Grand Tour of
the West
July 16 to August 1, 2003
July 16 to August 1, 2003
Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center
Tinker AFB
Oklahoma City Capitol
Elsewhere in Oklahoma
Route 66
George AFB Boneyard
Edwards AFB Outskirts
Mojave Airport
Planes of Fame Museum
Helicopters
Test Rockets
FAQTinker AFB
Oklahoma City Capitol
Elsewhere in Oklahoma
Route 66
George AFB Boneyard
Edwards AFB Outskirts
Mojave Airport
Planes of Fame Museum
Helicopters
Test Rockets
Many people may be surprised that the second-best space museum in the world (second only to the National Air and Space Museum) is found in the middle of Kansas, far away from any of the interstates or large metropolitan areas in the state. This is the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, in Hutchinson, Kansas. I visited it on July 17, 2003.
image: An unmanned Vostok spacecraft, which was flown after Yuri Gagarin's historic flight. The Cosmosphere holds the largest collection of Russian space hardware in the West.
image: An extremely dark image of an unflown Mercury spacecraft on display in the museum.
image: The same Mercury spacecraft, but in IR mode.
image: An unflown Gemini spacecraft, also in great condition.
image: A 16-mm movie camera used in space.
image: 35-mm still cameras.
image: More cameras.
The Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Tinker AFB, has an impressive outdoor "heritage airpark," which hosts a good collection of airplanes.
image: An overall shot of the airpark's B-29 (likely actually a WB-29), which was used in weather forecasting, tail number 427343.
image: The nose of the B-29.
image: The front of the B-29.
image: A side view of the B-29.
image: The B-29's wing, framing a C-135 Stratolifter transport.
image: A rear view of the B-29. There aren't very many B-29s in the world, so I was naturally quite excited to see this.
image: The C-135 Stratolifter transport, dressed as Air Force One, tail number 12671.
image: An odd shot of the C-47 at the airpark, tail number 2150761.
image: The front of an F-4 Phantom II, tail number 66-518.
image: The airpark's B-52 viewed from a distance, tail number 60695. This is one of two B-52s on permanent display in Oklahoma City. The other, tail number 70038, is mounted on pedestals in the aging State Fairgrounds complex further north.
image: A complete view of the KC-135.
image: The side of the C-47.
image: The side of a B-47 on display, tail number 0-34257. Another B-47 is on display next to a B-52 at the State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City, tail number 012387.
image: A sillohuette of an F-105 Thunderchief, tail number 62-360.
image: The other side of the F-105.
image: A sillohuette of an A-7 Corsair II, tail number 72-175.
image: The B-52's engines.
image: The B-52's nose art, identifying it as the "Early Riser."
image: A bright shot of the A-7 Corsair II.
image: The B-52, viewed from across the parking lot.
image: The two jet fighters, A-7 Corsair II and F-105 Thunderchief.
The Oklahoma City Capitol Building was a site we visited on our last day in the area, before heading west to California. The building was built at the time of the first World War, but it did not get its dome until 2002.
image: An interior shot of the new dome.
image: Detail of the decorations on the inside of the dome.
image: Another interior shot. I shot plenty of other interiors of the building, but the rest were intended to be stitched together as panoramas.
image: Winged lions flanked the dome. They look distinctly Babylonian to me, like something from the Processional Way of Babylon (reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany).
image: The dome and an oil derrick. This one is just for show, but the Oklahoma capitol building is noteable for being the only such building in the world with an oil well on its site.
image: A nice, not very dramatic shot of the entire building, viewed from the south.
image: A horrendous shot of an E-3 Sentry "AWACS" plane, operated out of Tinker Air Force Base. We saw them fly overhead nearly every day in the week that we were there, but this was the only time I had a camera on hand. Compare this shot to one I took in March of the same type of plane.
image: Leaving Oklahoma on Route 66, a shot of Oklahoma City's skyline.
image: A building that looks distinctly like the Empire State Building, in shape and styling. The monolith in the lower left is the Ford Center, a big entertainment complex with a design startlingly similar to the Colosseum.
image: Another shot of the Oklahoma City Skyline.
