Young People and the Space Business

Believe it or not, I managed to take in a little of the actual content at the ISDC this year. Not a whole lot, mind you, but enough to cover at least one topic: the next generation of rocket scientists, astronauts, engineers, etc. I got a flavor for this in three environments:

• A panel on future workforce issues ("workforce refresh")
• A panel on hands-on education for aspiring space-minded students
• The NASA/National Space Society Space Settlement Contest

Workforce Refresh Panel
The workforce refresh panel was hosted by my buddy Loretta Whitesides, founder of Yuri's Night, blogger, and follower of inter-generational issues (like me). The participants included:

• Stacy Phillips from the Office of Human Capital at Kennedy Space Center
• Clay Yonce from Organizational Development at KSC
• Cassie Kloberdanz, Communications Associate at SpaceX
• Brooke Owens from the FAA's Office of Space Transportation
• Bob Richards, one of the founders of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS)

Loretta began by sharing some all-too-familiar statistics and charts showing the "monogenerational organization" that NASA has become. The average age of workers at NASA is 47 (I thought it was 49, go figure), and there are not a lot of folks older or younger than that. Part of that was due to historical staffing decisions: a lot of Apollo-era people were offered buy-outs in the late '80s while the agency itself experienced a hiring freeze in the early '90s--a situation that persists because the agency has been constrained in its civil service staffing for years now. The average age of new hires is 37, and the average age of the workforce is growing by 1.1 years every year. As one person put it, NASA is "aging faster than time."

Stacy Phillips spoke first. She reminded the audience of former administrator Mike Griffin's pledge to move NASA's workforce to 50 percent "fresh outs" (as in "people fresh out of college"). That sounds nice and makes sense, but given the "echo boom" of Generation Y, that's a little deceptive because 50% of the workforce IS fresh-outs anyway. So all Griffin wanted to do was bring the agency more in line with the national averages.

Phillips discussed the fact that NASA has a mentoring program. There was a call from NASA Headquarters for each center to have some sort of mentoring problem...without mandating a particular program. The mentoring process has concerned me for some time, as I watch management struggle to figure out how to mentor and young people entering NASA try to figure out what they want out of a mentor. Mentoring is not easy, and not everyone can do it well. KSC has a "matching tool" to connect mentors and "mentees" in a Match.com sort of web environment, which I believe has met with mixed results. Some folks within the agency, Phillips said, have suggested that NASA adopt a Google type of environment, where 70% of work time is devoted to direct product tasks, 20% goes to indirect support of products, and 10% goes toward innovation. There was no real idea, though, of how to implement such an environment at KSC or elsewhere.

Clay Yonce focused on activities to prevent departures of Gen Y workers. NASA has been trying to give "early career professionals" face time with senior management through a program called "Launching Leaders." Yonce described it as "social networking outside the computer," where under-30s can meet subject matter experts. He also discussed partnering with United Way and other non-profit organizations as a way to expand the program. He explained that there was a serious lack of hands-on experience among new civil servants (more on that a bit later).

Cassie Kloberdanz, who's been a friend since 2007, started off by explaining that workforce retention was not unique to NASA. She had two mentoring experiences at NASA, one at KSC, one at Marshall, with the MSFC experience being much more positive and rewarding than the KSC experience. At MSFC, she got to touch the hardware and was given responsibility. At KSC, new employee orientation was not emphasized and she wasn't given much responsibility or feedback. This caused her to leave the agency and return to school (she was doing a co-op with the National Space Society when we met in '07). She was very passionate about giving new employees responsibility, holding them accountable, and letting them "sink or swim."

Brooke Owens started out wanting to be a pilot, but 9/11 contracted the job market. She turned toward space, attending the International Space University (ISU). She eventually ended up at the X Prize Foundation, where she was tasked with leading a team that had to build half a dozen composite models of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne. Like Cassie, she emphasized the need for new employees being allowed to take risks, work hard, and do attractive/interesting work. She had the quote of the day for me: "If you think it's the scariest job in your life, that's probably the job you should take." I admired her go-get-'em spirit.

Bob Richards gave a narrative of the formation of SEDS, the ISU, and other groups in the time before the internet and "social networking" sites. He had a good line: "Retention is such a low bar."

I asked Brooke what educational experiences she'd had that gave her the confidence to take on something like the SpaceShipOne project. She emphasized her small-town background, where she wasn't really given a choice about working hard or "ditching class."

Cassie mentioned that the average age at SpaceX was around 35, with the technicians being somewhat older and the engineers and front-office folks being younger. She explained that "You don't get fired at SpaceX for making a mistake; you get fired for making the same mistake twice," a comment she'd made to me before the program.

Phillips mentioned that KSC offers training to mentors, which addressed my earlier concerns. I'd be interested to see what that consists of, but I'm a contractor so it wouldn't affect me anyway.

Someone else mentioned the Phaeton program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is an internally funded project for new hires.

Phillips had to field a question about bureaucracy and the inability of NASA to fire "bad employees." She shook her had and said she understood the concern: "There are good supervisors and there are not-good supervisors...we're going to start holding supervisors accountable."

Hands-On Education
This panel was sharply curtailed because the lunch preceding it ran long (like someone is going to interrupt Buzz Aldrin?), but it was still enlightening.

Tony Gannon, Director of Education, Space Florida
Space Florida has three primary activities: business development, education and workforce development, and space operations (rocket launches) at Cape Canaveral. Gannon was there to talk about the Space Florida Academy, which provides balloon-launched projects for college-level students. They're given a week to develop a payload and launch it: "The balloon goes up at 9 a.m. on Friday, whether the payload is ready or not." Students are also put into an "inquiry-based" learning environment, where questions are met with "Don't ask me, go find out for yourself." The sink-or-swim method. Works for me!

Gannon also shared with the audience that Lockheed Martin "could employ every graduate in engineering right now." That's a little scary.

