Frontiers of Flight IV

A few more to finish off the pics I took during our visit last week to this museum.             

Near the end of our visit, Joey was getting tired so he took a seat and even buckled in.  

took the time to check out a lighted map. I didn't notice what the map actually was, but it spun around and she enjoyed spinning around with it...like it was the only "fun" thing to do there. As I mentioned earlier, they weren't too enthused with the museum. Probably because they've been to sooo many others that are big on the wow factor.  I hope they at least learned something.

 

Not a clue what the story on this was. There were several art projects on display and I picked one to photograph to test my camera settings. Just then I was called away by one of the kids and never read the notes about what this was or who made it.

Frontiers Of Flight III

Here's a few mixed pictures I thought were interesting.

The one above is actually the outside of a jet engine. I re-cropped it, rotated it about 80 degrees and made it black and white. I like it because unless you really know the workings of a jet engine, you'd probably never guess what it was.

I noticed my daughter staring at what looked like a tire off of Jim-Bob's 4X4 (sorry Jim-Bob). The plaque underneath it reads:

STS-89 MAIN LANDING GEAR TIRE This main landing gear tire was on the space shuttle orbiter Endeavor for the STS-89 mission, January 22-31, 1998. Shuttle main landing gear tires are a one-time use item and are replaced after one landing (nosewheel tires are used for two landings). Flying on his first space flight as Mission Specialist aboard Endeavor on STS-89 was Dallas Lake Highlands High School graduate Dr. James F. Reilly, II...."

On the bottom of the plaque it says the wheel is "on loan" from NASA. I guess they may need it again after all. The wheel is signed: "To the Frontiers Of Flight from your STS-89 crew, Jim Reilly. "

Also along the space theme is the command module from Apollo 7. I tried explaining to the kids that Apollo 7 was important because it was the first "manned" Apollo mission that ultimately led to landing on the moon. You couldn't crawl inside of it so I guess it wasn't too exciting to them.

Frontiers Of Flight II - Braniff

I don't know much about Braniff Airways other than they operated a major hub out of Love Field in Dallas.

While visiting the Frontiers of Flight Museum right next door to Love Field, I couldn't help but notice a big display on the 2nd floor dedicated to Braniff. I enjoyed the progression of flight attendants clothes from mid century on up. My favorites were these lovely numbers. Why don't flight attendants dress like this anymore?

In a display case nearby there were some model planes and other artifacts from Braniff. I couldn't help but notice a Braniff tiki mug, since collecting tiki is one of my hobbies. I've seen this one before in an antique store but they wanted $40 for it which I think was overpriced.

This mug was given to passengers during their Hawaii route but I'm not sure when. My guess is late 60's to early 70's. This mugs design is known in the collectors world as "Leilani" and was manufactured by a company called Orchids Of Hawaii.

Frontiers of Flight

The Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas is an assembly of artifacts celebrating the history of flight. My son and I were there once 3 or 4 years ago for someones birthday party but we never made it back with the family.

There are some interesting artifacts, several restored aircraft, some replicas..etc. Worth the admission price ($8.00 for adults, $5.00 for kids). My kids have been to some fantastic museums in the past, not to mention both the Kennedy Space Center in FL and the Johnson Space Center in Houston, so they've seen it all. Not sure what they were expecting, but I think this one left them a little disappointed. Still, plenty of interesting things to see.

The lighting actually wasn't bad for pictures, but like I've mentioned before, the Nikon D80 has severe limitations when it comes to low light. I used my 50mm f1.8 while we were indoors and got a few interesting shots, but the low light shots are far too grainy. I didn't push my ISO past 300.

The museum is located right next to Love Field so the kids enjoyed watching planes come and go from the parking lot. There's a wire mesh fence dividing the museum parking lot from the airport.

At first this pic looks like she's jumping, but she's actually trying to balance herself on one of parking space dividers while carrying a toy plane she bought inside.