US Airways Airbus A319

We departed Charlotte, NC on Saturday afternoon to head back to Nairobi.  I spotted this guy landing passed us as we were waiting to take off.  Pretty interesting...

...especially considering when we left Charlotte to head to Nairobi the last time (in March 2008), I saw this one a few gates over from ours.  Cool paint jobs. 

I also saw an Airbus A380 just like this one in London...first time I've ever seen one before.  It dwarfed the Boeing 747 it was sitting next to at the terminal.  Crazy. 

Hendersonville Airport

So last Friday, I had to drive down to Flat Rock, NC, to our adoption agency to deliver some papers and also to pick some things up that were vital to be mailed that day.  It was a long morning (5hrs+ driving, not counting time in Flat Rock), but I ended up driving past Hendersonville Airport.  It's not a big airport, but there were two Cessna 152s in the pattern, so I stopped and snapped a few photos.  It reminded me a lot of where I did my flight training.

Nice one sitting on the sidelines...looks like a J-3, but could also be a Champ or a Citabria...I don't really know enough about these guys to be able to distinguish them apart.  Nonetheless, it was pretty.

This is a 1956 straight-tail Cessna 172.

Hendersonville airport, with a glider in the foreground, and looks like a Diamond DA-20 being prepped for a flight.  Notice the Cessna 152 on climb-out.

And here he is on final approach...

Short final...I was practically standing right off the end of the runway.  It is a 1979 Cessna 152, N4838B.

Moments before touchdown.

Here is the other aircraft in the pattern...

N7397B, a 1977 Cessna A152.

Short Final.

I saw this guy sitting at Asheville Regional Airport and couldn't resist...you don't get to see them very often.  N821CB is a King Air B100, which is basically a King Air 90, but with Garrett TPE-331 turboprop engines.  You can notice the exhaust coming out the right rear of the nacelle instead of where they normally exit on a regular PT6A turboprop.  Pretty neat.  In the background is N7605K, a 1976 Cessna 180J.

National Air and Space Museum

This past weekend, my family and I got to travel to Virginia to spend some time with some family up there.  They live just outside of Washington, D.C., so one day, a few of us went to the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which is located just next to Dulles International Airport.  It was a blast.  Here are some of the pictures...

P-51 Mustang, with Boeing 707 and Grumman F8F Bearcat in bottom right corner under the wing of the 707.  Also on the right above the 707 is a J-3 Cub.

View of about half of the museum.  Notice a P-38 half in the foreground, B-29 on the right, and a whole host of others throughout the picture.

Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the two atomic bombs to end World War 2.

Boeing 707 in the fore, with a Concorde in the rear.  There is also a Boeing 307 on the right.

Boeing 707 with a Grumman Gulfhawk overhead.  Notice the J-3 to the left.  I think this 707 is the first one made...it was used for lots of testing; it has all sorts of little hardmounts all over it to accomodate things attached to it.  

The Boeing 307 in Pan American Airways livery.  This is the last surviving 307 Stratoliner, of which only 10 were produced.  Pan Am owned three of them, and my grandfather flew as crew on them as a Radio Operator.  It's really neat to see this airplane in such beautiful condition and know that, in some way, the aviation heritage of the Roberts family is being preserved for the world to see.  There are more pictures of the 307 below.

Here's the space program section of the museum, where you are greeted by the space shuttle Enterprise.  

It is fantastically HUGE.  It really is amazing to see the space shuttle this close.  I think I remember the information saying that the Enterprise never did actually make it into space, but was the testing platform for the rest of the space shuttle program.  Still very impressive.

F-35, the next generation fighter.  Note the Vietnam-era Cessna hanging overhead.

For all those round engine-lovers out there...nothing like a twin radial.

And for those turboprop-lovers...this is the T56, the engine that powers the C-130 Hercules.

HA!  I knew I could find a Twin Otter somewhere...even if it was in a picture.

Lockheed Super Constellation in U.S. Air Force paint, serving with the West Virginia Air Guard.  This airplane sure is a beauty.

Beech 18.  I worked on one of these a little bit in A&P school.

Here's another large scale shot of the museum.  The Concorde in the front, the 307 on the left, 707 on back right.  Beyond the 307 is a Junkers JU-52.  On the right, in front of the Concorde's wing, you can spot the tail of Bob Hoover's Twin Commander.  There is also a PA-14 Super Cruiser hanging, along with a host of small general aviation aircraft.

My dad and I with two of my kids standing in front of the Boeing 307, Clipper Flying Cloud.  It sort of feels like a three-generation picture...

What else can I say...

Great looking airplane...

Pan American Airways, "The World's Most Experienced Airline."

This is the only DC-3 they had in the museum...oh, well.

My uncle and my dad with my kids, standing up in the observation tower, looking out over Dulles International Airport.

There are huge lists outside the museum of people who, in some fashion or another, were a part of the museum or aviation in general and are being honored for their dedication to aviation.  If you follow my uncle's finger point, you will see his name and my grandfather's name below his.  It is an honor to me to be a part of such an aviation rich family.  I am honored to carry on the tradition.

This is the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.