Ruben Nuñez, Earthrise Space, Inc.
Here's what Earthrise Space's Facebook page has to say about what they do:

Earthrise Space, Inc. is a not for profit organization that was
founded by a group of students and professionals in Central Florida with the
common goal of advancing private and commercial space exploration. Our current
focus, the Omega Envoy project, will help realize these goals through successful
competition in the Google Lunar X PRIZE. We believe that any team with enough
dedication and sufficient engineering expertise can make incremental
technological advancements that will expand the horizons of human space
exploration.

Through outreach to all academic and professional levels, coupled
with synergistic business relationships, we hope to maintain Florida’s position
as the global leader in the space industry. Perhaps more important, however, is
the effect it will have on the public conscience. This contest will drastically
change the way the community sees space, and redefine what is “possible”.
Regardless of whom wins, the victor of the X PRIZE will have proven that you do
not need government administration, exotic technology, or industry backing to
unlock the final frontier—it is open to all people on Earth, all backgrounds,
nationalities, and all ways of life. Thanks to modern advances in digital media
and communications, everyone can take part in “the next giant step.” All that
space requires of those who explore its depths is their courage—and for those
who dare shall be rewarded with unlimited opportunity.

In practical terms, they are providing students with hands-on experience via project-based education, akin to Space Florida's work. I liked his challenge: "If you don't do it, who's going to do it?"

Josh Neuberg, Conrad Foundation
The Conrad Foundation, named for late Apollo 12 astronaut Pete Conrad, provides prize-based, entrepreneurial education. I liked Neuberg's emphasis, which began with a brief zing on traditional book learning and championed instead "entrepreneurial education" to break down barriers between science (engineering) and business.

Michael Mealling, Masten Space Systems
I've known Mike since the 2006 X Prize Cup. He was brought into this discussion because Masten hires two college co-op students per year and because he wrote a blog about what students need to do to get into aerospace. His emphasis when hiring "fresh-outs" has been on the student's extra-curricular activities. He doesn't just ask, "What have you built?" but "What have you built without a teaching telling you to?" Masten does not want workers educated and experienced in "traditional aerospace" because it takes too long to "untrain" them (quoth Yoda: "You must unlearn what you have learned").

The introductions took up a good deal of the hour. When the Q&A session opened, the first person to speak was Gillian Evans, a math and physics teacher from Canada. The frustration in her voice was obvious. She appreciated what everyone on the panel was saying, but stated that the American system is based on GPAs and standardized tests. Today's teachers have "no incentive for inquiry-based learning."

Mealling partially agreed, but said that there are "holes" in the curriculum to allow teachers time to teach space-based, hands-on learning. Ms. Evans was adamant: "That only works with teachers who want to do it."

Another high school teacher, this one from the Florida Space Coast, said that it wasn't a teaching issue first, it was a political issue, arguing that private industry needs to lobby for loosening the test-based education model (No Child Left Behind).

Evans chimed in with "We don't need SATs. Get rid of them." There was then a brief discussion about how U.S. universities were supposed to accept students without some basis for comparison.

Gannon added that, "You don't just read science, you've got to go out and do it."

And at that point, I had to go over and make my pitch to the Conference Committee. But you get the idea. For science and engineering, as in most endeavors, students learn better by doing than just studying.

NASA/NSS Space Settlement Contest
I have no notes in my journal from this hour, and because I'm an idiot, I don't have pictures to share. Instead, I must share my impressions and all-too-fallible memories. Bear with me, the point is not to provide specifics here, anyway, but to offer some unvarnished analysis and opinion writing.

I talked to seven teams: three from India, two from Romania, one from Canada, one from the U.S.

Now the official winner was Eric Yam who was from Canada. Like many of the kids, he talked very quickly, but his concept was impressive. One of the constraints of the contest was for the students to use existing/known technologies as much as possible, and to avoid "unobtanium." The fundamental units of young Mr. Yam's massive geosynchronous structure were inflatable habitat modules based on Bigelow Aerospace's inflatable space station. The "ribs" of the structure are long tubes based on existing commercial aircraft airframes.

The two teams from Romania were mostly girls. They spoke more slowly than the boys, possibly because they were less comfortable with their English, but they had answers for all of my English-major-level questions. The benefits of their projects, as near as I can remember, were the use of expandable toroid designs. One design, in its final form, could house 500,000 people!

The one American kid I saw was just arriving as I was sniffing around. He was a pretty quiet, very tall young man from Georgia. He wasn't so much a "team" as an independent genius. His structure reminded me of The Machine from the movie Contact. However, there were a couple of unique features that caught my attention. For example, the outer sections of the ring/torus were seeded with bacteria that is highly radiation-resistant, but also can be used to process wastes. The core of the station was also interesting, in that it had a very unique appearance--almost organic. The student grinned a little and said, "That's because it's grown." And by "grown," he means organically developed from space-based materials at a nanoscopic level. For this student (Jacob, I believe, is his name), the Singularity really is near.

And while I was pleased to talk to the sole American I could find, the Indian teams just blew me away. One station included vertical takeoff or landing (VTOL) aircraft, magnetic-levitation trains, magnetic shoe soles, zero-gravity toilets, electrical generators, and gosh-knows-what-else. And all of the designs were new to me, some beautiful, all ingenious.

Another Indian team had a design that was plain marvelous. They began by explaining that the purpose of this station would be to exploit the resources of Mars. For those unfamiliar with the concept, most of these stations include some sort of spinning to provide artificial gravity via centripital force (for an example of this, fill a bucket partway with water and then start twirling it in a horizontal or vertical circle--the water stays in the bucket, it doesn't fall out). Most of the students' designs used a torus (donut) shape, where occupants' heads are pointing inward toward the center of spin and their feet point downward toward the stars. This group used a "double dumbbell" design, where there are two sets of platforms pointing inward toward each other and spinning around a common center. In this case, the platforms (inner and outer) look like symmetrical, radially-sectioned lily pads complete with organic-looking tubes that connect each radial section to the central core. Beautiful. And even the interiors of these platforms were different from anything I've seen in the West. Rather than housing and farmland laid out in a Cartesian grid, if you flew overhead, the land would almost look like some sort of modern art--a combination of strange symbols and paisley. Farmland, housing, medical facilities, and other land uses have no distinct pattern to them. Like the station, they are nearly organic. I loved it, and I wish these kids from Punjab would've spoken more slowly, as I missed some of what they said. But it was all very, very cool.

