December 02, 2003

I had visited the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum some years ago and it was interesting to see how much things have and haven't changed. It's easy to let the scale of the exhibits overwhelm you and force you into only using your wide-angle lens so I decided to use the zoom and see things from a different perspective.

Photos by DANIEL MILLER
The Bell X-1, named Glamorous Glennis after pilot Chuck Yeager's wife, hangs in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. Yeager piloted the X-1 to mach 1.06 to be the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. [More historical information]

This is a detail shot of the original Spirit of St. Louis, a Ryan NYP (New York-Paris), which Charles Lindbergh flew during the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight in 1927. The flags painted on the cowling represent the different countries he stopped in during a later tour through South America. [More historical information]

NASA is painted on the tail of the North American X-15 A-1. X-15's were the first aircraft to fly 6x the speed of sound and took manned flight into space. [More historical information]

Posted by Daniel at December 02, 2003 09:19 PM | TrackBack