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JG300-Stoopy · Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 12:15 pm Post subject: Shuttle Closure

Today, NASA flies the space shuttle Discovery to her new home at the Washington Dulles Air & Space museum.

A little less than 33 years ago (if my math and memory is right) when living in Southern California, a bunch of us piled into my old Mustang and we drove up to Edwards AFB in Mojave CA early in the morning to see the very first test fight (nonpowered glide) of the non-operational shuttle Enterprise. They hauled it up to altitude on the back of the modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft and launched it into a glide, whereupon it turned and landed at Mojave.

We were running late and half an hour away w could see this huge white blob in the perfectly clear sky. No mistaking what it was. We eventually lost sight of it and pulled over to the side of the road by some railroad tracks and there were people with binoculars spotting it. Turns out we were right in the landing path, it came right over our heads with a huge jetlike noise from all the air it was pushing around. Will never forget it. Later, we drove onto the base and got lost and ended up in some places we shouldn't have been including wide long roads that weren't really roads but that's another story for another time.

So today I took the day off and am heading out to Dulles airport to watch the arrival and landing of the last time a shuttle will ever be airborne. They say that heading downtown to DC will be better viewing as it's supposed to fly over the Capitol at low-ish altitude, but I want to be where the wheels touch down.

Will take pics and post 'em later. Not sure if I'm happy or sad about this yet tho.

Link following the flight status:
forum.nasaspaceflight....=28599.270

JG300-Ascout · Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 4:22 pm Post subject: Re: Shuttle Closure

- JG300-Stoopy

Not sure if I'm happy or sad about this yet tho.

Link following the flight status:
forum.nasaspaceflight....=28599.270

Well, it never did what it was billed or supposed to do, and proceeded not to do it at an unprecedented loss of life in U.S. space flight. At least half the payload capacity was given over to life support and manned missions were scheduled just to give crews something to do at a greater level of exposure than was necessary.

I'd be for maintaining a manned spaceflight capability if there was somewhere useful to go...but that's a long way off in the future. I'm sure the notes will be kept in a safe place for when we need an astronaut corps again, several generations from now.

JG300-Stoopy · Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 6:05 pm Post subject: Re: Shuttle Closure

Wellsir, the full success of its originally stated mission profile notwithstanding, I can only say is it's still impressive sight to see in person nevertheless.

Two flyby's and a landing on KIAD runway 1R.

There was even an OH-6 Cayuse on hand to help celebrate the occasion - I considere this rare Loach spotting to be a good luck omen....

The people in the terminal area got quite an eyeful out the window...

The it was off to the back fourty where they have a crane awaiting in the disassembly area.

Plus I saw this cool 1964 Buick Special (two-door!) with barn-fresh patina and what looks like original paint on the way home afterwards

photobucket.com/StoopyShuttlePics

JG300-Ascout · Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 6:17 pm Post subject: Re: Shuttle Closure

- JG300-Stoopy

photobucket.com/StoopyShuttlePics

I'm dying to know what that plate number means. Amazingly, the whole car seems to "be there".

I've been eye-ing a local '66 7 litre Galaxie convertible that's only been painted and had it's bumpers re-chromed.

I love some FE, but the 428 in these was mild...with a 480 cfm Ford Autolight carb, mild cam, and highly restrictive exhaust. The factory rating was 348 H.P., but I bet that's high by at least a hundred. Torque was off scale, however. Never the "executive musclecar" that a Buick Gran Sport or GTX was, it would take so much work on the engine to bring it up to "snuff" power-wise, that it would likely ruin the whole car.

www.7litre.org/images/...rt1027.jpg

JG300-Stoopy · Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 6:50 pm Post subject: Re: Shuttle Closure

Well you're not gonna believe this but we just saw a '67 Galaxie going down the road this last weekend - a convertible, no less. It was memorable because the better half and I got into a disagreement whether it was a Fairlane or Galaxie. Fine lookin' mo-sheen no matter how ya cut it.

It's...it's a sign dude. If you have a shot for it I'd go for it! At least it's something of a buyer's market again.

JG300-Ascout · Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 8:12 pm Post subject: Re: Shuttle Closure

- JG300-Stoopy

It's...it's a sign dude. If you have a shot for it I'd go for it! At least it's something of a buyer's market again.

Well, it's more than a shot, I'm sure it could be had for $20K (has 70,000 sumthin. miles on it). Main concern is the low-state-of-tune T-bird type motor in it..it's a 428, but no CJ type mill. It would be a shame to change such an original engine into something else...and just as expensive to pull and store it while installing a crate motor as to upgrade it.

These cars also had the 9+ inch pickup truck diff, not the classic 9" Ford rear end...might not stand up to much power, not that I'd be looking to put it on a strip or anything.

'67's had this as an option package, but only the '66 was purely badged as the "7 Litre". A lucky few were sold with side oiler 427's and toploader 4-speeds (the "NASCAR Package"), but those are rare, rare, rare (and a lot more than $20IK

www.7litre.org/whatisa7litre.html

Here's what Jay Leno did to his...about as outrageous as his Toronado...

www.7litre.org/jaysrestoration.html

Enough engine for ya'? Shocked

www.7litre.org/jaysres...tion7.html

JG300-Stoopy · Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 11:54 am Post subject: Re: Shuttle Closure

"They built Jay a custom 590 Hp Fuel injected FE Engine which has a displacement of 511ci, and 587 lbs of torque. It will be matched with the Tremic 6 speed transmission, that was also custom built for this application. As Jay is quick to point out, he lives in a hilly area, so he needs that little extra boost to get him up and over those hills."

Sounds like he's planning on also removing some trees from the hilly area around his house. I love it!

In your above posts I thought you were just being all fancy using metric lingo when you were using the term 7-liter. Now I see how a '66 Galaxie can go for $20K today.

More and more, I tend to like a well-done resto-mod approach myself (You can get a new Coyote crate motor for 6K!) but that's more of what you'd do with a plain jane non-SE Galaxie (or same-year Fairlane or better yet an earlier Falcon, one of which we have running around in this area!).

401RCAF_Hammer · Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 5:23 pm Post subject: Re: Shuttle Closure

-S-

Great pics..! I saw the 747 with the shuttle on its back years ago as it did a flyby at the Toronto International Airshow. It was awsome...!!!!

Hammer

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