X-1 at the Cosmosphere

 The Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS is a top notch air and space museum. Worth a visit, if you've never been. 

 

2017 IPMS: Day Trip 3

Today, we got into the car and headed east to Omaha once again. This time it was the Doorly Zoo.  This zoo is supposedly rated even better than the San Diego Zoo.  I also visited the SD Zoo, and that was a tough act to follow.
Since my son started coming to these Nats trips we always looked for something a small kid would be interested in. Now it's become a tradition to hit the local zoo. 
Getting there was no problem and we were soon standing in front of the price board trying to judge what we wanted to do and see. We opted for the big package except for the IMAX. It was a nice day and no real need to be sitting in a darkened theater again (we did hit the local theater days before to see Dunkirk).

There is a hug dome right inside the front entrance that drew our attention so we headed that way - 

The dome was dedicated to plants and animals of the desert, and then as you went on, into an area where the creatures of the night were exhibited. Walking thru the doors you started in the Namib Desert. Lots of room for a few plants -

The whole place is a series of turns where something new is revealed with each turn. Here is where my problem with the idea started - 

These were the first mammal you see. I was surprised at how little room the animals had. This little dear about about  10'X20'. Somehow with herbivores, you see them standing around eating the grass or hay not really doing much else. But in the very next exhibit was an enclosure (I didn't image it) was an ocelot. Or what was supposed to be an ocelot - I never saw it. It's enclosure was a ledge! That's it. Prolly no more than 5 or 6' wide and about 20' long. Now I'm sure it's range in the wild is a lot more and 6'X20'. And that just continued. In my non zoological view, millions of dollars was spent on how it looks and it appeared that no 10¢ was giving to the animals. 
Then around one turn was a huge enclosure made to look like the opening of a mine, complete with tools and one of those carts that ride on rails. It had to be 20' long, 10' wide, but about 30' tall!  What was in it? Seven rattlesnakes!  So a predatory mammal which prolly has the range of many miles, had a ledge, and 7 rattlesnakes who basically stayed in one spot had this giant enclosure...
It got me mad. Mad to the point where I was ready to leave.In the end I basically just walked the path thru the rest of the desert, and did the same with the Creatures of the Night exhibit. No way was this better than the San Diego Zoo.

Getting out and stopping for a drink calmed me down. Then After my wife and son walked thru the aquarium building - I wasn't interested... my wife wanted to go see the butterfly exhibit. Ok, it can't be any worse than the Desert. It was better. I was there mostly to see the plants and I wasn't disappointed with the plants nor the butterflys - 

Very nice bromeliads

This moth was in the hatching area. Cool.

Reflections were impossible to work around

Beautiful Nepenthes

 Next to get a better view of what to see next, we jumped on the "Skyfari", a skilift type ride that took us to the far side of the zoo. Here were a few images from the ride - 

Senses Garden

A pair of cheetah

Bongo

 They even had a sculpture of a Columbian Mammoth - 

 Walking thru the Africa section, there were proper enclosures for the rest of the visit, and before long  it was the end of the day and time to head back to the hotel.

2017 IPMS: Day Trip #2a

I you read the Ash Fall Beds post, I mentioned that in the Hubbell Rhino Barn where were quite a few posters of the fauna that were found before, during, and after the catastrophe.  Liking them so much I imaged a vast majority of them (apologies for the glare, there was no way to avoid it) -

2017 IPMS: Day Trip #2

Today was the day for our long road trip to the Ash Fall Fossil Beds, outside of Royal, NE.  The three hour drive through small towns, corn and soybean fields had us drive down this rural road toward a compound of about 4 or 5 buildings.

Hubbell Rhino Barn

After paying the admission fee and NE State Park Parking fee  you walked into a very nice visitors center. There was naturally a gift shop, a worker, who I guess was a grad student, behind glass and working on fossils, and then some specimens. 
I guess to straighten things out right away that the fossils in this bone bed aren't dinosaurs, the first station informed the visitor that during the Cretaceous time, Nebraska and most of the Plains were under an inland sea - 

2017 IPMS: Day Trip #1

Having investigated a number of day trips before we left for Omaha, the first one is the trip to the Strategic Air Command Museum just outside Ashland, NE.
The Museum is a pretty impressive site upon entering the driveway -

A little closer

The Rocket Garden

L to R: SM-62 Snark, SLV-1 Blue Scout, PGN-17A Thor, SM-65 Atlas

As you get closer to the door, looking through the glass, there's a Blackbird to greet you. Stepping through the door you see it - 

The building has two main hangars. Here's a sampling. Clicking the pic gives you a larger image. Make sure to hit the back button to come back to see the rest  - 

B-17G "Flying Fortress"

Wright R-1820-97 Cyclone, 9-cylinder radial, air-cooled engines, 1,200 horsepower each.*

F101-B Voodoo

A-26B Invader

XF-85 Gremlin

B-36J Peacemaker

Pano of B-52 Stratofortress

A little Closer

B-47E Stratojet

As you may have noticed these aircraft are packed pretty close together. Picture taking was a little difficult. Apologies for the sometime bad angles.

F-4 Phantom

B-58A Hustler

Martin Marietta Titan II model with a full sized nose cone

B-57E. "Parent" of this was the Brit Canberra

RB-45C Tornado (Reconnaissance aircraft)

B-25N Mitchell

B-25 Interiors

F-84 Thunderstreak

F-86 Sabre

U2-C "The Saint"

 This pano from the top deck is an overall of the one hangar, to the left is a FB 111A Aardvark which I missed when on the floor.

On to the second hangar...

The X-38 was a prototype for a new crew return vehicle, based on earlier 1960s “lifting-body” designs that would serve as an emergency crew return vehicle for the International Space Station.*

X-38 Crew Return Vehicle

X-38 Aft view

 Unmanned Apollo test flights were identified by double zeros before their numeric designations. The objectives of the test flights were to evaluate the spacecraft's communication and electronic subsystems, heat shield, and mission support facilities. On February 26, 1966 a Saturn 1B launch vehicle carrying Apollo CSM-009 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Following a seven minute burn, the second stage instrument unit separated from the spacecraft. The Command Module reached a maximum altitude of 310 miles over the Atlantic Ocean before beginning descent.  It is on loan courtesy of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, and restoration was completed courtesy of Duncan Aviation and Dale Jensen of Lincoln, Nebraska.*

Apollo Command Module (CSM 009)

 The VELA Satellite program began during the 1950s and was designed to monitor compliance with the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, as well as to provide scientific data on natural sources of space radiation. The various elements were capable of monitoring underground, atmospheric, and exoatmospheric nuclear tests. The last of the advanced VELA satellites was removed from service in 1984.*

KC-95G Stratofreighter

B-29 Super fortress

C-47 Skytrain

Closeup of the cargo door

T-29A "Flying Classroom" Navigational Trainer

F-102A Delta Dagger

A missile (with the one below) hangs over the cafe area.

ALCM-B Missile

 The museum also feature two nicely done model dioramas - 

Looking out front -

B-1A Lancer

 On the visitor's map, they showed a Vulcan out back. So we went for a look. Turns out there was a treasure trove of goodies besides the Vulcan.

Avro Vulcan B. Mk II

I think this was a very nice museum. There are some exhibits that are showing some wear and tear, some of the planes need to be dusted/washed, and some need a new paint job. All in all it was a very nice collection and definitely worth a visit. The SAC Museum website has more info and a few more aircraft that I missed. Thanks for looking.


(* - text from the website)