Be a post whore!

[BigV]

Originally Posted by monster

I want a space shuttle.

and why not?

It is *free*, after all.

caveat: shipping is $28,000,000.00

[glatt]

I'll just pick it up. Tie some tow rope to the front landing gear and pull it home with the bumper of my car.

[infinite monkey]

I would live in it. This will be the Romper Room:

[infinite monkey]

What a bunch of crap.

It's ONLY the National Museum of the Air Force. You know WRIGHT PATTERSON? the WRIGHT BROTHERS, without whom y'all wouldn't be flapping around?

I am so disappointed. AND, they don't charge parking or admission. All this history is free free free. I guess when someone isn't making big bucks off it...

[glatt]

Um, who got them?

[infinite monkey]

http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayto...e-1134181.html

Bolden will announce that the shuttles will be sent the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space in New York, the California Science Center in Los Angeles, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

“NASA ignored the intent of Congress and the interests of taxpayers. NASA was directed to consider regional diversity when determining shuttle locations. Unfortunately, it looks like regional diversity amounts to which coast you are on, or which exit you use on I-95. Even more insulting to taxpayers is that having paid to build the shuttles, they will now be charged to see them at some sites,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, in a statement after the announcement.

TAXPAYERS...DO NOT PAY TO SEE THE SHUTTLES. YOU PAID TO BUILD THEM.

New York and L.A? WTF do they have to do with any of it? I'd be less irritated if they'd sent one to Billy Bob's Museem of Flite in North Carolina.

grumble grumble

[monster]

that sucks, munk

[infinite monkey]

I can understand the Smithsonian and Kennedy Space Center...but yeah, it's pretty crappy. Would have been nice for some cash to trickle back into our devastated by GM area. In the whole midwest, I think we would have brought some visitors.

God forbid NY or CA didn't get what they want, all the time, every time.

[glatt]

I never even heard of the museum in NYC. So I looked it up in Google Earth. It's just a pier, with barges floating next to it. They have the Concorde exposed to the elements on a barge just a few hundred feet from where ferries go chugging past every ten minutes. It's not like there have been any accidents on the Hudson where errant ferries have smashed into piers. Oh, wait...

They better build a nice building for the shuttle they get, and pull it up onto dry land. At least getting the thing to the museum on a barge should be pretty easy.

[infinite monkey]

omg

I'm sure this seems silly to a lot of people, but yeah, I'm really really disappointed.

[glatt]

Google Earth is an easy distraction for me. There is so much to see there.

After looking up the museum in NYC, I started poking around the city. Now, I've been on 95 through NYC several times, and I've seen these buildings, but they always go by in a blur. Just look at these things. How can those few skinny posts under the bridge hold up that huge building? Just look at it.

[Aliantha]

I stayed up waaaay too late finishing reading The Girl Who Played With Fire last night and now I'm having a great deal of trouble functioning, so I thought I'd come to the cellar and see if there's anything happening that might wake me up.

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

omg

I'm sure this seems silly to a lot of people, but yeah, I'm really really disappointed.

When I attended high altitude physiology and wind tunnel training at Wright-Pat, I had time to tour the AF museum. I still have a silver dollar sized bronze medallion I bought at the souvenir shop the sales from which help support the museum. I wish the same could be done for the shuttles in lieu of an admission charge (rather than as a likely addition to it). Unfortunately, this seems to be being done on the cheap for the government; so, they'll probably even do the same thing the Smithsonian was chastised for by Congress by selling mostly foreign made souvenirs. At least my souvenir was made in the USA.

[infinite monkey]

It's a fascinating place, isn't it?

Here's the press release from the museum:

National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

4/12/2011 - DAYTON, Ohio -- The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force was not selected to receive any of the operational shuttles or the gliding prototype Enterprise.

Although unfortunate for the Air Force, we respect NASA's decision and will move forward with our plans for a new fourth building to house the Presidential Aircraft Gallery, Space Gallery, and Global Reach Gallery featuring cargo and tanker aircraft. The Space Gallery will be populated with exhibits featuring the Apollo 15 Command Module, Mercury and Gemini spacecraft, and a Titan IV space launch vehicle for future display, as well as an X-15, X-24 and other assets which helped develop shuttle program technologies

[Pico and ME]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

Did you see

THAT made me smile!! That was so sweet.