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VERY interesting day at Udvar Hazy and spent more than a little bit of time in the restoration hangar. Here are some of the pictures from the visit, but please visit the ImageShack link to see them all - so I don't end up posting 65 pictures here and boring you all to tears. I have the high res versions of all of these if someone is looking for something in particular, just message me. The stories from Pat, the gentleman who was talking about the restoration effort, were fantastic and I'll try and capture some of them here for your enjoyment and amusement ( as well as education ). She got lots of attention from the tours, as you can imagine. Hint for next year. The facility stays open till 7 for the Open House. BIG crowds for the restoration tours starting at noon. BUT if you get there around 3, the crowds really thin out and you have LOTS of time to talk to the experts, which we did anyway. We ran into Buz Carpenter (SR-71 pilot who came and did a program at our club meeting a couple of months ago) as well as the gentleman who painted the Uhu (by hand, he has a fascinating time-elapse video of him doing the wing - in a 100 degree paint booth. Took him 8 hours!). Flak Bait was a big draw with a constant crowd: First, Flak Bait was over painted olive drab over gray after the war, and much of the restoration is focused on getting that post-war paint off. Thus far most of the 'new' OD is gone, but what was left behind is not exactly what the aircraft looked like at the end of the war. VERY poor storage has worn the paint even further than when she was found in a boneyard outside of Munich at the end of the war. What is particularly interesting is that once she was 'discovered' she sat for more than a while, and in the meantime, air and crewmen would take pictures with her, and then sign, or scratch their names into the gray paint on her undersides. Some was in ink, other names in pencil and at least one was via a knife and scratched in. There are hundreds of names they are trying to preserve thus the gray undersides are taking forever to preserve. There is some talk that since this really amounted to vandalism care should not be in preserving the signatures, but instead in preserving the original paint. Not taking sides here. The preservation will not put her back into any sort of 'fluid operation', just mechanical. Her nose wheel, made of magnesium, was cleaned up and when the original tire was put back on the wheel, instead of the usual 32psi, they wanted to inflate it to 10psi. It exploded at 5psi. Oh well! The main gear was preserved 'as is' thus the dirt and grease is as original as they can make it. Here is Pat doing his discussion. Cockpit details are also the subject of preservation including the padding inside Talked to the woman doing the preservation work and it is just fascinating to hear how painstaking the conservationists are in their work. Here is a photo of the right side wing and I see more than few patches on the top of that surface! And here are a few pics of all of the pieces Top turret: Hope you all enjoy the pictures. Chris

I spend much of today at the Udvar Hazy open house and it was terrific. I thought I would post some pictures I took in case anyone is modeling a couple of the more unusual subjects. I've barely touched up these photos so if you are REALLY interested, let me know and I can send you the RAW files, or clean them up a bit. Here is the link to my ImageShack folder for the Me 163 . Enjoy! Chris

Udvar Hazy's annual open house is being held during the week this year and it is this coming Wednesday, March 28. Noon to 7pm, with tours of the renovation hangar and other areas so get there early, bring your camera and comfy shoes and take advantage of access to the rarely opened areas at Udvar Hazy. This is your chance to get up close and personal with Flak Bait! Anyone else planning on going? Chris

Here are some of the other pictures from the Open House. If anyone is interested in a weathered P-61 or P-38, let me know, I have a lot more. Enjoy! Most worn Catalina I have ever seen. Will have to find the backstory to this aircraft. Well worn P-38 - I have a lot more pictures of this bird as well. Non-warbird - didn't see action in WWII. Was mothballed, then pulled back into service by NOAA for hurricane testing (needing props for that work, not jets) and this is the high altitude version of the P-61. The weathering is rather interesting - all over, except the radome in the nose. Yes, it is as big as it looks! Cheers, folks! Chris

Apollo 11 Command Module at the NSAM/Udvar Hazy Mary Baker Restoration Hangar being prepared for its multi city US tour to acknowledge the 50th Anniversary of that little July 1969 event. After showing this to my kids they think I am a rock star. It's always fun being the cool Dad in the neighborhood.