16. Air & Space Museum

Once again we ventured to the outer suburbs today, this time to visit the Musee de l'air et de espace - the Air and Space Museum - at one of Paris' many airports.  
Musee-air-espace

The displays started with a statue of Icarus (who flew too close to the sun and singed his feathers) and finished with the US probe to photograph Saturn.  The detail at every level was amazing.  We found our way by train and then bus.  The museum was free but the cost to go into the Concorde and the Boeing 747 was 6 euros ($8.25 AUD) per person.

Because Paul didn't read the program properly and because I needed to go to the loo as soon as we arrived, we ended up doing the whole thing in reverse - from space travel backwards to men strapping wings to their arms.  But never mind ... we knew how the story went .....

So these are real space objects hanging from the roof of the huge section on space.  The lighting was brilliant.

The things on the arms that look like tiny solar cells are just that - millions of tiny solar cells.  This satellite is not very big - all of it would fit in a small kitchen, and it looks very fragile.

The red rockets in the background are real - they are used to launch these satellites.

Up close and you reckon it would break under the scrutiny of a 5 year old.

This is the actual module that the US landed on the moon to take photos before it sent Mr. Armstrong (that's Mr. N not Mr.L) and his friends up.  It is about 2 metres tall and looks like Lego.

Soil sample below.

Beautiful tools.  Probably made of some rare and highly expensive material.

And these were the most interesting to me because they seem so small for the work they have to do. They are France Telecom communications satellites.  The top one is about 2m square.  The lower one is about 1.5m square but with long flat arms with 16 solar panels on each arm.  The body is covered with beautiful gold metallic quilting.  Again - it looks so fragile.

Do you oldies remember when the Russians sent a dog into space .... it was 1957!  I was 9 years old.   Poor little thing.  Here her is squashed into his sputnik.

And here is his sputnik.  It would just about fit in your kitchen sink.

After completing the space section we went on to aeroplanes, helicopters, etc.  I have to admit I lost interest for the next couple of hours.  But I woke up again when we headed for  the Concorde.

Here is Paul going up the ladder and into Concorde through the service entry.

This is where the pilot sits - it's the very, very pointy bit at the front.

This is where the passengers sit.  It is the very, very, very long skinny bit down the middle.  Keep your elbows in -- it is SO NARROW.  Duck your head - it is VERY LOW.  No food and beverage service here.

There were two Concords nose to tail, next to each other - one French, the other British.  We walked through both.  But because they are so narrow, you can't stop to really look around because people can't get past you.  So it is a quick look.  And getting photos inside was just too difficult.

Wheel and air intakes.

Then we were in the WW2 section.  I told you we went backwards.  This is the Douglas C-47 Dakota also known as the DC-3.

The pilot sits here......

Navigator sits here .....

Parachute troops sit here - then they jump out.  Paul jumped out of a plane once into Lake Burley Griffen, so he was very keen to explain to me how all the wires and clips and parachute "stuff" worked.

This rocket was outside (obviously), together with a Boeing 747 which had been stripped out to show all the working bits that passengers can never see.  Very interesting and very, very big.  I don't know why I didn't take any photos - I guess I was too busy looking and reading and being agog.  

But actually I just forgot.