A couple weeks ago my sister graduated from Willamette (yay…congrats buddy!!!). I traveled down with my dad, and we stopped by two aircraft museums, one in Tillamook, the other in McMinnville (sp?). Instead of listing the photos in this post, I just created a gallery for it because there are so many. My favorite is the P-38 lightning, but I certainly have a thing for the Gyroplane. I’ve got books and videos on this contraption and hope to build one myself someday…they’re really an ingenious craft.
The Tillamook museum was in a huge hanger that housed dirigibles in WWII and the construction was absolutely incredible. There had been two, but one of them burned down years ago. This is where the majority of the craft were, we spent about 4hrs at least at that one. One of the most unusual sights there was the Guppy. It’s that goofy looking thing with the blunt nose. These things were used for cargo. The tail end actually hinges away, allowing for access to the cavernous fuselage….seriously wierd looking though.
One of the biggest attractions was the Hurcules, or “Spruce Goose” as it’s come to be known…Howard Hughe’s plane. This thing was HUGE…good lord was it huge. I don’t even need to point you too the photos of it…you’ll know. If you look closely at the photos I took of the leading edge of the wing…there is a B-17 bomber in the background…the thing is so massive, it makes the bomber look like a little toy…like if they collided the bomber would be like a bug on the windshield…really puts things into perspective.
The trip was really really cool anyway, and I hope you enjoy the photo album. You can find it here:
As a mechanical engineering student at Gonzaga University I’ve had to take the manufacturing process course. In lab I had the opportunity to build a ramjet. It’s simple and probably doesn’t even work, but was sure fun to make. It’s my second attempt at MIG welding too so it’s not much to look at but it all held together, so I suppose that’s good enough for me.
They wouldn’t let me fire it up but I was told of a couple methods. Both involve injecting propane gas through the top intake pipe, allowing room for air to enter as well. One method involves simply tuning the intake diameter and introducing a flame until the chamber ignites and continues on it’s own, or drilling a hole and inserting a pulsing spark plug in the rear of the chamber. Living in an apartment I haven’t had the chance to play with it, but I certainly will at some point, and will update my post if I do.