America's "mother road" runs all of the way from St. Louis to Los Angeles. I'd been on various parts of it before, including being stuck on a toll road to Tulsa which happened to be Route 66. This time, we took it from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles, although we cheated and drove on Interstate 40, which now follows its path. The real Route 66 is just a frontage road to I-40. This route we took exactly replicates the path taken by the migrant workers to California during the Great Depression (including the fictitious Joads from The Grapes of Wrath).
image: Helicopters (likely UH-60 Black Hawks) lined up at some sort of military installation, spotted soon after we entered California.
On a Saturday in our trip, I took a tour of the Mojave desert, or at least that which is presently accessible to the public. Those who have no interest in airplanes will not understand the attraction, but aerospace fanatics will see readily that this place is something akin to Mecca. This is the place of two great air test facilities: Edwards Air Force Base (which we could not visit), and the Mojave Airport (which we could). The entire place has airplanes ridden into the essence of its existence. My guide on this epic tour was Niels Michael Scofield (or just Mike Scofield), renowned public speaker and dedicated eccentric. Our trip was made interest by his knowledge of the area. The first place we stopped was at George Air Force Base, which now is home to a "boneyard": a final resting place for countless decomissioned airliners.
image: A panorama of the boneyard, assembled from a number of individual elements.
image: A trashed plane of unknown type.
image: Some planes, including (on the left), the Airborne Surveillance Testbed (AST), a modified Boeing 767. Boeing has a site that describes the plane here.
image: An old hangar and water tower at George Air Force Base.
image: Another shot of the AST. The "cupola" on top of the ordinary 767 holds an extremely sensitive long-wavelength IR sensor.
image: The AST, viewed through a fence. This one-of-a-kind airplane was regrettably scrapped in July 2007.
image: Mike Scofield, with his airport-white Ford Explorer.
Although we didn't get to go inside Edwards Air Force Base, we were able to drive to the north of it, and peer over its borders and strive for glimpses of things inside. Perhaps the experience of knowing that I was passing within close proximity to the base of operations for aircraft such as the X-1, the flying wing bombers, and the X-15 was awe-inspiring. I must return and visit the base for real. Now, all I have to show of the base are a few pictures I shot while driving past on the road.
image: Perched atop Leuhman Ridge on the northern limits of the base it Test Stand 1-E, an inactive rocket engine test stand, which was used in the development testing of the Rocketdyne F-1 engine, five of which powered the first stage of the Saturn V rocket.
image: And here is Test Stand 1-D, another inactive test stand, also used for the development of the F-1 engine. It has been recently refurbished, which is why its tanks are white but 1-E's tanks are not. The white tower behind 1-D is Test Stand 1-C, which was originally used for testing the F-1. It was converted into its present form to test the solid rocket boosters of the Titan rockets, although only a few such tests ever took place on this stand.
image: An overall view of the ridge with the rocket test stands, showing their relative positioning. Special thanks to Alan D. Keizer for describing the test stands' use and history to me.
image: Since I couldn't visit the real place (this time), I settled with taking a picture of the sign pointing to Edwards Air Force Base.
Those paying attention to the news in 2003 would have recognized Mojave Airport as the site of the construction and testing of SpaceShipOne, which the next year became the first private manned spacecraft. While I didn't get to see SpaceShipOne before it made it to the Smithsonian, I did see several other things of interest. I revisted the airport in 2005 and 2006, and each time the place was a little different.
image: Like George Air Force Base, the Mojave Airport also hosts an airliner boneyard.
image: A wide, epic shot of the boneyard.
image: A row of decommisioned red planes.
image: A composite view of the N4OSC Stargazer, an L-1011 modified to serve as a launch platform for Pegasus rockets.
image: The tail of the Stargazer.
image: This rib on the bottom of the Stargazer hooks up to the Pegasus. This mounting was also used for two captive carry flights of the X-34 technology demonstrator. The program was cancelled.
image: A full shot of the Stargazer.
image: A close-up of the Stargazer fuselage.
image: A front view of the Stargazer.
image: A closeup of the Stargazer's front.
image: Caution signs on the fence bounding off the flight line.
image: I recognized this landmark right away: the Rotary Rocket hangar, at which the one Rotary Rocket (or Roton) prototype was tested. Rotary Rocket was a company with the fantastic idea of a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) rocket, which would return to earth under the power of helicopter blades. Evidently, the idea was too fantastic, since the project went under a few years before I visited. Evidently, the hangar still exists, but I don't know where the Rotary Rocket prototype was at the time.
