TMSBrad

Technically, it's an A-12 OXCART, the predecessor of the SR-71, but you get the idea.

Knight

awesome pics, funny thing is that the plane was designed when the original mustang was.

Evil_Capri

ford4v429

the only 'cooler' Aircraft to me is the XB-70 bomber down at Wright-Patterson- sadly its squirrelled away back in the R/D hanger where you can barely see it now...Seeing a SR up close and thinking something that big can fly faster than a 30-0-6 bullet is almost hard to believe- seeing that mammoth beautiful white bomber with 6 of those engines, and similar top speed though is kinda a jaw dropping thing...woulda been cool to have seen them fly. The XB70 used to sit outside, then was the centerpiece in the modern flight gallery until a new curator came along and decided to paint the buildings black inside and make a sinister cold war hanger with rails around all the aircraft out of what used to be a bright/wide open 'look up in the wheelwells' type of
place...The R/D hanger is still that way- The YF12A (CIA's version of the SR71- it had guns) had a folding lower fin that the SR's did not- you can see up in there where the titanium skin had chaffed at all the wiring near the hinges...kinda goofy maybe, but I thought it was kinda cool to see- this stuff is still 'gotta get the job done' and butt splices/tape/whatever still pops up once in a while I held my camcorder back inside the X15's engine, could see all the fuel inlets(like showerheads almost) sadly there was also a empty coke can in there though too- somebody should have their butt kicked for that, stuff like that is probably why now you cant get too close up in the museum... Wright Patt I think is still the coolest museum around...

Hey that picture is huntsville aint it? been there/saw that- when I was down there they were erecting the mockup of the SaturnV- only had the first stage up but sheesh- that thing was freaking huge! I assume the Saturn V is complete now- if so, how many miles away can you see it from ?

TMSBrad

Yeah, that's Huntsville, my home town. The Saturn V replica is up, the real one is layed down in stages in the building behind it. You really can't get a feel for the size from the photos. I think it's 228 feet tall.

StangMahn

that's my favorite plane ever

to give you an idea of how big it is, here's a pic of the chief designer werner von braun, standing next to only one of the 5 f-1 engines that powered the Saturn V

429 Boss Mustang

thats what she said lol jk bro that is pretty big ill hate to behind that thing when it took off

TMSBrad

This is Bridget and me at the replica in 2002. I'm 6' 0".

hiznherponies

Awesome pics Brad!! Took the kids up there once a couple of years ago and saw that very plane. Too cool!! I used to be stationed at RAF Mildenhall where the SR-71 operated from, all I can say is, WICKED!!! To see one of them accelerate down the runway is something else!! Oh, and btw, the A-12/SR-71 was designed in the early '50's.

future9er24

Great pics Brad

That Saturn V is freaking huge... I wonder if I could swap it's engine into the II.....

TMSBrad

I wonder how many IIs you could get in the Saturn V?

future9er24

I'm not sure there are enough around that haven't been chopped up for hot rods to fill the entire Saturn V

JonCo

such big modes of transportation!

tacbear

I grew up in Huntsville and my dad worked for NASA. I was there at the Space and Rocket center when they moved the Saturn V in. It was an awsome sight!!

Cheese302

thats an awesome shoot.

Kingfish

Been there, seen that. In Nov '03 I ferried a plane from CT out to Dayton for an Air Force LTC that bought it for the Wright-Patt flying club. While I was there he gave me a guided tour of the museum, and I got a tour of the back hangars where the Valkyrie was. Very cool airplane. The adjoining hangar had a presidential DC-6 and Connie. The main display had a B-36, which I'd never seen before. Absolutely monstrous.

429 Boss Mustang

dam king seen alot

ford4v429

since reading as a kid, I remember it as 365 feet, same as days in a year- that is if the mockup is 'full sized' which I thought it was...I know it was freaking huge.

thanks for the pic, makes me want to go back just to see the 'fake' one- so hard to imagine something so huge was needed to haul a couple tons on its journey. At KSC in Florida, they have the 'other' leftover restored/inside now- the coolest thing besides the jaw dropping size is they have a really cool scale model with all the cutaways on one side- by far the most impressive piece of work Ive ever seen- the crew that built that model had some major talent.

TMSBrad

According to Wikipedia, which is never wrong, it was 363 feet.

ford4v429

hmm...just had to check- did a quick search, found most sites say 363 feet, but according to this old NASA thing it was 365...

http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/saturn_apollo/lab.pdf

we got our 'worldbook encyclopedia' set back in '71, I'm sure it was 365 in there too, but who knows - in any event its pretty freakin big