Daleks Check Out The SR-71 Blackbird

Salt: Are they asleep?

Pepper: It sounds like it.

Salt: We need to be sure.

Pepper: All right, I’ll check. 

A Pause

Pepper: The humans’ eyes are closed, and their breathing is deep.

Salt: Okay, turn on the light.

Salt: Why do you think Master and Mistress were so mesmerized by the 

SR-71 Blackbird?

Pepper: Because, as they said, it was able to do surveillance over foreign countries at higher altitudes than other reconnaissance aircraft.  And if the inhabitants detected it, and decided to launch a missile, it was so fast it could outfly it.

Salt: Yes, but they saw all kinds of unique aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, including the Bell X-1, the experimental rocket plane with which Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier.  This was the only one they bought a toy of.  In fact, they never buy airplane toys.  What made the SR-71 so special they felt they had to buy this as a memento of their visit?

Pepper: Well, isn’t it obvious? 

Salt: No.

Pepper: It’s black and sleek, just like me.

Salt: Just for that, I get to ride it first.

Pepper: That’s not fair.  I’m the one who checked to make sure they were asleep. 

Salt: Fine.  You can ride second.

Pepper: Oh, okay.

Pepper: Hey, wait a second.  That’s not fair!

Salt: Shh!  We don’t want to wake Master and Mistress.

Pepper: Then let me have my turn. 

Salt finishes her maiden flight.

Salt: I tell you what.  There’s not much room on this desk.  Let’s move down, and I’ll give you the first ride across the floor.

Pepper: Yeah, okay.  You can be Alan Shephard, and I’ll be Gordon Cooper.

Salt: There’s no way I’m giving you that long a ride, Mister. 

Pepper: Then I’m John Glenn to your Alan Shephard. 

Salt: If we’re just comparing the length of their Mercury flights…fine.

Pepper: Whoo-hoo!  Hey, this is fun!

Salt: Shh!  You’ll wake Master and Mistress!

Pepper: Don’t be such a soggy Dalek!  Whoo-hoo!  Watch me fly!

Salt: Quiet!  I just heard a thud.  Oh no, that sounds like a groan.  Master must be hurt!

Pepper: Well, what can we do about it?

Salt: Think!  What do you think will happen next?

Pepper: Uh…you’re right.  We’d better get back up to the desk.

Salt: Yes, and quickly, before they turn on the lights. 

Pepper: It would have to happen during my flight!

Salt: Shh!  They’ll be more flights later.  Now get a move on, before they see us out of place!

Editor's note: This event takes place shortly before blog post "The Dangers of Modern Travel."  

Our Visit to Edwards Air Force Base: Part 3

NASA Freebies

After touring the runway area, the tour bus stopped outside NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center.  Our group was led inside to a briefing room, where we were shown a fifteen-minute video summarizing some of the facility’s past and present projects.  These covered various types of manned and unmanned aircraft, spacecraft, and systems that could be utilized in either type of craft, or on the ground.  (I particularly liked the flying drone powered by solar panels and tiny wind-driven propellers).  We were also given calendars showcasing spectacular photography from space, and copies of their newsletters.  One of the latter told of Nichelle Nichols’ recent visit to the Dryden, where she told the employees how her portrayal of Lieutenant Uhura on “Star Trek” had inspired Martin Luther King Jr.  Although I had read the account of her meeting with him in her autobiography Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories, it was nice to be reminded that she still promotes interest in space exploration through her role in the 1960s TV show.

We still had an hour before Don, our tour guide, had told us the bus would return, so we headed over to the cafeteria, where we had our choice of purchasing burgers, sandwiches, pizza, and numerous other hot and cold foods, as well as ice cream for dessert.  We shared the Chicken Tenders and French Fries basket, mostly for sentimental reasons, as we do this every time we visit Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  Then we went outside to admire more airplanes on display, including another large and sleek Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (we had seen one outside the museum), and an HL-10, one of the heavy lifting bodies NASA tested when it began investigating the space-plane concept, which eventually led to the development of the space shuttle.  Interestingly, the same rocket engine that helped Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1 break the sound barrier powered the HL-10. 

