smh@hpindda.cup.hp.com (Stephen Head) (06/29/90)
From: smh@hpindda.cup.hp.com (Stephen Head) [Re: SR71 at Dulles, Silver Hill] I saw the SR71 at Dulles when I flew a commercial flight out April 24. It was parked on the left hand side of the taxi runway for outbound planes. Earlier at the counter I had been told by an AA ticket agent that it had been put a hanger, but I had suspected that was NOT true because my wife had seen it when she flew into Dulles April 15 (this time it was on the right hand side of the plane). So I asked for a row A seat anyway (and got a picture of it with my son in the foreground to boot...). Don't know if it is still there though. I find it difficult to imagine that a few weeks in the elements at Dulles would have that much effect on the plane, though I am not an expert. When I visited Edwards in '75 one of the things was parked out in the sun, as if it belonged there. Isn't the skin oxidized, and what kind of electrolytic material do they use, if any, to plate the adjoining surfaces of dissimilar metals in the structure (would cadmium hold up to the heat?)? And it's hard to believe that NASA would let such a plane decay so readily (if it was in real danger I would think they would at least throw a tarp or something over it until they get the hanger completed). A couple of years ago I heard about the Paul Garber facility and took a tour. Do call in advance (a day or so for weekdays) and get there on time or the guards will give you grief. Warning: it's hard to find from the directions they give over the phone if you're not familiar with the area to begin with, so you may want to allow an extra 30 min for navigation error on the local highways. Occasionally they have open house and no reservation required; I heard they had one in late April. Inside I recall seeing a lot of wierd planes along with the usual stuff: (from memory) early Navy VTOL experimental planes, a Northrop flying wing, a B17-D (in pieces; earliest in existence), the Enola Gay (ditto), an Me 163, on and on ... We only toured about 9 of the 21 or so (?) buildings (warehouses actually) that were said to make up the facility. I had an excellent docent, Dick Haven. You may be able to ask when he is scheduled to do the tour. I got the impression he had actually flown many of the pre-WWII aircraft when they were in their prime; he could tell you individual handling quirks and so on. They also have an interesting (and frightening?) story to tell about the bomb rack they found for the *third* A-bomb in the Enola Gay, and the CIA hauling it away afterwards, one of those things that apparently never existed... Steve