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.