Thursday, February 05, 2009

NASM I

Well, it looks like Moody Minstrel's "Capitol Communiques" has come up as a winner, even though I didn't hold an official competition for renaming my blog.  Jo's "DC Dispatches" came a close second.  Thanks for all your suggestions!

I will try to keep a rotating selection of images in the title banner, so keep a look out.

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Now, on to the National Air & Space Museum.  I have over 70 photos and it's so hard to choose just a few!  I've been making some well-chosen collages to get in as many as I can though I know sometimes single images make the best statements...*SIGH*

Plus you know me, I can't just put up pics and not explain them though I know sometimes images alone are more eloquent...*SIGH*

Ooh I know....a few at a time?  Let's do this!

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OUR FABULOUS TOUR OF THE NATIONAL AIR & SPACE MUSEUM IN INSTALLMENTS:


This contraption supposedly got into the air???
(Bleriot XI, France, 1914)


This monstrosity supposedly gets into the air???  ;-)
(A Northwest Airlines Boeing 747)



Cockpit of Boeing 747 - lovely isn't it?




A 1948 American airliner...



Although seating arrangements are drastically different today, at least airline lavatories have not changed much since the 1940s!
In the cabin, passengers sat four to a table on comfortable seats beside a window with curtains which configuration today most closely resembles certain types of train carriages.



Rolls Royce Engine

19 comments:

Miss Dallas said...

No D.C. Dispatches??? Damn!

That's OK! Capitol Communiques is a little more you, if you know what I mean.

Compared to the rest of the plane, the cockpit windows really add scale!

Anonymous said...

Mmmm, I like D.C. Dispatches very well, too. As for the pics, I love the words that accompany your around-town pics, Liv. Hopefully, as the craziness eases up here at work, I'll feel like I have some left over to blog with.

Anonymous said...

Oh I liked the bytes title, it always made me chuckle at the pun! :o) Flighty's going to LOVE this blog entry, you should tell him about it! :o) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Selba said...

Mmmmmm.... "dispatches" is more like your update, post, message... "communiques" is mmmm.... your communication???

*scratching my head*

I'm blur.... I guess neither yea nor nay....

Ah.. so nice to see the cockpit of boeing 747.... John is flying boeing 737 though ;)

Olivia said...

Hey everyone - now y'all are taking notice of the naming dilemma, I may compromise with something.

I mean, London Dispatches wasn't creative. Bytes from the Big Apple was. Now we seem to be aiming for alliteration with Capitol Communiques or DC Dispatches, only thing is DC is so short.

Well, how about Capitol Dispatches? Or does it sound too much like a newspaper? Hehe!

Ummmmm - anyone have any ideas??

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Jo - you are gracious, you know.

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Nikki - only thing about DC to my mind is there is a hard edge to the sound of it, kind of like LA...

I'm glad you enjoy my words. You want to borrow some, just let me know ;)

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Diva - gah, I know, I will miss that title! Thanks, and I am so glad I could make you chuckle :)

Don't worry about Flighty, he's usually right over when I post.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

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Selby - hahaha, your dilemma makes me laugh. I'm becoming more undecided the more you all discuss it too.

Are you still in touch with John?

Selba said...

I think I like "DC Dispatches" :)

Oh.. John??? John who? :P
Naaaaah.... he is hiding behind the clouds... maybe later when the sun shine again, he'll come out from the clouds, kekekeke

Anonymous said...

Here I am! This is obviously a post of real interest to me.
You've pictured some truly iconic machines Liv, with the Bleriot, Boeing 747 and Douglas DC-4.
I'm looking forward to seeing what else you're going to show us in forthcoming instalments.
Thanks! xx

Pandabonium said...

My father was an aeronautical engineer, I am a pilot, my daughter is a computer engineer and writes software for aircraft. In our blood. Wonderful post. Thanks.

PS You're tagged for Photo Tag!> Pull up!

Olivia said...

Selby - hiding behind the clouds is the best place for that man, in my opinion!