So the message I took away from the Space Settlement Design contest was that I had cause for hope in the future. I've expressed more than a few concerns about the state of education in the U.S. and the world at large. What are we teaching our kids? What are they learning? Will the things they learn be useful for helping us build a better future? The teams of Indian kids and the lone American also gave me pause. All of these kids worked with teacher-mentors to ensure they were getting things right; and yet the American kid worked alone. Are they learning these things in class, or are they self-directed learners? (I suspect the latter.) Is interest in space settlement that far gone in this country? Meanwhile, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) wants to send men into orbit by 2015 and to the Moon by 2020--the Constellation timeline, oddly enough--and they just might do it. Regardless, all of these kids were dreaming BIG and thinking positively about the future, and it was refreshing to see that.

As a nation, the United States has many challenges ahead--not just in the next four years, but in the next century. A uniform government education system might work, if that system was dedicated to achievement and learning, not just meeting test scores and keeping union members happy. But if we don't end up with a government-controls-all system (which I fervently hope will be the case), then we owe it to our students to provide them the most freedom--bounded by informed wisdom--to learn what they need to learn to make the future better. As one of my fellow ISDC participants put it, it's a little disconcerting that space settlement design might be the next thing we outsourced. I wish those kids from Punjab well, but I hope for the sake of my own country that that will not be the case.

Europe Trip Becoming a Reality

So today I broke down and wrote THE CHECK to pay off my Rick Steves European vacation. Yeep! The itinerary can be found here, for those interested in the answer to "Where are you going?"

I still have some things that need doing before I go, such as:

• Work on my languages! Started out with the best of intentions earlier in the year, and that has gone by the wayside as my time has been taken up by writing, blogging, gadgets, and expanding my multimedia "empire." I'll cover the for-dummies basics, anyway. When in doubt, I can always speak louder and more slowly, right? Kidding...
• Practice hand-washing clothes.
• Practice packing--what goes in which bag (it's bad TSA juju putting the full-size shampoo in the carry-on, for instance, but also bad baggage-handling juju to put my camera in the checked bag). A personal checklist would probably be good.
• Replace my eyeglasses, which have taken a great deal of wearin', tearin', and scratchin' in just one year. Haven't even done anything that exciting.
• I have a note on my task log to hang out with at least one person I've "met" on Facebook. It was pointed out to me during ISDC that perhaps I'm spending too much time in front of the computer. What the heck, at least I'm being "social," right? Still, leaving the apartment occasionally would probably be good for me.

And, of course, I still have stuff to buy, including:

• An easily foldable rain jacket/poncho.
• Neck rest for the airplane. I might skip this. As I proved to myself during several segments of my flight to/from Orlando this weekend, I can sleep pretty much anywhere, even on a regional jet. And the seats in business class are a LOT more comfortable.
• Another travel lock, this one for the carry-on.
• Oh yeah, the carry-on backpack. A coworker recommended the Targus brand. They're built to carry laptops, which means they would probably keep a camera safe. Here's a-hopin', but the camera has its own case anyway.
• Non-aerosol Deep Woods Off!
• Sunblock. Come to think of it, I need that for home use, too.
• Shout/stain remover.
• Hand soap w/container.
• Folding umbrella.
• Clothes freshener spray.
• Extra data cards for the camera--or just a very high-volume one. The card I have on the camera right now is about 4GB.
• Extra batteries for said camera.

No sweat, right?

Chris and David, whom I did dinner with last night, just got back from a tour of Central Europe, and they offered me a few bits of advice, the primary ones included:

• Don't bother with traveler's checks.
• Get the bank to raise my limit on ATM withdrawals.
• Avoid the packs of "Gypsies" (pickpockets), which can be 3-4 youths or a herd of kids trying to get you to buy some of their "artwork."
• Keep my wallet in my front-right pocket, along with my hand. I'm still going with the money belt, just as a CYA, though David thought I should stick with the Visa card as much as possible so I'm not carrying a lot of cash around. Can't see the harm there, until I hit a tourist attraction that only takes Euros.
• They passed on a tip from Karen, who has offered me a lot of great advice--go with the disposable underwear and just pitch it as I go.

I'm less than 100 days out now, so I'd best get cracking on some of the small stuff. And I finally got some travel orders to go down to KSC to see and work on the Ares I-X stuff. That'll eat into things like exercise (unless I run around a great deal--always a possibility) and the other stuff on the list. The fun continues!

Potpourri XLVIII

Jeez, get off the net for a couple days, and all sorts of stuff backs up my inbox...

Checking the books...tip o' the fedora to Lin, for forwarding an alternate way to ensure accountability in your local government schools: don't ask to see the budget, ask to see the check register.

Another from Lin: an editorial by David Brooks on the Obama administration's ongoing takeover of the private sector.

This message/link from Scott is perfect as is:

This http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-0/ is from Pravda, and talks about America’s descent into Marxism. They ought to know.

The Herpa DC-3 got stuck in the "Illinois gumbo" (mud) on its tour around America.

The Singularity really IS near: a robotic scientist makes the first independent contribution to science.

Where's the outrage? The President goes out on a fundraising trip--never cheap, no matter if he goes by car, train, or plane--and the taxpayers are helping him jack up the budget deficit and the President's carbon footprint.

