! The Earth itself is only estimated at 4.5 billion years old! Now that's a wicked old rock! Very likely predating life on Earth itself, this tiny gray lump has borne witness to the birth and death of every human being who ever lived or died. Well, not literally sat there and watched. But still, it's old.

And a little spooky.

The rest of the tour is slightly less awe-inspiring. There's a pseudo-planetarium showing a 15-20 minute movie, a series of tribute items on loan from the Armstrong family, and a broken lunar landing simulator. There is also a shuttle landing simulator that I did not get to try, due to the younger kids busily wrecking the virtual space shuttle into every inch of the landscape.

Also, before you leave:

Make sure you get your picture with the OTHER heroes of space!

...yeah

apologies on the long absence. its difficult to staycation during the holidays. I am deciding now that we WILL return to it this weekend, now that I am back to school and now that Tim's schedule is the COMPLETE opposite of mine. We will be needing some qt. check back soon!

National Museum of the USAF - Or, F'N ASUM!

It was a magical time of year. The Big Game. OSU v. Michigan. The whole city of Columbus, Ohio turns into a scarlet-and-gray-clad mob of ravenous football fans. Beer is poured, nachos are cheesed, and Lynn and Timmy head out of town!

Our destination: The National Museum of the United States Air Force. It was to be our most ambitious staycation of the season, nearly 70 miles from home. The mini-backpack was prepped, the car gassed up, coffee purchased, and we were on our way!

The first gallery in the museum contains aircraft and artifacts from the earliest days of manned (and unmanned) flight. Every step of man's journey into the sky is laid out, from Orville and Wilbur Wright up to the beginnings of military flight. Some of the more interesting items were wooden wind-tunnels used to test new designs for aircraft, early bi-planes (Sopwith Camel!) and early military "aerial torpedoes."

Moving on, we saw planes and artifacts of the second world war. The classics of the Army Air Corps were all there... P51 Mustang, Supermarine Spitfire, Lockheed P38 Lightning... the list goes on. It was absolutely astounding to see first-hand the war machines that dominated the skies of Europe and the Pacific theater. On the other side of the trenches, there were many Axis planes present as well, like the Mitsubishi Zero, Messerschmidt ME-262 and even V-2 "Buzz Bombs" and V1 rockets used in the firebombing of London.

Far and away, though, the most impressive aircraft in the gallery was Bockscar, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber. Without knowing its place in history, many would assume it to be another aluminum behemoth in a crowded hangar. But that simple view belies the awesome effect that this single aircraft had on the course of World War II. This beautiful machine, Bockscar, dropped the "Fat Man" atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

Exiting the Air Power gallery... it was time for a break. We took a brief detour back to the entrance, and spent some time in the strangely antique cafeteria. Beware! They do not take credit cards. Bring cash! Also, get the cole slaw and tater tots... they're delicious.

After recharging our bellies and resting our tired tootsies, we went back out for round two. Next on the list of exhibits was the Modern Flight gallery, with the jet fighters and bombers of the Korean and Vietnam war eras. MiG fighters, huge bombers (B-52!), cargo planes and all kinds of awesome snazzy stuff.

All in all, the USAF museum is awesome fun. There is tons to see, from wood-and-canvas planes from the first days of powered flight all the way to the latest stealth fighters. Every kid or kid at heart will find something to marvel at.