Museums
Show summaries onlyDodo
Port Louis includes the Natural History Museum, home to the dodo.
The museum contains several skeletons and a replica of a dodo. Regrettably, photos aren’t allowed inside, but you can see some illustrations of a dodo at this dodo picture site.
This is the view from the National History Museum in Port Louis.
Port Louis, Mauritius. 12 June 2001.
Museum of Glass, Tacoma
Museum of Glass, Tacoma
Museum of Glass, Tacoma
Tacoma Court House, near the Museum of Glass
These blue glass sculptures are at the entrance to the Museum of Glass. The Court House is in the background.
Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, USA. 8 February 2003.
Red apples at the Museum of Glass
Museum of Glass, Tacoma
Museum of Glass, Tacoma
Museum of Glass, Tacoma
Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, USA. 8 February 2003.
Linda at the Museum of Glass
Linda at the Museum of Glass.
Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, USA. 8 February 2003.
Fort Nisqually at Point Defiance
Fort Nisqually was created by the Hudson’s Bay Company in the 1830s. Two of the original buildings have been moved, and others re-created in the park at Point Defiance, near Tacoma
Fort Nisqually at Point Defiance
Although the Fort was a trading settlement, the towers on each corner suggest a preparedness for matters military.
Fort Nisqually at Point Defiance
Fort Nisqually at Point Defiance. The visitors are standing outside the Blacksmiths’ shop (which is staffed by an accountant who takes to blacksmithing in his spare time!)
Fort Nisqually, Point Defiance, near Seattle, WA, USA. 8 February 2003.
Caproni CA20
It’s hard to know which is more fun: the Museum of Flight in Seattle or the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
I confess I’ve been more than once to both of them!
This is a Caproni CA20, the world’s first fighter aircraft. Italy, 1914. The Wright Brothers succeeded in the first powered flight in 1903. So it’s just 11 years later that the world gets its first flying machine gun.
Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA, USA. 9 February 2003.
Early passenger aircraft
The early commercial use of aircraft in the US seems to have been about carrying the mail. This early passenger aircraft could take one passenger.
Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA, USA. 9 February 2003.
DC-3
DC-3, 1940. Everyone seems to love DC-3s (although, if I’ve never flown in one, I was too young to remember it). This one was built in 1940 for American Airlines.
Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA, USA. 9 February 2003.
Goodyear FG-1D Corsair
Goodyear FG-1D Corsair. 1945. A navy fighter-bomber flown from aircraft carriers in late World War II and the Korean War.
Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA, USA. 9 February 2003.
Air Force One 707
Specially-built Boeing 707, 1958. The first jet airliner used as Air Force One. This plane was used to carry US presidents from Eisenhower to Nixon. The sophisticated 60s communications technology inside includes a telex machine and an electric typewriter.
Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA, USA. 9 February 2003.
Later Museums entries
Show full text of these entries.Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA, USA. 9 February 2003.
Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II, 1966 used by the US Navy’s Blue Angels aerobatic team. ...McDonnell F-4C Phantom II Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA, USA. 9 February 2003.
McDonnell F-4C Phantom II, 1964. Note the “shark” painted on the radar-guided missile under the fuselage of the Phantom, and the shiny Sidewinder missiles under the wing. I was assured t...Apollo Command Module Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA, USA. 9 February 2003.
Apollo Command Module made by Rockwell, 1968. This one did not get into space: it was used for training. ...Lunar Roving Vehicle mockup Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA, USA. 9 February 2003.
Engineering mock-up of a Lunar Roving Vehicle made by Boeing, 1971. At the risk of stating the obvious, no used Lunar Roving Vehicles are on earth. ...Museum of Flight’s Restoration Center at Paine Field Museum of Flight Restoration Center, Paine Field, Everett, WA, USA. 13 February 2003.
The Restoration Center is part of the Museum of Flight, which is located in Seattle itself. Volunteers work at the Restoration Center working on planes of various kinds and ages. Some are to be restor...Comet Museum of Flight Restoration Center, Paine Field, Everett, WA, USA. 13 February 2003.
A major piece of work going on at the the Restoration Center is to restore this old Comet. The Comet was the first commercial jet aircraft, produced by De Havilland in the UK and flown around the worl...Boeing 247D Museum of Flight Restoration Center, Paine Field, Everett, WA, USA. 13 February 2003.
The Boeing 247D. Boeing claims that the 247 was the first ‘modern’ aeroplane. At the time, Boeing and United Airlines were the one company, so United was the only airline to fly 247s. The ...Boeing 727 Museum of Flight Restoration Center, Paine Field, Everett, WA, USA. 13 February 2003.
Remember 727s? Boeing made 1,832 of them. This 727 is the very first 727. It was made in 1962 and is now on the tarmac outside the Restoration Center. ...Chance Vought F7U Cutlass Museum of Flight Restoration Center, Paine Field, Everett, WA, USA. 13 February 2003.
I had no recollection of what kind of plane this is, but Greg Chapman has filled in the gaps. It’s a Chance Vought F7U Cutlass. This one hasn’t had its wings re-attached yet. ...