I take up where I left off in the museum, heading toward the modern era. As you can see, paint jobs are not as interesting. But sleek airfoil designs. This first craft is a Bird of Prey, used to study stealth strategies. It was named after the Klingon warship. This was declassified in early 2000’s as the technology became standard practice. The continuous shell design reduces the ability of radar to detect the craft.
Below it is the F22 Raptor. Their exhibit details some of the strategies the design increases its stealth. Radar systems today can pick up reflections from a pilot’s helmet, so the canopy is coated with a film to reflect radar waves (This is what their display says. I’m not sure it’s entirely correct. Radar detects a ship, aircraft, etc. when waves bounce back. I think the film is anti-reflective and, like the paint, absorbs those radar waves instead.) The paint and an interior weapons bay reduce visibility. It’s basically a gray shell moving as quietly through the air as a plane can.
At this point, I took a break. We needed propane, and I learned you can refill tanks. I thought they needed to be special tanks, but any tank you typically exchange can be refilled and it’s cheaper. Who knew! (not us). Some U-Hauls have refill stations, so I took a bottle over to the one near the museum. Super easy; we’ll do that from now on. On the way back, I took a photo outside the museum.
This is their R&D section. They showcase some aircraft that never made it to production. They also had a mockup of a space shuttle. They offer a tour of the shuttle, so they didn’t have much information written on displays. It did show some of the interior spaces and a sample payload.
Bell designed and tested a VSTOL (Vertical Short Take-off and Landing) aircraft in the 50’s and 60’s, the XV-3 Textron. In essence, it’s a combo helicopter and plane. It takes off and lands like a helicopter, but the rotors can rotate 90 degrees and it travels more like an airplane. The Osprey is the aircraft today that does this.
Canada tested the VZ-9AV Avrocar shown below. It was also designed for vertical takeoff and landing; however, this design was too unstable to control during flight. Love the flying saucer design though!
We’re getting better at remembering to take photos of us at these places, so here you go. I look exhausted. I relaxed in the truck after this until Ben was finished.
The morning was clear enough to get some photos, but I didn’t think to get out my camera for our walk. It was too cold to go back for it, so I used my phone instead. Here’s the fam camp.
They had a lake with a boat ramp. Cody and I walked down to it. I bet it’s a nice place to watch the airplanes take off from the closest runways. I do wish now I had gone to get the camera. Oh well. =)
We packed up and headed out mid-morning. Our next stop – a farm in Indiana.
Ben and Megan Travel the World 