Page 6 - FF USA Exchange Diary September 2016

Date: Thursday 14 July From: Geoff Museum of Flight

The day started with a walk down by the waterfront with my host (Ed) and the family dog (Parker). Then off to the
Seattle Museum of Flight which is in Tukwila south of Seattle. The museum is on the edge of the King County
Airport so we had the added fun of watching some close up aircraft movements.

We started in a huge space housing some very large aircraft, some of which you could actually climb aboard,
have a good look around and even peek into the cockpit. First up was the Concorde, the first and only supersonic
airliner. Overall the impression was of a small passenger cabin (only four seats wide) and an even more cramped
pilot's cockpit. There was also a new Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) and a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet. On the latter I got
talking to one of the volunteer guides who was previously an air accident investigator and he had some
interesting, if worrying, tales to tell.

The next building was dedicated to space flight with a training mock-up of the Space Shuttle where you could walk
through the cargo bay. There were many space related displays but one of the most intriguing was the space
toilet for use on the International Space Station - it looked more like a torture chair!

A pedestrian bridge led us across the road to the other half of the museum. This held the "Red Barn" which was
the original Boeing workshops in the days of wooden aircraft. Unfortunately, we could not go in because it was
being set up for a large dinner that evening to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Boeing's founding. However,
there was a lot more to see.

My host Ed and I started on the World War II exhibits where we listened to a talk given by the flight engineer on a
B-29 Super fortress during WW2 in the Pacific. He had an entertaining tale of a bombing run to Japan where he
miscalculated the fuel on board and they had to ditch in the sea without making it back to their home base. They
were immediately rescued but the aircraft kept floating and eventually, after three days, a US Navy PT boat was
dispatched to sink it using gunfire, as it was a navigation hazard. The title of his talk was "The B-29 that was sunk
by a PT boat". Other exhibits included a World War I gallery and another huge area with its centerpiece the evil
looking M-21 Blackbird which is the world's fastest airplane and designed for CIA intelligence gathering.

Susan, Anna and I finished the day by taking our hosts (Ed and Bob) out for a wonderful dinner at Ray's
Boathouse on the shores of Puget Sound in Ballard (north of Seattle). The restaurant specialized in seafood and
we all made the most of it.

Some ambassadors took hosts out to dinner while others attended small group dinners

Geoff’s Photos from the Perth Seattle-Tacoma Exchange: https://goo.gl/photos/tPdQquiThesPahF38