When the bus arrived, all of us hopped on board, and Don concluded our tour of the base by showing us how the active-duty military personnel (and their families) who worked there lived.  We rode through the housing communities for enlisted personnel, and then the larger, upper-scale homes of the senior officers.  (All the houses had been rebuilt in recent years, and as the number of base personnel had fallen from its high point, this left more real estate for other purposes).  There were lots set aside for people to store their RVs, and others where families could offer their car, or any other unwanted items, for sale.  The bus also took us past their grocery store, fast-food restaurants like Burger King and Starbucks, several small strip malls, and their schools.  Like the base itself, all the streets were named after military officers who had made notable contributions to Edwards AFB.  Don pointed out that the junior high school was located at the intersection of two aptly named streets: Love and Payne.  Make of that what you will.

Before the bus dropped us off outside the base, Don, our large, well-rounded tour guide, related one final anecdote.  He said he was often asked if Chuck Yeager still visited the base, and he said that, yes, he did, but not so frequently as in the past.  For a long time, he served as a base consultant, and would stop by the base regularly, where he was still allowed to test airplanes.  Amazingly, although he’s now eighty-nine years old, Yeager still makes the occasional flight in a military jet.  At one point, Don was waiting in line in the cafeteria when who should get in line behind him but the great man himself.  Don knew that Chuck Yeager always got asked the same questions, such as “What was it like to break the sound barrier in the Bell X-1?”  He scoured his brain for a question that wouldn’t sound completely stupid, might intrigue Yeager, and perhaps even promote a long and interesting discussion.  Ultimately, the best he could come up with was, “So, are you buying lunch?”

Chuck Yeager looked at Don’s large frame and ample belly.  “Not the way you eat,” he said.

Of all the people on the bus, I think Don laughed the loudest.

Many thanks to the people who helped schedule our tour, who checked us in, our guide Don, our bus driver, all the helpful staff in museum, at Dryden, those who made our lunch in the cafeteria, and everyone else who made our day special.  Many thanks also to Edwards Air Force Base for offering these interesting tours.  Now, if only you would have let us bring our cameras with us…

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

Understanding Kimi Raikkonen: Part 6 (includes a summary of Chuck Yeager’s record-breaking flight)

Our Visit to Edwards Air Force Base: Part 1

Planes parked outside the check-in building

I was a little disheartened when I received confirmation of our scheduled tour date, as the invitation stipulated that no cell phones or cameras would be allowed on Edwards Air Force Base.  Here I was, planning a weekend away around this tour, and I wouldn't be able to take any photographs!  Nonetheless, this was a place where history was made, and where important work was still being carried out.  It was a place I had wanted to visit since reading Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff.  So I ignored my first impulse to cancel the trip, and continued to plan a weekend trip around our tour of the base. 

As we checked in that morning, I was surprised by how many people spoke languages other than English, and presented different colored passports (instead of drivers licenses) for their identification.  Clearly, many visitors had come from farther away than San Diego to tour the base.  We walked around, studying some of the planes that sat outside the welcome center while the staff finished checking everyone in.  Then our tour guide, Don, called us over to the bus.  After we climbed aboard, the engine rumbled into life, and the bus rolled past the guard shack.

Planes sat outside the museum, and our time there was unstructured, allowing us to inspect the planes, or wander inside to watch a video, peruse the displays, and see the other aircraft inside.  There weren’t many of the latter, but Chuck Yeager’s familiar orange Bell X-1 hung from the ceiling, and its rocket engine sat on the floor with its housing removed so we could see all its component parts.  More engines and plane components were on display, as well as flight suits and uniforms from notable test pilots such as Yeager.  The video showed important moments from the past, and discussed how the base had evolved.  Models of all the experimental planes that had been tested there filled one wall.  Then we wandered outside to inspect the planes.