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Flighty - hehe, hope you can keep up! I'm going to get it all done before I move! (Ambitious, eh?)

Aha! Thanks for the Douglas. I knew it was a DC something because of the black nose, but couldn't remember the number. Have to admit, I should have labeled the photos that very evening before my memory faded.

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Pandabonium - good to see you! I had no idea flight was so entrenched in your genes.

As for me, when I was younger I wanted to learn how to fly. One of my best friends from college beat me to it, as after a few years working in finance, last month he finally graduated from a proper airline pilot training program based out in Midland, Tx.

The Moody Minstrel said...

Hey, what's with all this sour grassing about my name suggestion? You say you like my idea, and suddenly all the women here tear into it like a bunch of Taliban going after an Avon lady (only with the genders reversed)? And then it gets "something or other"'d before I can even get a word in edgewise...

WHAT IS THIS???!?!??

(Industrial-strength pout)

That's obviously a more modern 747 cockpit, with all those colorful MFD (multi-function displays). I still remember the cockpits of the first 747s, which you can see in the "Airport" series of movies, and the Christmas-tree-like morass of gauges and switches the pilots had to sort through back then.

OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) had an old DC-3 airliner from the 1940s on display. Far from having luxurious tables and curtains, it looked more like a school bus inside. The seats were tiny and hard. I'm curious to know under what airline that vintage liner you saw operated.

I eagerly await the next set of photos (and blog name change)!

Anonymous said...

I like MM's description of Christmas-tree-like marass of gauges... :-)

As for the name, don't let MM industrial-strength-pout you into a name that doesn't suit!

Olivia said...

Minstrel - You know what's puzzling? I should have made up my own name without asking my readers, since in high school I took a political test and my result was "authoritarian" and here I am trying to run my blog like a democracy! When I first started blogging, in fact, I called it my empire...

SO! I RULE!

We rule that for the time being, Our blog shall be called "Something or Other" until We can think of a suitable title.

Now, about the Douglas aircraft, the one I saw was operated by American. Possibly the comfort level varied between airliners or between models or short- vs long-haul. There was a DC-3 on display, by the way, in its entirety (exterior).

And about the 747, this particular cockpit is from either the late 80s or early 90s. The Northwest uniforms on display were fairly modern too.

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Nikki - don't worry, I'm on it!

steve on the slow train said...

Potomac Peregrinations? DC Dispatches is good, as well. Capitol Communiques is good. But be sure to put the accentis that it does sound like a Washington insider's journal. (Sorry, MM.) Washington doesn't have a nickname like the Big Apple or the Windy City, so it's harder to come up with something as clever as Bytes from the Big Apple.

The airlines borrowed a lot from the railroads in the early days. Unfortunately, now it's the other way around. The original 1960s Metroliners were built with curved sides to resemble airplane fuselages. But probably the most annoying borrowing is revenue-managed pricing, where fares go up (rarely down,but it happens) based on availability of space.

Olivia said...

Steve - you're right about the Communiques, but the same could have been said about the London Dispatches, and I was never in Her Majesty's Service!

Funny you should say that about the Metroliners. The whole time I was on Amtrak I wanted to take photos of the cars because they looked like airplane fuselages, and I remember mentioning that in the post.

Miss Dallas said...

I like Livvy as THE DICTATOR!!! I bet you'd look oh-so-cute in one of those military outfits!

Olivia said...

Oh my God! Jo, you've scared me a bit now because a lot of my outfits have a military/equestrian flair, brass buttons, olive green, and so on...also, do you remember the backpack I was carrying when I met you?

And I just can't help it :-o

The Moody Minstrel said...

Well, you know...I was just watching the movies about Queen Elizabeth (the first) starring Kate Blanchett and thinking how much Good Queen Bess reminded me of...

Uh, never mind.

(Looking for the bucket...)

Olivia said...

You see? You are a good subject!

Anonymous said...

that cockpit is the Airbus A320...