I pulled into Wardo's driveway about 9:00pm, more or less on time. (Last fall I went down for a weekend to help Wardo redo part of his house check out the before and after in the album) A cold beer was in order so Steve, Kirbro, and I knocked back a few before bedtime.
Sunday was a gorgeous day mostly spent hanging around outside on the deck and entertaining Steve's three year old son Joey.
Me & Joey Wardo
Monday was a big day. Ever since I was a kid I've had a fascination with the Gossamer Condor. The Condor is the plane designed by Paul McCready that won the Kremer Prize for Human Powered Flight in 1976. I can remember seeing the documentary on TV. After McCready won the prize, the Mr. Kremer upped the ante and offered another prize for human powered flight across the English Channel. McCready won the second Kremer Prize in 1979 with the Gossamer Albatross. Both planes live in Washington at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. The Condor lives in the downtown wing and the Albatross lives out at the new Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles. Monday we went to Dulles and Tuesday we went to the Air & Space Downtown.
They say flying the Condor was like flying a dry cleaner bag. In real life it looks about like one. This thing does not even look as though it would fly, much less stay together if it weren't being held up by wires. The condor was light years more sophisticated. Compare the two in the pictures.
In addition to the Gossamers, there were lots of cool things at the Air & Space, a replica of Sputnik, the Wright Flyer, and the Spirit of St. Louis, just to name a few.
All of a sudden it's March 30th and I'm due back at work on April 1. So the next day I hit the road for NYC.
Comments