Leaving Washington - but not with any haste

Well, today was our last day in Washington. We didn't go into the city though, merely contenting ourselves with the 'burbs. Our plan today was to see the battlefield of Manassas and then from there visit the Smithsonian Musem at Dulles Airport. The Smithsonian there is basically the same sort of air museum as the one we saw the other day, except it contains all the stuff that's too big to fit into the first one. So as you can probably surmise, it contained some very impressive specimens.

So, to Manassas first, which is a fairly standard battlefield, as they come. One thing that was surprising was the relatively small size of the main area of conflict. At the first battle of Manassas, tens of thousands of troops clashed and died in an area scarcely more than a square kilometre. In part this was because it was the first battle of the war, and as a result the commanders eschewed manoeuvre in favour of brute force, hurling their men into the fight, brigade after brigade. It was in this battle, a relatively unknown Confederate General, Thomas J Jackson, would earn the immortal nickname "Stonewall", for his heroic stand in the face of overwhelming Union odds.

After departing the scene of Jackson's triumph, we headed onto the air museum. I've selected some of the better photos to explain this. Moving right along, we left the air museum and headed for Fredericksburg. This where the lack of haste part comes into it. There are far more cars in Los Angeles than there are in Washington DC. Despite this, the lack of freeways in this place is appalling. We were in pretty much permanent gridlock, on what we would call the equivalent of Pickering St in Brisbane. Cars everywhere. Traffic in this place sucks. If I had to experience what Washington driving commuters experience everyday, I'd harm myself, physically.

Still, at least it gives us an idea of what we're to expect when we attempt to return our car to JFK Airport in New York.

With that said, let's have some photos.


First of all, Stonewall Jackson himself. To accurately depict the oddities of this particular general, they should have had his left hand held up in the air, and his right hand holding a lemon which he would be sucking on. Despite these oddities, he was the Confederacy's most brilliant commander.


A Boeing 707. This is actually quite tiny when compared with a 747, but I would assume technology would improve the size of planes over time. There's alos a host of other planes above and around it which I can't be arsed identifying.


An Air France Concorde, donated to the Smithsonian in 2003. This plane is indescribably beautiful. You have to see it to believe it.


I think this photo angle comes closest to demonstrating the beauty of this aircraft. In the flesh, as it were, it is like the Spitfire. Poetry in motion. Not an angle or panel out of place.


From beauty to brute force. This is the plane that sent the equivalent of 20,000 tons of dynamite nipbound. A B-29 Superfortress, that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The amusing thing was we encountered a group of Japanese looking at this while we were looking at it. Cue the comments from me and Dad "hmmm, it's a bit nippy in here..."

Yes, we are awful people.


Me next to yet another P-47 Thunderbolt. I cannot believe how massive this plane is. It's at least 3 metres behind me in the perspective of the photo and is still towering over me.


Germany's answer to the P-47 - the Focke Wulf 190. A powerful, fast plane with a shattering armament. This came into service in 1941, and remained in service till the end of the war.


The Enterprise! Space Shuttle, that is.


A side view. This particular shuttle was the trainer - it doesn't have the heat resistant tiles, nor does it have rocket engines. It was released from a NASA Jet, and would glide into a landing, providing training for the crew.


A Univac computer. Looks powerful, no?


Ummm....not really.


Now, I should warn everyone, what follows is nothing short of digital pornography.

It's not quite a Spitfire, but it's close.







Got the kid's eyes closed?





Tom, I'm looking at you here. Alex is too young for this.





Ok, here we go.




The SR-71 Blackbird. The fastest ever jet propelled aircraft, capable of over 3000 km/h. This particular aircraft is over 30 years old, and flew reconnaissance missions during the Gulf War. Despite being superseded by satellites, they still hold the jet speed record.


Again from the front, this time from the other side.


From dead front on.


And finally, we couldn't end without a moment of redneckery. Seriously - could anyone ever drive a Hummer in Australia without being called a wanker? I think not.