As long as we were there, I thought we should pop over to the Space Gallery to see what was new in relation to the Space Shuttle Trainer that will be installed in the months to come.
As soon as we walked in the Gallery doors, a couple of very friendly volunteers immediately engaged us. One of them said something about Air Force One arriving this morning. Knowing that a vintage Air Force One was in the museum's airpark all the time, my mind immediately remembered that President Obama was coming to town today for a fund raiser and a speech, and that meant THE Air Force One would be arriving. I never thought about it landing at Boeing Field! The volunteer informed me it was due to arrive at 11:45 a.m. - that was just about 90 minutes away. "Well, that changes everything!" I said with a smile. (That smile quickly turned to a grimace when I realized I hadn't brought my good camera along on the visit since we were just supposedly dropping something off. Drat!)
With that bit of news, we decided to hang around for awhile. In the spirit of the day, we toured the Special Air Mission (SAM) 970, the first presidential jet plane, which is now on display at The Museum of Flight. The specially built Boeing 707-120 was delivered in 1959 to replace Eisenhower's Super Constellation.
Walking through it meant we were treading in the steps of presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, as well as Nikita Khrushchev and Henry Kissinger. Oh, and we were treading on the paw prints of Johnson's beagles, as well. They used to fly aboard the jet, and even had their own doggie door to the presidential conference room.
Since we were the only ones on board, we took our time looking around and spent a few minutes ogling all the switches and dials in the cockpit.
As we were walking away from the vintage Air Force One, I couldn't help but start humming, "Hail to the Chief." And, naturally, that led to a conversation about the President of the United State's "theme song."
I told the kids when I hum the song, I can't help but think of the made up lyrics from Jack Lemmon's character in "My Fellow American" (1996): "Hail to the Chief, he's the chief, and he needs hailing! He is the chief, so everybody hail like crazy!"
For whatever reason, that always stuck with me. ... CJ and Annabelle found it hysterical, especially James Garner's alternate version in the same movie: "Hail to the Chief, if you don't I'll have to kill you. I am the chief, so you better watch your step, you bastards."
Ah yes, high comedy. ;)
Incredibly, until this afternoon, I don't think I've ever head the official lyrics to the song. I pulled it up on YouTube and found a version with the correct lyrics. And now, in the interest of true education, here they are:
Hail to the Chief we have chosen for the nation,According to the Library of Congress, the song borrows lyrics from Sir Walter Scott's poem "The Lady of the Lake" from 1810. Scott's poem included the line "Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances!"
Hail to the Chief! We salute him, one and all.
Hail to the Chief, as we pledge cooperation
In proud fulfillment of a great, noble call.
Yours is the aim to make this grand country grander,
This you will do, that's our strong, firm belief.
Hail to the one we selected as commander,
Hail to the President! Hail to the Chief!
By 1812, a tune called "Hail to the Chief" was staged in Philadelphia's New Theater, with music "partly composed, and partly selected, by Mr. J. A. Jones." The Library of Congress reports, "Among the tunes that Jones selected to include was James Sanderson's 'Hail to the Chief,' written for one of the London productions." "Hail the Chief" gained popularity in the U.S. and it was Julia Tyler, the wife of President John Tyler, who first requested the anthem be played specifically to announce the President's arrival on official occasions.
Where were we? Ah yes, THE Air Force One, and President Obama. ...
After checking out a few of the kids' favorite exhibits in the main building, we headed to the museum's cafe, which has a wall of glass fronting the runway at Boeing Field. It was sunny enough for us to sit out on the patio and wait for the president's plane.
Lo and behold, just a minute or two after the appointed time, Air Force One approached from the south. You can see it approaching here. (In case you're wondering, that's part of a Boeing WB-47E Stratojet in the foreground. I thought that would make for a much more interesting photo that just a plane in the distance.)
There was a pretty good crowd on hand to see the plane land - not to mention all KINDS of security, including a bomb-sniffing dog working the parking lot.
I was glad Christian was able to escape work (just a couple miles up the road) to see it land along with us.
We stuck around for awhile and watched (from a few football fields away) them push the stairs up to the plane (in the distance, at about 10 o'clock in this photo).
Christian caught this video on his cell phone ...
And in a good news/bad news scenario, while Christian got stuck in traffic on his way out, he did get to see the presidential motorcade heading from Boeing Field to a fund raiser in Medina.
COMMERCIAL TIME OUT: In addition to the Air Force Ones (!), we managed to squeeze in some other sights at The Museum of Flight. For instance, we checked out the latest in the still-evolving Charles Simonyi Space Gallery.
Thanks to a big poster near the video monitor, we learned that Sacramento-based, Aerojet has been building rocket engines since 1942, and that Aerojet's first rockets were Jet Assist Take Off rockets for the U.S. military during World War II.
Aerojet has been involved in the U.S. space program since its infancy, providing engines for both the Gemini and Apollo missions. In 2002, the company purchased Redmond Rocket Center, a company based in Redmond (just east of Seattle). RRC had been home to the Rocket Research Company, which had been building rocket engines since 1962. Today, Aerojet Redmond specializes in Attitude and Orbit Control Systems for precise maneuvers in space. Thrusters designed and built in Redmond have been used on Titan Missiles, on NASA's Voyager probes, on Viking Mars landers and more recently on the Mars Science Laboratory! In fact, right now Aerojet Redmond rockets are providing in-space propulsion for MSL, keeping it on course. And the sky crane that will help lower Curiosity to the Red Planet's surface will use Aerojet engines, as well. How 'bout that.
Now, I wonder what we'd have to do to get a tour of their facility. Hmm ...
And in other "commercial" news, over in the main building the kids always *have* to visit the exhibit about old time television in the way-back days of the Apollo missions. For whatever reason, they love watching snippets of vintage commercials and television shows ... like "The Banana Splits," as pictured below.
Now that was a day, for sure. Thanks for the Redmond Rocket history. Never had heard of them before.
ReplyDeleteGreat photo and videos.
I remember The Banana Splits very well. Wasn't there a Witchy-poo and a Magic Flute in that same hour?
Yeah, I do think HR Pufnstuf and the Splits were bookends. Them, and Sigmund and Sea Monsters and Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and Liddsville were also somewhere in the Sid & Marty Kroft mix.
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