I recently had an opportunity to inspect a MQ-1 Predator up close at United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.  It was very different from the other aircraft in the collection.  Starting in the early flight gallery, you notice that the aircraft grow increasingly complex as time passes.  Until you get to the Predator which is amazingly simple.  In fact, it seems like an overgrown remote control model- except that the Predator is lethal. 

In the past, the risk of pilot losses has limited our deployment of airpower. The Predator allows us to deploy air assets without that risk. 

The question has been posed by others but bears repeating.  Will airpower without consequences lead us to a dangerous place? 

And what happens when someone uses these weapons against us?

Here are photos from my visit last week.

...Want the ultimate space collectible? Consider a space shuttle. The orbiters have flown 29 years and have a few miles on them (tens of millions), but soon all three will be up for grabs.

Some time this year—right now it looks like September 30—NASA plans to shut down the program. For all the shuttle’s successes in missions like deploying satellites, fixing the Hubble Space Telescope, and building the International Space Station, flying it was always risky. Two orbiters were lost, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, killing 14 astronauts. Now NASA says it will donate the ones remaining— Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour—to whoever it feels can provide the best homes. In 2008, the agency issued a Request for Information, and21 institutions entered the competition. NASA won’t say when it will ask for formal proposals or identify the candidates, but some have declared themselves, apparently feeling that if you want a national treasure, you shouldn’t be shy about saying so.

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I'm hoping that National Museum of the USAF (formerly the USAF Museum) in Dayton snags one of the shuttle when they are retired.  The NMUSAF is one the nation's premier aviation museums and a space shuttle would be a great addition to their collection which already includes many one of a kind artifacts.

The latest issue of Air & Space magazine is out and it has some great articles.

I especially liked the articles on Mars rovers, the upcoming disposition of the remaining space shuttles, MiG vs F-18 war games, and the great Kelly Johnson. 

Check it out online

As the yearlong campaign to clean its prized B-17 draws to a close, the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum has the next target already in its sights: the restoration of the Flying Fortress to a World War II appearance.

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The odd story of NASA’s unused wingless escape vehicle for the International Space Station is finally over.

The prototype X-38, a 7-person, unpowered, totally automatic lifeboat, was officially laid to rest at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska last weekend.

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Here photos from my recent visit.

I just added nearly 400 photos form my recent visit the USAF Museum.  I also took some time re-organive the archives to make things easier to find.  Over the next several weeks I'll highlighting some of the new additions here in the blog.  Most of the new photos are re-shoots of aircraft that on previous visits I wasn't able to get good shots of due to my equipment and lack of skill.  This year I took a monopod with me and between that and tweaking my settings on my Canon 30D I was able to get some decent shots of stuff that I had trouble with before.

All Aircraft Archive

For example.

Old B-45 Photo:

New improved B-45 photo: 

The combination of near black paint and dim lighting made the SR-71 particularly challenging:

New photo:

From Wikipedia

The SPAD S.VII was the first of a series of highly successful biplane fighter aircraft produced by Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD) during the First World War. Like its successors, the S.VII was renowned as a sturdy and rugged aircraft with good climbing and diving characteristics. It was also a stable gun platform, although pilots used to the more manoeuvrable Nieuport fighters found it heavy on the controls. It was flown by a number of the famous aces, such as France's Georges Guynemer and Italy's Francesco Baracca.

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From Wikpedia

The Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender (Curtiss-Wright CW-24), was a 1940s United States prototype fighter aircraft built by Curtiss. Along with the XP-54 and XP-56, it resulted from United States Army Air Corps proposal R-40C issued on 27 November 1939 calling for unconventional aircraft designs. A highly unusual design for its time, it had a canard configuration, a rear mounted engine, swept wings and two vertical tails. Because of its pusher design, it was sarcastically referred to as the "Ass-ender." Like the XP-54, the Ascender was initially designed for the Pratt & Whitney X-1800 engine and had to be redesigned when that engine project was cancelled. It would also be the first Curtiss fighter aircraft to use tricycle landing gear.

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On Displey

During Restoration