Dora 9,
I'm glad you liked the locomotive pictures. They were acquired at significant personal cost and inconvenience. I tripped and skinned my knee quite badly and then while recovering from the shock, I discovered I had locked my keys in the car. Luckily the AAA came to my rescue very quickly.
bri,
I didn't think of photographing road-side aircraft until after I had driven past the CF-5 in Calgary; I decided the Claresholm Harvard was too far off the road; I didn't know about the Silver Stars in Lethbridge and Warner. However, thanks for adding them to my travelogue.
Spooky 2,
Thanks for the suggestion. Las Vegas is too far north. I've decided to drive via Edwards and Lancaster.
Plenty of aircraft today, plus some more geology.
I left Winslow earlier than I planned, because I was still on Mountain Daylight Time and I hadn't realized that Arizona stays on Standard Time. I drove a short distance west on I40 and turned off on a road which must be unique in terms of its name and speed limit:
The crater rim is on the skyline and looks like a small ridge at this distance. It's a lot different when you get there:
Three-quarters of a mile wide and 560' deep (originally deeper), created 50,000 years ago by a 50 m wide nickel-iron meteorite. Estimated impact energy 10 megatons.
There are two aeronautical connections, one I knew about and one I was surprised by.
In the courtyard of the visitor center is an Apollo "boiler plate" module, which was used for flotation and recovery tests. It is there to commemorate the use of the crater by Gene Shoemaker to teach crater geology to Apollo astronauts:
In August 1964, a C-150 pilot tried to orbit within the crater and got done-in by the density altitude. The elevation is 5700'.
Most of the wreckage has been removed, but one wing and the rear fuselage are still there. No one is allowed on the crater floor anymore.
I left the crater and continued west on I40, which follows the course of the old Route 66, through Winona and then Flagstaff, where I turned northwards for the Grand Canyon. On the way I stopped off at the Planes of Fame museum at Valle. I spent MUCH more time there than I had planned. Here's a selection of pictures.
Grumman F-11-F1 Tiger (looks like a Gnat on steroids):
Siemens-Schuckert D IV
A very sad Vampire
A Constellation being returned to the air after 20 years
While I was there, the crew mounted the last engine.
It took them about twenty minutes to get it bolted on. Not a hard-hat, safety glasses, steel-toed boot or fluorescent jacket in sight!
If restoring an essentially complete aircraft doesn't appeal and you've got plenty of money, how about this?
Take the wing of a KC-97 (and engines):
and mate them with the rear fuselage of a B-50:
and the front fuselage stored at Chino and turn it into an airworthy B-50. Not just any B-50 - this fuselage is 46-0010 Lucky Lady II, which flew around the world non-stop in 1949.
Anyone know what this is?
To be continued.