For the obvious reasons, I invariably get too busy to blog exactly when things get interesting...
A breath-taking shot of the M2F2 on the ground
Wow.
Just got back from Dryden. I have never been here before - I’ve been to other NASA centers, and they have different feels to them – some feel like universities, some like space centers (which is why they are called Research and Flight centers, respectively) but this one is a testing facility, and everything about just shouts “The Right Stuff”.
Out in front are several test airplanes on display, with small placards telling us what role in history each plane played – this one figured out trans-sonic flight, this one figured out super-sonic flight, etc. All these things that we take for granted today were figured out by very brave men who flew these obviously few-of-a-kind contraptions, with cockpits so small and stuffed with instruments that you wonder how they could ever see where they were flying…
And right there, between the X-1 and the X-15, I see an old pal – Steve Austin’s aircraft. You remember Steve, right? The Six Million Dollar Man? The opening sequence for each episode had obviously-real footage of a test aircraft being dropped from the underwing of a large jet (a B-52?) and proceeding to rocket away (”Steve Austin, astronaut…”) losing control, and barely managing to crash-land on a lake bed, skidding to a stop after ploughing the desert floor. (”A man barely alive…”)
I mentioned that to John Kelly (our host) since I know the flights were held here (where else?) and as it turns out, John is familiar with the real pilot from the crash sequence - Bruce Peterson – who indeed survived the crash, and actually lost an eye. (to a hospital acquired infection – isn’t history ironic?)
But the point is made – this is where the Right Stuff happened, this is where Neil Armstorng learned to fly (and crashed) the Lunar Lander Training Vehicle (more on that later), and this is where exciting beyond-the-cutting-edge stuff happens. This will be a great place for the games.