Speaking of the President, a reporter fan got unruly when the Secret Service wouldn't let her get close enough to hand him a letter.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy appoints a global warming skeptic to a key government environmental post. Signs of sanity in Le France.

Europe's most expensive hotel opens. Wow. Here's the official site if you'd like to see more. Again, wow.

My Google Alerts returned a lot of articles on Ares I-X and ISDC this week. That's good, since I didn't attend most of the sessions. Got to keep up somehow. And away we go:

• Kennedy Space Center Director Cabana thinks the Ares I-X launch "has a good chance" of launching in September.
• Spaceflight Now discussed the impending turnover of Launch Complex 39B to Ares.
• Jeff Greason, CEO of XCOR Aerospace, spoke at the International Space Development Conference about the need for the media and the general public to "chill out" about flight tests, including Ares I-X. Tests are there to find problems and learn how to fix them.
• Rand Simberg's Transterrestrial Musings covered ISDC.
• Web feature from NASA.gov on modal tests for Ares I-X.
• Universe Today posted a NASA-developed Ares I-X image (Media Fusion, in point of fact).
• This is an article from last year, but it provides an overview of the Ares I-X manufacturing done on Ares I-X at Glenn Research Center in Ohio.

What has NASA done for the environment lately? Check this out:

NASA SATELLITE DETECTS RED GLOW TO MAP GLOBAL OCEAN PLANT HEALTH

WASHINGTON -- Researchers have conducted the first global analysis of the health and productivity of ocean plants using a unique signal detected by NASA's Aqua satellite.

Ocean scientists can now remotely measure the amount of fluorescent red light emitted by phytoplankton and assess how efficiently these microscopic plants turn sunlight and nutrients into food through photosynthesis. Researchers also can study how changes in the global environment alter these processes at the center of the ocean food web.

Single-celled phytoplankton fuel nearly all ocean ecosystems, serving as the most basic food source for marine animals. Phytoplankton account for half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth and play a key role in the balance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The health of these marine plants affects the amount of carbon dioxide the ocean can absorb from the atmosphere and how the ocean responds to a changing climate.

"This is the first direct measurement of the health of the phytoplankton in the ocean," said Michael Behrenfeld, a biologist who specializes in marine plants at Oregon State University. "We have an important new tool for observing changes in phytoplankton every week, all over the planet."

All plants absorb energy from the sun, typically more than they can consume through photosynthesis. A small fraction of this extra energy is re-emitted as fluorescent light in red wavelengths.

Using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite, scientists have now observed "red-light fluorescence" over the open ocean. MODIS is the first instrument to observe this signal on a global scale.

"The amount of fluorescent light emitted is not constant; it changes with the health of the plant life in the ocean," said Behrenfeld.

Scientists previously used satellite sensors to track the amount of plant life in the ocean by measuring the amount and distribution of chlorophyll.

"Chlorophyll gives us a picture of how much phytoplankton is present," said co-author Scott Doney, a marine chemist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass. "Fluorescence provides insight into how well they are functioning in the ecosystem."

With this new measurement, the scientists discovered large areas of the Indian Ocean where phytoplankton were under stress from iron deficiency. They were surprised to see large portions of the ocean "light up" seasonally as phytoplankton responded to a lack of iron in their diet. The amount of fluorescence increases when phytoplankton have too little iron, a nutrient in seawater. Iron reaches the sea surface on winds blowing dust from deserts and other arid areas, and from upwelling currents.

The research team detected new regions of the ocean affected by iron deposition and depletion. In the fall and winter and especially the summer, significant southwesterly winds over the Indian Ocean stir up ocean currents and bring more nutrients up from the depths for the phytoplankton to feed on. At the same time, the amount of iron-rich dust delivered by winds is reduced.

Climate change could mean stronger winds pick up more dust and blow it to the sea, or less intense winds leave waters dust-free. Some regions will become drier and others wetter, changing the regions where dusty soils accumulate and get swept up into the air. Phytoplankton will reflect and react to these global changes.

"On time-scales of weeks to months, we can use this data to track plankton responses to iron inputs from dust storms and the transport of iron-rich water from islands and continents," Doney said. "Over years to decades, we also can detect long-term trends in climate change and other human perturbations to the ocean."

The Weekend...What Little I Did with It

Mission accomplished: the 2011 International Space Development Conference will be held in Huntsville, Alabama. I appreciate the moral support I got from the officers, and especially the technical writing/proposal/presentation support I got from Yohon, Melissa, and Laura. Now the REAL work begins. Proposal writing and presentation giving are the easy parts. After this, we've got some contracts to negotiate, speakers to invite, meals to arrange, and rooms to fill. No sweat. (HA!)

And after we won that little challenge, I split to go have dinner with Father Dan, Marilyn, Chris, and David, while Yohon went elsewhere...and we both missed the fact that someone was expected to speak at the dinner that night to promote ISDC 2011 (we recruited Dave--I owe him a bottle of wine at least for that) and that the Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (that'd be HAL5, our chapter) won Chapter of the Year. Go figure. I'll write more about what little I did see of the conference later. I sat in on one session, and otherwise spent most of my time in the exhibit hall, meetings, or getting myself prepared for the ISDC thing. Some day I'll get to go to one of these things for non-work purposes, but that won't likely happen until after 2011...

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On a completely unrelated note, my e-niece Morgan continues to wait out her recovery from her bone marrow transplant. Hang in there, kiddo...

Air Traffic Control and the Augustine Panel

Actually, the two items in the title have nothing to do with each other. However the failure of ATC to handle bad weather in Charlotte (CLT) this evening led me to stay home an extra day until I could get a flight to Orlando (MCO). One thumb down for USAirways, who didn't update the screen at the gate to reflect the delay. Also, when another passenger called the reservations line, the agent told him he wasn't authorized to call Huntsville and tell them to get an agent down to the gate. Rather than sit and continue listening to the increasingly restive passengers, I picked up my briefcase and walked back down to the ticket counter. I let them know the other passengers were upset and asked if they'd mind getting me on a plane to Orlando. They couldn't--not today, anyway--so I'll be flying out at 0-Dark-30 tomorrow to get there via Atlanta and Delta.

