#curt mason

[projecthabu]

     When driving through the main gate at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, you are greeted by the sight of the 1/3 scale space shuttle wind tunnel model. During the 1970s, she underwent more than 200 hours of subsonic testing in the 40 by 80 foot wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center. When the tunnel was built in 1941, it was the largest in the world, now second only to the 80 by 120 foot wind tunnel now grafted onto the side of the original.

     In the days before computational fluid dynamics, testing this scale model was the best way to verify that the orbiter would fly true during the all important landing phase of the mission. These physical models are still often used today to verify that computer models are analyzed correctly.

[projecthabu]

     During early Starlifter operations it became apparent that the aircraft should be able to contain more volume while staying within weight and balance requirements. Lockheed began stretching the C-141A, grafting fuselage segments forward and aft of the wing, converting them to C-141B models. You can clearly see one such “fuselage plug” section in my final photo in the set. YC-141B 66-0186 was the first to achieve such treatment. She became an instrumented test vehicle, proving her design in the skies over Edwards Air Force Base, California.

     In 1996, she returned home for retirement. The Starlifters were all born at Air Force Plant 6 in Marietta, Georgia, where she sat without wings for many years until “The Aviation Wing” museum acquired the historic prototype. They towed her to a museum airpark on Plant 6 and replaced the wings. Her restoration continues within eyeshot of the Lockheed plant that she rolled out of in 1966.

[projecthabu]

     New Yorkers would grow to love Concorde like no one else. As soon as they started flying passengers at supersonic speeds in January 1976, it became the goal of Air France and British Airways to quickly establish what would purportedly be a lucrative service into JFK Airport in New York City. To much fanfare, Concordes from both airlines arrived at JFK for the first time nearly simultaneously on April 19, 1977.     Concorde 210 G-BOAD had the most flight time of any Concorde with 23,297 hours and 25 minutes. After 8406 takeoffs and landings and 7010 supersonic cycles, she made her final flight into JFK on November 10, 2003, then was transported to the Intrepid Museum in New York City where she now rests on a pier between the Hudson River and 12th Avenue. This airframe is the perfect ship to display here because she made the fastest Atlantic crossing by any airliner, from Heathrow to JFK in 2 hours, 52 minutes and 29 seconds, wheels up to wheels down.

[projecthabu]

    Parachute riggers with the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base give pilots one last line of defense when all else fails. They meticulously inspect and pack the parachutes that air crew strap on when climbing into an ejection seat. In this job, there is no room for error.

     Fortunately the NASA SR-71 crew that flew with this parachute in the late 1990s never needed this line of defense. After making multiple flights at Mach 3+, the parachute now rests on display at Blackbird Airpark in Palmdale, California, where guests can appreciate it by sitting down and strapping it on themselves.

[projecthabu]

     Falcon 9 serial number 1021 has been to space twice. During her first flight on April 8, 2016, she launched over three tons of cargo to the International Space Station during the CRS-8 mission. 8 minutes and 35 seconds after liftoff, the entire aerospace community collectively held their breath as she became the first rocket to successfully land at sea on a ship. This was arguably the greatest milestone in rocketry since the development of the Space Shuttle, the world’s first reusable launch vehicle. You can read my article about 1021′s first flight by clicking here, or watch my video about it by clicking here.

     1021 would launch again just less than a year later on March 30, 2017, deploying the SES-10 communication satellite and proving Falcon 9′s capability as a reusable rocket (launch pictured above). This was yet another enormous milestone, but the pièce de résistance is soon to come. It is probable that within a year, we will see a Falcon 9 demonstrate the capability of launching twice within 24 hours. When that happens, the world will have its first rapidly reusable rocket. One step at a time, humans are becoming a spacefaring race.

[projecthabu]

     I was privileged to be invited to speak at the March 4, 2017, Fly-In Breakfast at Wings of Dreams in Starke, Florida. For more information about the events and collection that Wings of Dreams houses, visithttps://wingsofdreams.org/

     I must thank Bob Oehl and his entire team for the opportunity to share my family history, and my own war stories. I'm always looking forward to the next time that I visit Wings of Dreams.