Chile page 3
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This is Jackie Kennedy's gown...I think she borrowed it from the Elves
For some reason, some of the exhibits were covered. I can make out some experimental high-altitude test planes, and the famous Soyuz 19 -Apollo 18 dock.
The X-29, an experimental forward-swept winged plane. It was so unsable that it required a computer to keep it in the air, and if that computer malfunctioned, the pilot had to eject.
Another experimental plane, the HIMAT, designed to test the boundaries of agility in air combat, and a modern example of computer-aided design.
More computer-aided design, this time of a turboprop.
The North American Aviation X-15, experimental planes tested in the upper limits of the atmosphere. They, were dropped from a B-29 bomber after already attaining a very high altitude... then proceeded upwards. They, for all intents and purposes, got into space... and reached speeds as high as 6.7 times the speed of sound. The project ceased after 199 flights.
This guy will hit you before you've even heard it coming... why? Because it's the Bell X-1, piloted by Chuck Yeager, the first plane to (officially) breach the sound barrier.
Speaking of firsts, just over 10 years after Glamorous Glennis' supersonic (the name of Yeager's X-1) flight, the Russians pulled a fast one on us and put Sputnik 1 into space.
Not to be oudone, about twelve years after that... the US put a man on the moon. Whoah... and here's the heat shield of the Apollo 11 command module (named Columbia)
Apparently, there's music on the moon as well. Maybe that's what Holst was referring to with the whole "music of the spheres" deal
When I walked out, the rain had ceased... and the St. Patrick's day parade was just getting started (a whole day before St Patrick's day)
A pipe band... and here is its drum Major...notice the harp on his belt to indicate Irish origin rather than Scottish (which is what the style of bagpipes seem to suggest)
...and most of the parade was like this... costumes and Irish dancing.
..and some music. Irish dance music, rather than moon rock.
At least these kids coordinated their colours well... although the pink sneakers did kinda stand out.
...and what's a parade without some pennyfarthings?
old meets new... a pennyfarthing and a segway.
A ridiculous green... thing.
Let's play a game - see if you can spot the masonic symbol
I went on a very cool (free!) walking tour run by a company called DC by foot. The guy in the orange cap was our guide.
Aahh... the WWII memorial and the Washington Monument... which look quite different during the day. The monument is exactly 555ft and 5/8 of an inch high. The stone changes colour because they ran out of money as it was being built, then when they resumed, they had to use slightly different stone (but from the same quarry)
I'm about two weeks early for the cherry blossom festival. These were gifts to the US from Japan.
Our guide was a good laugh... here he is calling a payphone. (she's a bit young for you though...)
The Vietnam Veterans memorial is peculiar... it was a result of a design competition whose winner was an architecture student from Yale (who got a B- for this very design). This half of it points towards the Washington Monument.
In the middle, it begins in 1959 and lists all the names in chronological order of being killed. The beginning and the end are in the same place... symbolizing: "shit, we're back where we started" (the design wasn't supposed to be political at all... but this somehow managed to slip through)
The other half points to the lincoln memorial. One half point to the man who made this nation, the other points to the man who kept it together... and vietnam... where did it get us? hmmm.... I sense another veiled political message.
Some more statues of soldiers... carrying an M16 assault rifle (man on the right) and an M60 machine gun (man on the left). Notice thatthe man in the middle has one dog-tag tied to his boots... because it would make it easier to identify the body in the event that the lower half becomes seperated from the upper half.
yeah... this view looks HEAPS different by day.
The federal reserve. Don't like interest rates? Go throw some stones...