Time Machine Travelogue Twelve

"Here we go into the wild blue yonder"


I sure hope I'm getting frequent time traveler credit because I'm ready to go again. This time machine has logged a lot of time. No pun intended. So far since its first usage this year we have visited many locations at a variety of times. If you weren't fortunate to ride along on those previous trips it's okay we wrote about them and posted  the pictures and events.  We've been to Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore, Seattle, San Diego, Denver , Disneyland, and Washington D.C.  One of the most incredible places in our nations capital that isn't related to our government is the Smithsonian Museum. So bring your tray tables to their upright position turn off all electronic devices. You too Alec Baldwin. And sit back and relax because we are headed  back for that eighth grade field trip.   

The Smithsonian Castle

Smithsonian is more than a museum it is several museums and multiple buildings. You could spend days trying to investigate all that is offered. Because it was such a short time, we only could visit the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History.  I am an air and space junkie. My dad was a Naval aircraft mechanic.  He was an excellent "wrench man."  When I was a boy, we would build and paint all kinds of model airplanes.  After they were built, we suspended them from the ceiling of my brother and my bedroom using thread or fishing line.  Walking into the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum looked like a full replica of that childhood room.  Historic planes, World War II aircraft, even jets soared above me as I laid in bed waiting to dream of being a pilot.  A plane I remember having was the Spirit of St. Louis.  The plane flown from New York to Paris non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean by Charles Lindbergh in May, 1927.  I had seen a replica in San Diego, the city where it was built.  But there it was suspended as if from my ceiling.

Lindbergh's Moment of Gold

Propeller driven planes were at the end of WWII replaced by jet propelled aircraft.  America's first jet was the P-59 Airecomet.  It started the "pushing the envelop" for faster aircraft.

Suspended in time

 I was born shortly after the Bell X-1, "Glamorous Glennis, was piloted by my early aircraft hero, Chuck Yeager. When I was growing up, the  sonic booms of planes breaking the sound barrier were heard all the time. It almost meant safety in the early Cold War. 

Did you hear that?  That my friend was the sound barrier breaking.

The flights of the X-15 were always anticipated and seeing the higher and faster records fall was awe inspiring. Imagine being a test pilot.  Actually in command of the fastest thing on Earth.  Nestled the fuselage of a B-52 then released to fly free in your rocket powered plane.  Once clear soaring vertically toward the edge of the atmosphere.  Each time it is taken up it soars higher and faster.  In the early 1960's this was the scenario.  Test pilots "pushing the envelope" of speed and altitude.  How could a kid think of any job more exciting.  Some flights were focused on altitude and a record of 67 miles above sea level was attained on August 22, 1963.  For speed records altitude is secondary and 4104 miles per hour was achieved on July 26, 1962.  This legendary plane was even piloted by some guy named Neil Armstrong.

Records fell each time the X-15 flew.

Then came Sputnik, a man made satellite, launched by the Soviet Union. Changes happened at light speed as the Space Race began. To win this race fast planes fell away to rockets.  To escape Earth's gravity you need a lot more speed.  Rocket technology was not new during World War II but it was advanced by Germany.  The V-2 was reported to be the first man-made object to reach outer space.  However, it was a weapon used by the Germans against England.  Using this rocket both the Soviet Union and the United States used the design to create vehicles to propel a new age, the Space Age.

Nazi Germany's V-2 reached Outer Space

 A race that put objects into space moving men into space and culminating with Americans landing on the Moon.  Then the Soviet Union put a man,Yuri Gagarin into orbit around the Earth.  They called him a Cosmonaut.  The United States soon countered and we were in the Cosmic Age.  We would not come in second. President John F. Kennedy steeled our countries resolve when he said in September 1962,


        "We choose to go to the Moon.  We choose to go to the Moon in this decade 
          and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard..."

We all watched our television on that July night.

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" Neil Armstrong

We came for all mankind

Now the Moon is not our only satellite.

Call it the Space Age or the Cosmic Age the age of man in  space had begun. It reached it apex with landing s man on the Moon. However, there has been a downward spiral since then.  We don't do things " because they are hard" anymore. We do things to give rich folks tax breaks. It doesn't matter what the side benefits might be. What can the technology do to assist the military not what might we discover.  We are now in the Age of Satellites. But unlike previous satellites like Voyager or Pioneer. Spy satellites are what are being launched.  While they are necessary, we need satellites to keep us safe, but exploration should be our major focus.  Some other uses are beneficial like weather and GPS satellites.  One of the most incredible objects put in space was the Hubble Telescope.  However, when it was found out of focus, the people who fund the space program didn't want to even spend the money to fix it.  Our best window on the Universe was thought to point in the wrong direction toward Outer Space and not spying on people on Earth.

High above us all.

The Hubble allowed us to see further into the past of the Universe.

Next time we take the time machine out we will still need to investigate the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  But as you know the time machine is difficult to program for too visits to one location. However we need to get home now  so take two pictures because it is cheaper than coming back.