BenRad: This was 10 years ago and the SR-71 could have been a bit more visible, but I think I stood and stared at it for an hour until my family made me move on.

me: idk what to do while sick youtube: do you want to watch an hour long professionally animated deep dive into explaining what makes the lockheed sr-71 blackbird so cool me: wellllllllll shucks i reckon i could be inclined

like dude how'd they do all that shit without CAD? that's so fucking cool

me looking at any plane designed before the 90s but especially any fucked up shit lockheed made, concorde, and/or any 747 model

I swear I love the SR-71 so much and it's only made cooler because they made it in a cave with a box of scraps. I really need to get my shop open so I can post up tribute items, retvrn to the wireframe blackbird apparel. concorde would be lovely as well

I have a soft spot for it as well. My family is big into aviation, and we went to see the “Bye Bye Blackbird” exhibit when they finally completely phased it out. Planes were a big thing for us. I even went to aviation camp! But that got REALLY militaristic really fast 😬

This was 10 years ago and the SR-71 could have been a bit more visible, but I think I stood and stared at it for an hour until my family made me move on.

oh i would absolutely stare at it for an hour+ if i went there with ken. i think they'd probably go explore everything else by the time i'd be done

The SR-71 is right when you walk in. But that building also houses the Discovery. You're probably too young to have much attachment to the Shuttle Program though.

look the shuttle was scrappy the shuttle was Not Good every nominal flight was a miracle and an affront to god i will get her to love those ridiculous things

capsule launch vehicle: i sleep fragile and temperamental reusable launch vehicle held together by hopes and dreams and incredible engineering: Real Shit?

I wept like a child when I saw it in person. We made this miracle of engineering and there was its final resting place.

it was bad (not NASA’s fault their budget got slashed) but that was why it was so good!

i need to see it so badly

Feynman's account of the Challenger investigation when he asked NASA engineers and managers for their opinions of the risk of failure of a shuttle launch is wild.

Photo from the Fantastic Figures chapter of Mr Feynman goes to Washington:

The sad part is that in hindsight the engineers' assessments were optimistic.

The commission report itself (well, the appendix they grudgingly let him include) is the source of one of my favorite quotes about engineering. The closing sentence is: "For any successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." "

I DO DW

absolutely not true i love the shuttle program

Pardon my silly face, BUT CHECK OUT THE HRSI TILES!

gorgeous

thank god i have so much less work to do now

you can always count on me dw

Disagree, it was an overly expensive piece of hardware ruined by Air Force requirements.

i didn't say it was good i just like space

I'm a little disappointed it didn't end with reinventing trains the way most projects do.

Space is fun! But the space shuttle is not fun; and it also has the highest body count of any orbital vehicle.

i am as deeply connected to things i have never experienced as a memory-storing being, like the NHS and continental high speed rail, as to anything i actually lived in the time AND country of

autism rules (not being sarcastic, you already know i’m also autistic and this sentiment is very autistic it rocks)

thank you honestly i am still a little obsessed with the idea of a View-Master

been thinking a lot today about how Rubik’s Cube and Transformers and Ghostbusters and ofc View-Master and the IBM PC just seemed like eternal presences. just objectively the stuff kids do. i’ve never solved a RC and in the 90s peers insisted that was an objective intelligence test I failed for ex

I'm not saying people can't be interested in these things, just that it is unlikely.

The road to hell is paved with probability

It's right behind it! You can stand looking at the back of the SR-71, turn around, BOOM there's discovery right there

i fired up the PC to share the pics I got of the two of thems one of the handful of times I've gone to Udvar-Hazy :D

Much better!

hang on i gotta manage expectations here check out this one from when i was dialing in the settings lmfao

🤌🤌🤌

i love going down there, I need to take the new camera for a spin, maybe I can finally get some good shots of everything else now that I have MUCH better low light capabilities (they wouldn't let me bring my tripod in last time lmao)

would you see the space shuttle too bc idk i think it rocks

oh yeah

i think the air & space museum has discovery, which launched with my favourite astronaut on board! judy resnik! (my favourite cosmonaut is alexei leonov)

i think they’re both cool bc they were both really talented artists who ended up working in aerospace - resnik was right up there with sally ride in consideration for the first US woman in space but i think the word on the street is that resnik didn’t want the pressure of that

the air and space here has endeavor but they're remounting it vertical and I'm not sure when it reopens :(((

i remember when they moved that shit through LA! also endeavour (it’s named after a ship that uses the pre-reform spelling)

if i ever go to that museum i’m going to take the dumbest selfies with the 367-80 because everyone probably takes selfies w the blackbird i have to be the most esoteric bitch at the air and space museum

tbh it isn’t even that esoteric i just think it’s cool

Boeing 367-80 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

We went last year when my folks were in town and played the game of “find propellers my grandfather probably worked on” (we had one almost certainly and one reasonably likely; Hartzell)

also you know it's funny thinking about it now, recently i saw a construction sign for SR-71 (as in california state route 71) but i, having the brain of a child, laughed to myself about it.

lol love that

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