Photos of the Space Shuttle Enterprise at the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

The Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101) was the first Space Shuttle orbiter. It was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform test flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight.

Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, which would have made it the second space shuttle to fly after Columbia. However, during the construction of Columbia, details of the final design changed, particularly with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. Refitting Enterprise for spaceflight would have involved dismantling the orbiter and returning the sections to subcontractors across the country. As this was an expensive proposition, it was determined to be less costly to build Challenger around a body frame (STA-099) that had been created as a test article. Similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger after the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was built from structural spares instead.

Full Wikipedia Entry

Here are photos from my visit last week.

Here photos from my recent visit.

From Wikipedia

The F-1 is a rocket engine developed by Rocketdyne and used in the Saturn V. Five F-1 engines were used in the S-IC first stage of each Saturn V, which served as the main launch vehicle in the Apollo program.

Full Entry

From Wikipedia

The J58 produced 32,000 lbf (142 kN) of thrust. It was the first engine to be able to operate on afterburner for extended periods of time, and the first engine to be flight-qualified by the United States Air Force for Mach 3. A major feature of the J58 was the conical spikes in the variable-geometry inlets, which were automatically moved fore and aft by an Air Inlet Computer. The spike altered the flow of supersonic air, ensuring subsonic airflow at the engine inlet.

Full Entry

I recently had a chance to visit the Kalamazoo Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 

The Zoo is one of the best air museums in the midwest and well worth a visit.  The museum has expanded to include a nice collection of space related items in addition to its great collection of modern jets and World War 2 era aircraft.  Their web site does a poor job of communicating the size of their collection.

Photos from visit can be found here.

A great selection of abandoned aircraft and airfields

Web Urbanist

The evening of Thursday, September 12, 2002 was probably the last time a Pratt & Whitney J58 will fill the night sky at Edwards with noise and light.

To experience a J-58 in full burner close up and personal is hard to describe. Picture a gigantic blow torch, 40 inches in diameter, putting out a blue-yellow-orange flame over 50 feet long. Imagine standing 30 feet from this, feeling the vibration and heat. You wear both foam plugs and earmuffs. Your ears still ring afterward, because the sound is conducted through your body. The back half of the engine transforms from dull gray to bright orange, seemingly transparent. The flame has little three-dimensional diamond shaped shock patterns about every two feet. I lost count at 13. It is both frightening and beautiful, an amazing demonstration of perfectly controlled power. And to think - this was done with 1950's technology.

Two J58s powered the SR-71 Blackbird. Individually, they have more horsepower than the Queen Mary. On a typical flight at Mach 3.2 and 80,000 feet, two engines would burn in excess of 100,000 pounds of fuel in a little over one hour.

More