Since I had the time, I thought I'd post this item from Hu:

Here's [sic] the names of most of the Augustine Commission
posted by Orlando Sentinel on May 28, 2009 1:26:53 PM

It's been nearly three weeks since the Obama White House announced it would name a 10-member commission to examine NASA's human spaceflight programs and goals, with a particular eye on its troubled Constellation rocket program. Since then, retired Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine has been named the chair, but there's been no announcement of who the members will be.

In the interests of hastening the process -- some folks are saying that the announcement could come as early as this afternoon -- here's the names of eight members we've been able to nail down:

Besides Augustine, they are:

Christopher Chyba - Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. He once held the Carl Sagan Chair for the Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.
Sally Ride - Physicist and a former NASA astronaut who, in 1983, became the first American woman and youngest American (at the time) to enter space.
Lester Lyles - Retired Air Force General and NASA administrator candidate. He is an expert in military space issues and is a member of the NASA Advisory Committee.
Edward Crawley - Ford Professor of Engineering at MIT, and a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Engineering Systems. He is engaged with NASA on the design of its lunar and earth observing systems, and with BP on oil exploration system designs.
Bohdan "Bo" Bejmuk - Respected engineer and executive at Boeing Co. and one-time executive at Sea Launch, where he helped put together and run the company’s unique offshore rocket launch system. He also assembled and led an elite Boeing engineering team to assist leading the integration of Russian elements into the Station. He was also involved in the space shuttle program from its earliest days.
Jeff Greason - President, CEO and founder of XCOR Aerospace and the Personal Spaceflight Federation. He was the team leader for engine development at the now-defunct Rotary Rocket, and previously worked at the computer chip manufacturer Intel. He has been active in lobbying to encourage support for private spaceflight activities.
Wanda Austin -- President and CEO of The Aerospace Corp., an independent non-profit dedicated to assisting the nation's space program. NASA recently commissioned her company to study whether military rockets could lift people and cargo to the international space station and the moon, and the study concluded they could, contrary to NASA's previous assertions.

Potpourri XLVII

Articles here and here on Ares I-X...

Here's a list of things that have to go right to get human beings to and from the Moon safely. All of them must take place at extreme velocities, temperatures, or environments and require our greatest efforts to correctly. How is it that people cannot be inspired by the space program? How is it possible for a nation to make space exploration boring?

From a friend of Hu: a company that ships wine to Alabama legally. Better read the fine print first.

Here's the official White House press release on the nominations of Charles Bolden and Lori Garver.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2009
President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals for key administration posts: General Charles Bolden, Administrator of NASA and Lori Garver, Deputy Administrator of NASA.

President Obama said, “These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the long-term vibrancy of America’s space program.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals today:

Gen. Charles Bolden, Nominee for Administrator of NASA
Charles Bolden retired from the United States Marine Corps in 2003 as the Commanding General of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing after serving more than 34 years, and is currently CEO of JackandPanther LLC, a privately-held military and aerospace consulting firm. Gen. Bolden began his service in U.S. Marine Corps in 1968. He flew more than 100 sorties in Vietnam from 1972-73. In 1980, he was selected as an astronaut by NASA, flying two space shuttle missions as pilot and two missions as commander. Following the Challenger accident in 1986, Gen. Bolden was named the Chief of the Safety Division at the Johnson Space Center with responsibilities for overseeing the safety efforts in the return-to-flight efforts. He was appointed Assistant Deputy Administrator of NASA headquarters in 1992. He was Senior Vice President at TechTrans International, Inc. from 2003 until 2005. Gen. Bolden holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis and a M.S. in Systems Management from the University of Southern California.

Lori Garver, Nominee for Deputy Administrator of NASA
Lori Garver is the President of Capital Space, LLC, and has served as Senior Advisor for Space at the Avascent Group, a strategy and management consulting firm, based in Washington, D.C. She was the lead civil space policy advisor for Obama for America, and she helped lead the Agency Review Team for NASA during the Transition. She has intimate familiarity with the agency and knows well the challenges it faces. From 1998 to 2001, Ms. Garver served as NASA’s Associate Administrator of the Office of Policy and Plans. Reporting to the NASA Administrator, she oversaw the analysis, development, and integration of NASA policies and long-range plans, the NASA Strategic Management System, and the NASA Advisory Council. Ms. Garver also served as a primary spokesperson for NASA. Prior to this appointment, she served as a Senior Policy Analyst for the Office of Policy and Plans, and Special Assistant to the Administrator. Ms. Garver earned an M.S. in Science, Technology, and Public Policy from the George Washington University and a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Colorado College.

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A Space Review editorial compares NASA to the automobile industry.

This one from the corporate office: the Baltimore Sun is reporting that you're going to need to pony up with your middle name when it comes time to fly. I actually inquired how much it would cost to legally change my name from Bartholomew to Bart because I sign my checks Bart but my mother and the State of Alabama call me Bartholomew (and the former only when she's angry with me). Why? Because the TSA was getting p!$$y with me about my driver's license not matching my credit cards. Parents beware: I won't be the only one to contemplate this change to save myself the aggravation at the airport. Another lesson in the law of Unintended Consequences from our government: make the law more intrusive and yoiu can even cause people to change their names.

This one from Nickomundo: Anderson Cooper believes the current generation is going to be shafted by the recession. Jeez, spare me. Every generation is screwed by a recession, usually temporarily, as the ability to make more choices and obtain more opportunities is reduced by slowed economic activity. Recession means your mom buys from the discount rack or sews your clothes when you rip them. Recession means you don't go to the Chuck-E-Cheese once a week or don't get high-end snacks with your lunch. Or that you don't buy your lunch. Or vacation gets put off a year. You're sad, you're disappointed. A couple of more fortunate, more shallow peers might laugh at your cheap, off-the-rack clothes. You're hurt. You move on.

