Flight of Fancy

KICKIN' BACK: We had a pretty low-key weekend. It rained and rained and rained, so we had lots of indoor time. Above is a shot of a couple of really old (circa mid to early 1990s) toys of Rick and Ken's that Annabelle was playing with this weekend. "We're all relaxing with our hands behind our heads," she  explained to me.

THE FALCON HAS LANDED: Well, at least in Magnolia, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are ready for liftoff. A couple months back we bought a rocketry kit wanting to be ready for the inaugural flight of Falcon 9 and Dragon to the ISS, originally slated for Feb. 7.

Well, that launch date came and went, as did a March liftoff. The latest is their mission might not go until late April. We're thinking we might not wait until then, and do a test flight sooner (though not to the ISS). Stay tuned.

TAKING FLIGHT: Today it was raining sideways and six shades of gray. Just ugly. What to do? Well, The Museum of Flight is the perfect rainy (or any) day destination.

"Every day is an airshow" is a tagline for the MoF, but interestingly enough, what's the first thing we see when pull into the parking lot today? A jaw dropping automobile. Specifically a Lamborghini LP 700-4 wrapped in Boeing Dreamline graphics was parked in the lot for a press opportunity.  

The Seattle Times reported on it, here: "Lamborghini's low-flying Dreamliner." The car is made of carbon fiber which is also used in the 787 Dreamliner. Today, when we went a Googling, trying to figure out what the heck we were seeing, we learned that there is an advanced composite structures laboratory at the University of Washington, thanks, in large part ($) to Lamborghini. Who knew?

Once inside, we were dazzled, as always. One of our destinations today was the Control Tower area, where you can monitor traffic at Boeing Field as well as every flight in progress over North America. CJ took the job seriously.  

In the hallway leading to the control tower, there are lots of great displays about the history of flight. We watched a neat-o video about the Gossamer Albatross, a human-powered aircraft built by aeronautic engineer Dr. Paul MacCready's AeroVironment. 

It's an ingenious aircraft, powered by a human pedaling like crazy. In the video we watched, it said it requires 3 HP to keep the craft aloft - and we humans just can't sustain that output for very long. Despite that, a Gossamer Albatross did manage to cross the English Channel (22.2 mi) in 2 hours and 49 minutes. Its top speed was 29 km/h (18 mph), and its average altitude was 1.5 metres (5 ft). It's a wild looking craft - it looks like it's covered in plastic wrap! 

We also had to visit the World War I and II crafts. We spent most of our time upstairs, with the WWI planes today.

The kids just LOVE this multi-layered map, where they can check out battle lines and more.

I leave you with this - Miss Annabelle getting her astronaut on. :)