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Description of Pictures: The main Air and Space Museum building downtown reopened to the public on October 14 and I had a 10am timed ticket so I'd be one of the first to see it. At this point, eight of the 23 galleries are open, just over 34%.
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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
SIAIR_220206_06.JPG: Did you know...?
These three "Skyrocket" junipers were planted to represent the early days of the National Air and Space Museum. Before this building opened in 1976, several large rockets in the museum's collection were displayed along the west side of the Arts and Industries Building to create "Rocket Row" (right). What other plants can you spot in this galactic garden with an "outer space" theme?
SIAIR_220206_17.JPG: Museum Entrance
[ The museum had closed in late January and wasn't going to reopen -- temporarily -- in mid-March but the signs still made you think that you could get in if only you walked all the war around it to the other entrance. ]
SIAIR_220306_01.JPG: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Open During Construction
Entrance on National Mall Side
[ In actuality, the museum had closed at the end of January. It would temporarily open the next weekend for the If/Then She Can women in STEM 3-D printed statues.
SIAIR_220306_33.JPG: What's happening here?!
We are allowing our Pawpaw tree to form a colony! The pawpaw is a massive tree that produces mango/banana-like fruits, the largest edible fruit in N. America.
SIAIR_220306_37.JPG: We're Under Construction
The Museum will temporarily close for construction in late March 2022. We hope to see you when we reopen eight new galleries next fall.
SIAIR_220306_52.JPG: The National Air and Space Museum is CLOSED today.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
SIAIR_220409_01.JPG: Transforming the National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum gratefully acknowledges the leadership donors whose support is helping us reimagine our National Mall building for the next generation of innovators and explorers.
The first phase of the 23 newly transformed galleries will open in 2022. To learn more about how you can be a part of the Museum's transformation, contact NASMmembership@si.edu or visit IgniteTomorrow.si.edu
The donors are listed presumably by level of their donation. The biggest are
Jeff Bezos
Boeing
Raytheon Technologies
Kenneth C. Griffin
Thomas W. Haas Foundation
The Hillside Foundation - Allan and Shelley Holt
Kislak Family Foundation / Jay I. Kislak
TEXTRON
The second tier includes
David M. Rubenstein
Apollo 11 Commemorative Coin Program
SIAIR_220409_10.JPG: The National Air and Space Museum is temporarily closed for construction to bring you new galleries.
Opening Fall 2022
SIAIR_220409_17.JPG: The National Air and Space Museum is temporarily closed for construction to bring you new galleries.
Opening Fall 2022
SIAIR_221014_001.JPG: The National Air and Space Museum will open October 14, 2022.
Reserve your timed-entry passes here: airandspace.si.edu/dc
Visit si.edu/visit for information on Smithsonian museums' operating hours.
SIAIR_221014_015.JPG: "There's more to life than being a passenger."
-- Amelia Earhart, Record-setter and Feminist
SIAIR_221014_019.JPG: "Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity."
-- Mae Jemison, Space Pioneer
SIAIR_221014_022.JPG: "The real barrier wasn't in the sky but in our knowledge."
-- Chuck Yeager, First Mach 1 Pilot
SIAIR_221014_055.JPG: Smithsonian Enterprises
Notice of Filming
This area is being used to record a project for Smithsonian Enterprises.
SIAIR_221014_075.JPG: Blue Room
That's slang for an aircraft bathroom. It probably derived from the "blue ice" chemical used to treat bathroom waste.
SIAIR_221014_078.JPG: A Titanium "Bathtub"
The cockpit of the USAF A-10 "Warthog" is made of titanium, protecting the pilot against groundfire and shrapnel during low-altitude attacks.
SIAIR_221014_080.JPG: Evacuation Station
Commercial Airplane Toilet
Waste Storage
When you flush, waste travels through pipes to the rear of the plane, where it remains in a tank until landing. The tank is then emptied by special service trucks.
Vacuum Flush
When you flush, a trapdoor in the base of the toilet opens and a blue liquid disinfectant fills the bowl. That loud roar is not the outdoor air, but the sound of a vacuum being created and pushing the contents into a holding tank. It's powerful: exiting waste has been clocked at a velocity faster than a Formula 1 race car.
Saving Water
The vacuum system used only about 1/2 gallon (2 liters) of fluid per flush, compared to 1.6 gallons (6 liters) for typical water-saving toilets.
SIAIR_221014_083.JPG: Pressure Drop
As air speeds up, its pressure goes down. When you activate a hand dryer, the pressure in the fast-moving air -- a fluid -- drops relative to room air. Learn more about Bernoulli's principle in Textron How Things Fly.
SIAIR_221014_084.JPG: Simple Style
In 1936, the DC-3 airliner introduced a level of style and comfort -- including private bathrooms -- that for the first time made flying profitable and pleasant. Passengers could refresh themselves in a bathroom equipped with a toilet and sink. See a DC-3 in America by Air.
SIAIR_221014_088.JPG: Go With the Flow
Fluids easily change shape depending on their viscosity (resistance to flow). Air and water -- both fluids -- have low viscosity, so the air from hand dryers and water from faucets flow easily.
SIAIR_221014_099.JPG: Carl Sagan
Author and Astronomer
"The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space."
SIAIR_221014_103.JPG: Sally Ride
First US Woman in Space
"Weightlessness is a great equalizer."
SIAIR_221014_107.JPG: Chuck Yeager
First Mach 1 Pilot
"The real barrier wasn't in the sky but in our knowledge."
SIAIR_221014_114.JPG: T-70 X-Wing Starfighter
Screen-Used Vehicle
The compelling vision of spaceflight imagined in Star Wars fundamentally changed how space science fiction was envisioned.
SIAIR_221014_117.JPG: T-70 X-Wing Starfighter
Resistance Fighter
Both the Rebellion and Resistance used X-wing fighters in their respective conflicts against the Galactic Empire and First Order.
SIAIR_221014_170.JPG: Jacqueline Cochran
First woman Mach 1 pilot
"Adventure is a state of mind -- and spirit."
SIAIR_221014_182.JPG: Note the green sign is blank on this side, but says "EXIT" on the other.
SIAIR_221014_190.JPG: Charles A. Lindbergh
First to fly the Atlantic solo
"The Spirit of St. Louis was a lens focused on the future."
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
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2022 photos: This year included major setbacks -- including Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the Supreme Court imposing the evangelical version of sharia law -- but also some steps forward like the results of the midterms.
This website had its 20th anniversary in August, 2022.
Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Trips this year:
(February) a visit to see Dad and Dixie in Asheville, NC with some other members of my family,
(July) a trip out west for the return of San Diego Comic-Con, and
(October) a long weekend in New York to cover New York Comic-Con.
Number of photos taken this year: about 386,000, up 2020 and 2021 levels but still way below pre-pandemic levels.
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