Is NASA "over the hill" if the average age there is 49? All depends. People keep telling me that "40 is the new 30." Which means what for Gen Y? It means you'll be waiting another 10 years before you get promoted. (Just a little snark/humor to offer insight into how your elders might be thinking.)

Leonard David, whose brain I'd like to borrow for a week, has a blog on a new approach to searching for Earthlike planets.

The International Space Development Conference officially gets under way tomorrow. The Space Investment Symposium (SIS), which has become attached to ISDC since 2006, happened today. That's an event where they put wannabe space entrepreneurs and venture capitalists into a room and try to educate the space people on the right way to write a business plan to get investment money from the VCs. I first wrote about the SIS in 2007 and have been trying to keep up with it when I can. Lately I haven't been able to afford the leave time--or the ticket price. I don't complain about that--I got in gratis as a journalist in '06 and '07.

I see the SIS as a positive sign in the space advocacy movement because it shows that space businesses are becoming routine, part of the regular investment and business environment, like utilities or drug companies. However, I've heard complaints that this emphasis on business also raises ticket prices for space-related events and eliminates that "grass roots" touch/feel to the activity. I look at it this way, speaking purely for myself and from a strictly appearance-based point of view: more suits means more people taking space seriously. It's the difference between space advocates showing up in t-shirts or Star Trek outfits to lobby Congress and those same advocates showing up with suits, professional attire, and briefcases. Which one would you take more seriously? Apperances matter. And if that means that the space movement loses the "common touch" but gains credibility among the non-space-minded public, then I'm willing to make the sacrifice. If you want to wear t-shirts and Star Trek outfits, there's probably a science fiction convention out there waiting for you. If you want to make a serious effort to get civilization into space, leave the t-shirts at home and get ready to do business.

Morning Thoughts

First, an update on Morgan from Dar:

Morgan's doing well (albeit in pain...nothing a little morphine can't mend). Safe travels...

She's sleeping irregularly but beating people at Wii games. Hang in there, sweetie! Lots of folks watching out for ya.

Next, tip o' the fedora to Scott for finding an article on why soaking the rich does bad things to the economy. We will reap what we sow.

I will not be online much the next few days, as I'll be working on my pitch and traveling to Orlando for the International Space Development Conference. The goal: to get ISDC to Huntsville in 2011. Oh yeah, and see Father Dan and my peeps from Disney. Otherwise, I'm not an official presenter or reporter this year. I'll have more thoughts when I get back, and will most likely Twitter while I'm there, so you can check my feed for 140-character thoughts. Enjoy the quiet!

More from Moontown

Eagle-eyed Scott found a couple videos from the day I was at Moontown. You won't see me in these videos, unless you've got a microscope, but these were kind of fun.

This video is a ground-level view of the DC-3 flyby and might give you some hint as to why I fumbled the camera...



This is an aerial view of the DC-3's landing from one of the chase planes that followed the plane in.

Books to Make Civilization Better

You might think I'm cheating on this, but after my previous posting on "books I'd save in the event civilization was collapsing," I realized that my list of books to make the future better isn't much different. However, instead of focusing on low-tech books concentrating on morality or how people might think, I would add a few books that assume civilization will remain high-tech and that we can progress even farther than we are now. So without further ado, here's my list:

Non-Fiction and Reference

• The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must, Robert Zubrin
• Cities in Space, edited by Jerry Pournelle
• Far Frontiers, edited by Jerry Pournelle
• The Singularity is Near, Ray Kurzweil (with a few reservations, of course)
• Engines of Creation, Eric Drexler
• The High Frontier, Gerard K. O'Neill
• N-Space, by Larry Niven
• Playgrounds of the Mind, by Larry Niven
• The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray
• Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl
• Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
• Mining the Sky, John S. Lewis
• Moonrush, Dennis Wingo
• The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes
• Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship, George Dyson

Fiction

• Ringworld, Larry Niven
• Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
• Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
• The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke
• A Case of Conscience, James Blish
• The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
• More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
• The World at the End of Time, Frederik Pohl
• Mining the Oort, Frederik Pohl
• Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
• Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut

Your additions/thoughts are welcome. I'd be particularly interested in seeing not just what others would choose, but why.

In Defense of Local Radio

While I am a staunch unbeliever in local newspapers, I am quite fond of local radio stations, as opposed to iPod or satellite radio. I can handle small doses of local news, especially traffic and weather, and Sirius Satellite Radio is not going to give you that, unless they have a station specifically dedicated to, say, Huntsville, Alabama.

Now mind you, that's not to say I don't listen to nationally syndicated programs like Limbaugh or Neil Boortz, but those guys aren't on Sirius. There are times when satellite radio is more useful, like if you're driving cross-country and prefer to listen only to music. Standard Earth-based radio will make you do some hunting and pecking when you get out of range of one listening area and head into another. However, American radio station formats have become pretty standardized, so most areas will have their own variant of a gospel station, an easy listening station, a classic rock station, etc. It might require a few extra pushes of the scan or seek buttons, but if that's the worst inconvenience you have to put up with, there are worse things in life.

One thing that soured me on iPod is that I don't have a lot of "favorite" songs. My problem, not Apple's, I know, but even if you've got seven or eight hours of your favorites running on scramble through your ears at work, after 40 hours or so, even you are sick of your favorites and end up buying more or switching on the regular radio after awhile. You learn to appreciate those "good songs" by putting up with a lot of dreck, I think.

The big argument people have against local radio stations is the commercials. Okay, fine: I have periods in my driving time, usually at the top of the hour, where I have to listen to some commercials. But local radio is still free. What are you folks paying for your satellite radio service every month? Exactly. Cheap is not a bad habit to have. Another advantage of local radio is that you hear about local events that satellite radio isn't going to give you, like a "Free the Hops" event, for instance, or free tickets to XYZ movie theater if you're in the neighborhood of a particular street corner.

