I decided that we needed to take a walk through the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian. I love their gift shop and I needed to get a birthday gift for a young guy who loves airplanes. Who doesn't? Well, fair enough, there will be some, but, it is a true fantasy for those that do love them as I do.

Ryan PT-22 Recruit

This little beauty holds a very special place in the history of US Army aviation, and in my heart. The PT-22was the first purpose-built monoplane (single wing as opposed to biplanes with upper and lower wings) used for primary training by the US Army Air Corps. The PT-22 was nicknamed the Recruit and that is who flew it, Recruits. This was the first aircraft they flew…and unfortunately for many, the last. The PT-22 was “designed” by modifying the Ryan ST, which was a civilian sport aircraft. While the ST flew exceptionally well, the modifications necessary to sell it to the Army (primarily a bigger, more reliable radial engine and tougher landing gear) generated weight and balance problems that necessitated changing the angle the wing was mounted to the fuselage. All told, as long as you played by the rule books and flew it like it was supposed to be flown, it was great…but recruits didn’t always do that. It wasn’t their fault, they didn’t know any better, but they still paid the ultimate price.

Another, older, even more famous aircraft that is associated with Ryan was built by the “Ryan Airline Company” was the Spirit of Saint Louis, which Charles Lindbergh flew across the pond in 1927. However, disclosing the rest of the story, Ryan had actually sold his interest in the company 8 months earlier and wasn’t involved in the Spirit of Saint Louis.
Some of you might be wondering where you’ve seen one of these in recent years and yes, you have. This is the same beautiful aircraft that the actor Harrison Ford crash-landed on a golf course in close to his home airport in Santa Monica California in May 2015.

Hundreds of aviation and space artifacts live here at National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Pitts Special

The Pitts Special was the darling of the world aerobatics competitions in the 1960’s through the 1970’s and it is still in use today for aerobatic training and lower level competitions. In addition to the many international and world aerobatic competitions, the Pitts Special won, it also holds the world records for inverted flat spins. Yes, you heard me right, they basically turn the aircraft upside down, then fly it slow enough to make the wings stop generating enough lift. In this attitude, it can be maneuvered into a spin such that it is rotating around the engine, upside down, while hurtling towards the earth. The record was set on 20 Mar 2016 when air show performer Spenser Suderman entered the inverted flat spin at 24,500 feet above the desert floor at Yuma Arizona and spun it all the way to 2,000 feet above the ground before recovering. Ninety-eight rotations! Will someone please hand me a barf bag?

P-40 Warhawk

The Warhawk was designed and built in the United States in 1938 and provided to the British in June 1941 (5 months before the US entered WWII) for the Middle East and North African Campaigns as an air superiority fighter and ground attack. While it was quickly overshadowed by the P-51, it was still a very popular export and wound up seeing service in seven different nations flying in three major theaters, North Africa, the Southwest Pacific and China. In all, 13,738 P-40’s were manufactured, making it the third most-produced WWII fighter produced by the United States (behind the P-51 and P-47).

SR-71 Blackbird

The Blackbird is one of the most phenomenal aircraft ever built. Its design and implementation were accelerated by the 1960 downing of Francis Gary Powers U-2 aircraft. The initial design was designated A-12 and was being flown by the CIA by 1963. The SR-71 is a military version that looked similar, but it was longer, carried more fuel and had a second cockpit for a dedicated crewmember to run the reconnaissance equipment (camera, side-looking airborne radar and signals intelligence sensors). The SR-71 evaded detection (and being shot down like the U-2!) by utilizing its low radar signature in conjunction with extremely high altitude flight (above 80,000 feet) and it’s blazing speed (Mach 3+).

This high speed created an interesting challenge with the heat was generated. When at speed, the ski got so hot that there was a significant expansion of the titanium skin. In order to allow for this skin expansion, the fuselage panels were designed to be loose on the ground (it leaked like a sieve on the ground), but expanded to fill in the gaps and stop leaking once airborne at speed. This generated yet another problem that resulted in launching the SR-71’s with minimal fuel loads and having them immediately re-fuel with specially fit KC-135’s once airborne. Another interesting design for the heat was corrugation of the wings. While it is counter-intuitive, major portions of the inboard wings were corrugated. This allowed the skin to expand (flattening the corrugations) at high speed. A smooth skin would have split or curled.

UH-1 Iroquois (but nicknamed the Huey)

The UH-1 was designed to fulfill the Korean War medevac mission but didn’t fly until 1959. This iconic aircraft was heavily used in the Vietnam conflict and expanded into civilian use after the conflict ended. There were over 16,000 built between 1956 and 1987 and they were used by all three branches of the US military, 10 foreign militaries and many civilians. The TH-1H variants of the UH-1 is still being flown today by the US Air Force as their rotor-wing training for new pilots…and there are still untold numbers of UH-1 being flown by civilians.

Who can resist a space shuttle? I actually got to see it lift off down at Cape Canaveral, Florida. I also went down to watch the very last shuttle, Atlantis, go up. It was both exciting to be there, but sad, knowing it was the end of an era.

So, I spent so long in there that I ran out of battery. Yes, I did. So, I think I will have to continue some time down the road and show you the rest of the place. Including the gift shop, which I will go to first! I promise!

I feel so bad about that, how about I give you a bonus one???

Enjoy!

Don't ever forget what wonderful world we live in, people. Let's hold hands around the globe and make this earth really spin. Some days, it is not as easy to see, so we must try harder to give everyone the proper focus.

Thanks for stopping by! All words and images are mine and can be also found on my various social media sites.

¸.♥´¸.•♥¨) Let the sun shine in on your life
So the joy may touch your soul
(¸.•´♥ (¸.•´ ♥

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