As the weather was pleasant, I hadn’t brought a cap with me.  I had brought a rolled up knitted hat in case my head got cold, after all.  I soon discovered this was a mistake.  The sky was so clear, and the sunlight so bright, that even with my sunglasses on, I started to get a headache.  I held a hand over my eyes as I squinted at some very cool planes, including a SR71 Blackbird, and a B52 Stratofortress.  Someone had thoughtfully set up a concrete picnic table beneath the B52’s wing, but lunchtime was hours away, so after inspecting all the planes (and a few helicopters), we headed back inside. 

After the tour, when we got the camera,
and (more importantly) my hat, out of the car.

Can you see how I'm looking down?
Even with my cap and sunglasses, I'm squinting.

Salt: Ooh, it's so bright, I can't see!
Pepper: Switch optical sensors to maximum polarization.

Shortly thereafter, Don began his talk, and we all took to the chairs as he told us about the base.  Rogers Dry Lake bed was the perfect place for Flight Test, as the area was remote, and the ground was relatively flat for such a large area.  Approximately half of the forty-four square miles are used as runways.  Larger aircraft like a B52, or (in past years) the Space Shuttle, are heavier, and land on one of the paved runways.  But the clay suffices for most of the lighter aircraft, so the Air Force merely paints a long, straight line of paint, and adds a few lights, to create additional runways.  With an average of 350 days of bright, clear skies each year, and all that hard, flat clay to land on (whether a plane lands as scheduled, or performs an emergency landing on unmarked ground), it’s the perfect location for testing experimental aircraft designs and equipment. 

More tomorrow.

Dragon Dave 

Everybody’s Comin’ to Kennedy Space Center

Guests line up for photographs outside
Kennedy Space Center's new entrance.

There’s a place that celebrates mankind’s greatest feats, and champions all we’ve yet to accomplish.  That place is Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and if you haven’t come here yet, you're really missing out.

Some hot new rides of the future.

When it comes to space flight, there’s so much history to celebrate.  Audacious engineers, who designed powerful rockets like the Redstone, Atlas, and the Titan.  Brave pilots, who climbed into the tiny Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules, and blasted into orbit and beyond.  Designers who took the original rocket planes like the X-1 and the X-15, and transformed them into the Space Shuttle.  What’s next you ask?  How about more trips to the Moon and Mars aboard the Orion capsule, or flights high above the Earth aboard the Lynx Mk. II from XCor Aerospace, and the Sierra Nevada Corporations’ Dream Chaser?

"No, honestly, I'm not makin' the rabbit ears this time."

Not enough, you say?  Well then, why not learn about NASA’s robots?  They fly through space, and tell us about other planets we could visit.  There’re some on Mars right now, such as the rover Curiosity, helping us to prepare for manned missions there.  Some are as cute and amiable as they come.  You never know: you’re next best friend might just be a robot.

When this baby goes boom, you'll hear it.

Still not enough?  Wait, there’s more!  You can hop on a bus and see the launch pads for the moon missions and the Space Shuttles.  You could get an in depth look of the biggest rocket ever ignited, the Saturn V.  You can see all sorts of informative and entertaining programs on current space efforts, such as the International Space Station.  You can watch IMAX 3-D movies.  You'll learn about NASA’s programs, as well as those of the Russians.  You can even touch a moon rock!

"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Spaceman."

Still not convinced?  Bored with static displays like you find in museums?  Think the latest Hollywood productions make NASA’s movies pale by comparison?  Well, how about the opportunity to meet a spaceman? 

I asked Wendy Lawrence all kinds of questions,
and she answered them all!

You can even talk to a real life astronaut, such as Wendy Lawrence, who flew on four Space Shuttle missions!

"Why don't you two stand next to the
Shuttle Launch Experience?"

People travel here from all over the world, because there’s so much to see and do here.  Visitors come from all walks of life, because the hopes and dreams of space exploration unite mankind.  So if you’ve not yet visited Kennedy Space Center, the question surely must not be if, but when you’ll visit.  ‘Cause like I said, everybody’s comin’ to Kennedy Space Center.  Why miss out on a great thing like that?

And now, for the commercial...

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries
Understanding Kimi Raikkonen: Part 6

Related Internet Links

Kennedy Space Center

Astronaut Wendy Lawrence’s biography