Local radio stations will be facing an uphill battle in the next few years, but I'll continue to support them, even if (ulp) I have to pay for the privilege.

Potpourri XLVI

Lori Garver, a former Associate Administrator for NASA and also a former National Space Society Executive Director, was been selected by President Obama to be the Deputy Administrator for NASA. I consider that a good thing.

From Jon S., a link re: Lego releasing designs by Frank Lloyd Wright. Woo hoo!

From Father Dan, a YouTube video on a very cool VW factory in Dresden.

Speaking of Germany, if you'd like to get an American's perspective on living in Germany, I highly recommend checking out the podcasts of my friend Jennifer. She's a fun person I went to UCF with backindaday who is now a wife and mother over in Deutschland, and she has a very soothing voice. She'd be great on NPR (and I mean that in a good way).

My buddy (and "work wife") Erika is running in the Cotton Row run tomorrow. Guess I'd better show up.

The price for my Kindle Wall Street Journal subscription went up to $14.99 per month. That's one thing I suppose I can look forward to if I want to pay for content. Sigh. Still a darned good newspaper.

Just saw this on Facebook, and found it sufficiently interesting to add. This site offers different ways to track quantifiable data available on the web. I'll have to play with it some more before I make any comment on its usefulness or uselessness.

Quiet weekend, so I'll let it drop there. Looking forward to a reasonably quiet Monday, even though I have more work to do on HAL5's pitch for ISDC 2011. Draft done, anyway. Progress!

Follow-up on the Trip to Moontown Airport

Scott was pleased that I did my tour, as was I, for that matter. Of course he couldn't resist a little "follow up."

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G’day Bart –

Thank you, I mean really thank you for trusting me enough to take my advice on Moontown. More like plaintive yawping, I’ll admit, but reading between your lines, as well as reading your actual lines, you truly thought it worthwhile.

Some observations on your observations:
Moontown is 3M5, which sounds like the first part of a London postal code to me, but go figure… That’s because they are out of, or are about to run out of, letters-only designations. Remember, these designations are for every airport in the world, not just the US. Little airports didn’t have IATA designations fifteen years ago, but with GPS navigation every destination needs an IATA code. It was decided that little airports, and/or those unlikely to have passenger service, would end up with numbers and letters (never 3 digits) while big airports, or little airports that already had them, have letters only. To the list beginning at Anaa Island in French Polynesia (AAA) and ending at Zanesville, Ohio (ZZV), we can now add Animas Airpark, Colorado (00C) through Weydahl, North Dakota (9Y1). There are also, of course, airports whose identifier begins with a letter and has numbers in it, beginning with Vaiden, Alabama (A08) and ending with Hillman, Michigan (Y95). An example of a big airport unlikely to see passenger service is NASA’s Shuttle runway in Titusville, Florida (X68). If you see a destination that looks like 3 digits, you’re actually looking at the letter O. I have a buddy who keeps a 1929 TravelAir and a Long-EZ at Reedley, California (O32). Four-letter codes are assigned by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). For the continental US, simply precede the ICAO code with a K. Huntsville’s IATA code is HSV; its ICAO code is KHSV. Everywhere else, the ICAO codes “make sense.” That is, each country has its own first two letters (sometimes one country has more than a single two-letter set). The last two letters are more-or-less related to the airport’s name. Amsterdam is EHAM, EH for the Netherlands, AM for Amsterdam. Sydney is YSSY, YS for New South Wales, SY for Sydney. That system’s handy for guys like me when we’re doing logistics planning. While we may not know an exact code, we at least know what country it’s in.
The upper part of the walls are festooned with cloth signs proclaiming pilot's first solo flights… It’s a tradition to have one’s shirttail snipped away upon the occasion.
a Piper PA-25-235. Most manufacturers have a name that goes with the model number. A Cessna 172 is a Skyhawk, A Beech V35 is a Bonanza, etc. The Pawnee is a crop duster, hence the big engine, external bracing for the wings, a high-sitting pilot’s seat with plenty of windows, etc. Down here they like to use an airplane’s name as opposed to model number. A DC-3, military designation C-47, is a Dakota.
a couple of low passes over the field, the first one so low and close that I d@mn near dropped my camera… which is one of the reasons I recommended your visit to 3M5, remember? And I bet you’ll also remember the throbbing of the engines shaking right through to your very soul. I like the dancing-on-one-wheel act. It’s a trademark of that particular owner.
a little put-put plane… Putt-putt, you mean. I hope. But you can’t say those engines putt, can you? I stand corrected. Edits have been made.
Swissair, which remained neutral throughout the war. It was Switzerland that remained neutral, ja? I stand corrected, ja.
her original… probably not, but maybe. Engines can take months to overhaul, so usually you buy an overhauled one when you put yours in for overhaul so you can fly a couple of days later, not weeks and weeks later. Somebody then buys your engine when they put theirs in for overhaul, and on it goes. An airline has extra engines so they can effect a rapid change in order to keep the plane in service… Pratt & Whitney Wasp piston engine, … Twin Wasp, engines plural, carefully maintained. Where do you find spare parts for a 70-year-old engine, anyway?... Easy, believe it or not. There were between 150K and 200K of that model produced, probably close to half still around.
On your AvWeb nose photo, note the little door that’s just inches behind the captain’s chair. Or actually, note its proximity to the #1 prop.
a double door… The cargo door was standard on all C-47s, and many DC-3s were retrofitted. It’s much easier for skydivers, I can tell you. The original door folded downwards and had the stairs built in. Access was much simpler than the double step thingy you used yesterday.
the cockpit… Look through your discard photos for the gear-retract/extend handle. If memory serves, it’s this huge thing, the track of which starts behind the right seat, moves toward the centerline, then forward. Scott is quite correct. I tripped over said handle on my way out of the cockpit.
This beast must be a pain to taxi, as you cannot look directly forward most of the time--the nose is pointed up toward the sky--leaving you only the side window to see the ground and the tail wheel and your propellors to move you in the direction you want to go… Propellers, right. The tailwheel doesn’t steer; it only casters like the wheel on an office chair. It’s locked into its fore-and-aft position for takeoff and remains that way until you’re ready to turn off of the runway after landing. Ground steering on a DC-3 is accomplished by differential thrust. You pull the throttle back on the side you want to turn towards and advance the opposite one. You can also use differential braking ((almost) all aircraft have two brake pedals, one for each side) if you need a really tight turn. Problem is, the brakes will get hot and lose their effectiveness, and this phenomenon is especially so on older aircraft. That can be exciting when you’re third in line for takeoff and would like to not bash into the plane in front of you. Third problem is that the DC-3 will taxi along right smartly with the engines at idle, so judicious use of aforementioned brakes-that-tend-to-fade is essential. Fourth problem is taxiing in a crosswind. The crosswind pushes on the vertical fin, which points the nose in the opposite direction, and the tailwheel below it casters, remember? You can lock the tailwheel when you’re doing a long, straight taxi, but have to unlock it when you want to turn.
Climbing into one that's still flying is something else… It’s also got some good smells, no? Better than what a modern airplane smells like.

