"Brian Burger" wrote in message

The Museum of Flight - http://www.museumofflight.org/ - is amazing.
They've got a Concorde - and it's TINY -

All that titanium in the back....yummy. Notice that the A-12 (SR-71) is
bare, and you can see its titanium skin. Titanium is like porn for battle
robot geeks (Ours: Rosie the Riveter I and II, RobotWars) By the way, if
you're ever in the market for Ti, you can get it from Boeing's surplus
liquidation shop in Seattle.

The SR71 looks FAST even sitting on pylons;

Did you get to sit in the cockpit of the one that wrecked? That's where all
the dads hang out while the kids are fiddling with the F-18 cockpit.

(and there's a new musuem supposed to be opening at Everett/Paine Fld in
early 2005 - very cool!)

If you can get to the Boeing restoration facility at Paine Fld BEFORE the
museum opens, it'll be worth the flight down. Call for the hours. Last
time I was there they had a whole section of works in progress that you
could just roam around among, while gray-haired mechanics as old-looking as
modern aviation rivetted away or worked over a Vampire engine. Then the Air
Force showed up and recovered the D-12 drone launch rail because it was the
only one left in existence and they needed it that day. (Hmmm...was 1994
or 1995, right in the middle of some nuke crisis with North Korea which had
'em all speculating and nudging each other.) Bits of planes and motors and
helicopters and even the original Boeing hydrofoil prototype...

Once I'd determined I'd seen everything there, they said "Oh...go check out
the other hangar" and then it was just my girlfriend and I in a back hangar
filled with helicopters, space capsules, a German bf108 and, out on the
tarmac a DeHavilland Comet. Awesome day!

-c