image: The rear of an airliner, now mostly missing its tail.
image: Some dead airliners.
image: The Scaled Composites Hangar, where the Voyager globe-circling aircraft was built. The aircraft was designed by Burt Rutan and flown by his brother Dick. I met both of them at the OshKosh Flyin in 1999.
image: A closeup of the door of the same hangar. I fancy that SpaceShipOne resided inside this hangar at that very moment, but I don't really know.
image: An F-4 Phantom, used as a chase plane.
image: Another F-4. I saw at least seven, although some of them were on static display.
image: Another shot of the Rotary Rocket hangar.
image: A closeup of the Rotary Rocket logo, and the top of the hangar doors.
image: An AerMacchi MB-326M, an Italian jet trainer. (Thanks to Dave Gorman for identifying this mysterious plane for me.)
image: A box car bearing the image of Voyager.
image: A closeup of the same box car.
The Planes of Fame Museum is a sizeable air museum with a large collection, out in the middle of nowhere. I had heard about it vaguely for a few years, and I finally decided to go and check it out. It was a devil of a place to find. When I finally made it there, my reaction was mixed. It had a good collection, but the displays weren't very well-arranged, and there was no sense of continuity. I can recommend it for airplane nuts, but not the casual observer.
image: A dramatic shot of an F-86F Sabre.
image: The nose of an Avenger in front of a huge American flag.
image: The back of a Corsair.
image: The big, brute-ish Bearcat.
image: A bright shot of a P-51 entitled Wee Willy.
image: A closeup of the name Wee Willy.
image: A dramatic sillohuette of the Wee Willy.
image: A through-the-tail shot of the Wee Willy.
image: The cockpit of the Ho-IV, a thin, graceful, flying-wing sailplane built by the Horten brothers in Germany during World War II.
image: A biplane, the exact identity of which I have forgotten.
image: A V-1, shot with a "dutch tilt."
image: The "business end" of a replica "Natter" ("Viper") fighter, full of rockets.
image: A replica of the Me-163 Komet, the world's first (and only) rocket-powered interceptor. This fantastic and dangerous design reached the front too late to make any impact on the course of World War II.
image: The rear of the D-558-2 Skyrocket. This type of plane (of which there were three built) was the first to fly faster than Mach 2.
image: A front view of the Skyrocket.
image: The side of the N9M-B, one of the two surviving examples of Jack Northrop's great flying wings (which predated the B-2s by at least thirty years). The N9M-B was a 1/3 scale prototype for the B-35 (prop-powered) and B-49 (jet-powered) bombers, which never entered production. Fans of classic sci-fi will recognize the B-49 as the aircraft that dropped the nuclear bomb on the martian war machines in The War of the Worlds.
image: A front view of the N9M-B. Notice the sleek shape.
image: A P-59, of the type of the first American jet plane, sans its wings. The sign identifies it as America's first jet fighter.
image: A 1/2 scale model of the Apollo-LES spacecraft. The museum also had a dedicated space exhibit, but it was in rather poor condition.
image: A cargo plane, which I believe is a C-131 Samaritan. It wasn't on display in the main museum, and I couldn't get a very good look at it.
image: A B-25 Mitchell, parked across the flight line. The Planes of Fame Museum is located in an operating airport.
At the beach near San Diego, we witnessed the flyover of dozens of Navy helicopters of several different types. Special thanks to Michael Hopper for correctly identifying them for me.
image: A huge CH-53 Super Stallion in flight.
image: The CH-53 again.
image: A Twin Huey in flight. This differs from the original Huey used in Vietnam in that it has two engines instead of just one.
image: A twin-rotored CH-46 Sea Knight.
image: A flyover of AH-1J Sea Cobras. (Like the Twin Huey, these aircraft each use an extra engine.)
image: More Sea Knights.
The little Utah town of Green River has a few test rockets on display in a park on main street, which I have stopped to observe at various points along my life. This was the first time I looked at them with the aid of a camera.
image: An Athena missile, such as those that were launched from the nearby test range.
image: A display of Loki-Darts, showing their boosted-dart technology.
Well, that's it! Thus was the extent of my epic Grand Tour of the West.
willy@wilhelm-aerospace.org