Aviation and Space

[mmarotta]

Aviation:
When I flew actively, I built a library of materials from before World War II.  After 1940 aviation took off (!) and there was too much even to think about, but before the war, especially during the Depression and the earliest days 1903-1914 (before World War I: another boom), the materials are scarcer, and to me, more interesting.  I have an instructor's manual from 1929 that sounded verbatim like the guys in my right.  Some things never change.   Most interesting, perhanps, are several boys adventure stories from 1909 and 1910.  Aeroplanes were little more than box kites with lawn mower engines and here were teenage boys off on adventures!  Ah, the stuff of dreams... 

Among the books are aviation comics: "Terry and the Pirates," and "Smilin' Jack." 

Also associated are models: classic planes like the DC-3 and Hotwheels Astronauts in Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle.  I also have the Hotwheels "John Glenn" issued for his space shuttle flight, a launch that I worked: Glenn as a Mercury Astronaut, as a Senator (nice suit), and as a Shuttle mission specialist.  When he declared for the Presidency in 1984, I sent him an Topps Astronaut Card to autograph, which he did.

Space
I was a boy during the Sputnik and Space Race years.  I was 19 when Armstrong stepped out on the Moon.  When I learned computer programming, my first job was at White Sands Missile Range.  When I left, they were testing Space Shuttle components for the Enterprise. Twenty years later, I worked several projects as a contractor for NASA. 

I kept my expired gate passes (when it was allowed).  From my childhood, I have two imccomplete sets of "Project Mercury" bubblegum cards.  On the front is a photograph of astronauts and/or rockets and on the back, a 3-D cartoon of something science fiction from the possible future of spaceflight.

[mmarotta]

Here are three of the cards (faces and backs), a representative selection.  Also, here is the autographed John Glenn, face and back.

[Larry]

I have an instructor's manual from 1929 that sounded verbatim like the guys in my right.


How are you using the word 'right?'  What does it mean here?

[mmarotta]

I have an instructor's manual from 1929 that sounded verbatim like the guys in my right.


How are you using the word 'right?'  What does it mean here?

Sorry I meant on my right.  My flight instructors.  Though I have a story...  It was suggested that you should learn to fly from the right.  You might be a passenger and need to take control if the pilot loses his ability.  You might be selling your plane and need to show the buyer how to do this or that.  So, I asked my flight instructor if we could try it.  The first landing was OK: I was focused.  The next time around there was a twin in the run-up and I was a bit behind the plane all in all and we landed a bit hard and on one tire then the other, kind of ragged.  "Don't feel bad, Mike," Chris said, "those guys probably had a rough landing, too."  I replied:  "Why should I feel bad?  You're on the left.  They think it was your landing!"