Wright Patterson Air Force Base has on it's outskirts, one of the best places to visit for airplane or flight aficionados. That would be the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The museum has certainly changed since my early teen years when it was about the size of an airplane hangar. Today, one of my dear friends can easily spend two days going through it, and would probably prefer to spend at least 3, if not a week!
There have been two times I've had my attention drawn to the sky only to have my mouth drop open in amazement. And both times I knew about the event ahead of time, but there was no preparation possible to witness them.
The first time was WAY too many years ago when one of the Space Shuttles was being moved, and was stopping at Wright Patt. I was playing tennis near my house when the plane carrying the shuttle flew over. The shuttle is big enough, but the plane carrying it was larger! I don't think I'll ever forget the image of the absolute enormity of that vision, and it wasn't all that close (several thousand feet above me, at least).
Tonight I was out back looking for the Super Grouper, also called the Super Guppy, to fly overhead before landing at Wright Patt. The Air Force Museum had been in the consideration for one of the shuttles, but we lost out on that (and yes, many of us are still ticked off) and the Super Guppy was delivering what we received instead - NASA's first shuttle crew compartment trainer.
I definitely heard the plane long before I saw it. That's good because it let me get my neighbor's attention so she could see it too!
Thankfully, I had been out back looking for the plane for a while, and had decided I'd missed it. I went about taking some other shots in the backyard, and heard a different kind of engine noise getting louder and louder . . . and then suddenly, there it was!
All three of these pictures were taken on the highest zoom level (200 mm), but I cropped the first two an additional two times to get the greater detail on the plane (you can see NASA and the logo on the tail fin on all 3, but you can easily read it on the first two). This pic is more how it appeared to me from the yard. I must say it looks more like a dolphin that a guppy though!
It's funny though that I had plans to be out and about doing things with friends most of the afternoon. One thing was rescheduled for Monday and another was pushed back until 6:00. I was able to get a lot of things done around the house and was getting ready to leave to visit a MetroPark when I saw a clip on the news and decided to go out back. Guess it's even nicer that I didn't get all bent out of shape over the rescheduling, especially since I got to witness and photograph this.
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