Now, do you think you’ll go back and meet up with some of your new friends? Maybe offer fuel money to that David guy and do a half-day trip. >90% chance he’ll say yes. My guess is that you’ll enjoy the trip-planning as much as the flight. And once in the air you’ll enjoy looking at the instruments and having a better idea of what you and the plane are doing. I am tempted to go back and see about getting a ride in a glider...or something. It's one thing to have the window seat in a 757; it's something else again to be in the copilot's seat of something where you can feel more than just occasional turbulence. Hmmmm.

Seriously, mate; thanks again for trusting me on this. You have to admit you enjoyed yourself. Yep.

Scott

Then D@mn It, Man, Stop Spending!

Obama says we're out of money. Wow. Chutzpah.

Afternoon at the Moontown Airport


My buddy Scott, who serves as one of my subject matter experts on things aviation, Navy, logistics, Special Forces, and other matters, emailed me from New Zealand a couple days ago to remind--no, order me to go to a fly-in of a Douglas DC-3 at Moontown Airport in Gurley, Alabama. I did so because I like airplanes, not out of any particular sense of obedience...I mean, Scott's 10,000 miles away or more, it's not like he's going to come after me tomorrow if he finds out I didn't go.

But the trip was, of course, worthwhile. The plane was late arriving due to rain between Huntsville and Atlanta, so I had a chance to wander around, take pictures of airplanes, talk to a couple of folks, and catch a nap before the plane finally DID show up, about 4.5 hours later than expected.


I'll start with the airport itself. Every airport has its own three- or four-character code to identify it to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). For example, ORD for Chicago O'Hare, MCO for Orlando International, HSV for Huntsville International, etc. Moontown is 3M5, which sounds like the first part of a London postal code to me, but go figure.

























I saw a couple of cool banners hanging in the various hangars at Moontown (hereafter MT). The one here is for the 82nd Combat Air Brigade out of Fort Bragg, NC.


























There is, apparently, a Red Star Pilots Association. Who knew? I found this flag hanging from one of the probes jutting from the forward end of a YAK-52.

There are several golf carts at MT, one of which was imported from Thailand.

A "No Bull$#!t" sign is displayed prominently in the service building, which looks like a pilot ready room that hasn't changed in 60 years.

The upper part of the walls are festooned with cloth signs proclaiming pilot's first solo flights. Not sure if the cloth comes from t-shirts or what, but they had that ambience to them.

There was a flying map of the U.S. on the wall, which marks out (I believe) typical city-to-city flight paths and restricted air space (more on that a little later).

And because there is, in fact, only so much time one can spend in the ready room, I eventually wandered the hangar area to take pictures of airplanes that interested me. One plane I spotted was this gray U.S. Army scout plane.

I found this sporty little model that looked like a UFO with its bubble canopy. No idea who makes it, but it looks very fun to fly.

The yellow biplane below is made of composites but has a design based on the Beechcraft 17 Staggerwing. It's one of only five in the country. I saw a couple of these at an air show at Andrews Air Force Base a few years ago. Pretty aircraft. Nine-cylinder engine, 450 horsepower, seats for 6, but more comfortably seats 4.

This sporty little red monoplane is a kit aircraft built by Van called the RV-3. I chatted with the owner, David E., for awhile, getting myself less stupid about private aircraft flying vs. commercial flying (which is all I've done). The RV-3 has a four-cylinder Lycoming engine capable of pushing the plane to 190 miles per hour and an altitude of 10,000 to 12,000 feet. Edgewood manages to get about 100 hours per year in her, and seems to enjoy the experience just for flying's sake. He doesn't use it for travel much.

I asked him if he'd been put under a lot of restrictions by TSA since 9/11, and he indicated that flying into regular commercial airports is not worth the hassle. However, small fields like MT were still easy to fly into and out from, with a minimum of paperwork or formality. MT doesn't even have a tower, and operates under VFR (visual flight rules) as opposed to IFR (instrument flight rules). In connection with long-distance travel, though, David was a little less positive. "A lot of us [private pilots] don't have kind things to say about our politicians these days. A lot of them are jumping at shadows." He also indicated that random TFRs (temporary flight restrictions) can pop up when you least want or expect them. Examples include keeping private planes out of areas where Air Force One is flying or near televised sports events. "Flying into DCA [Washington National] is like flying into a foreign country. And a lot of these TFRs sprout up like mushrooms for no reason. They'll be a couple thousand feet high and two or three miles out from a location."

Much to my surprise, David was not a commercial pilot or retired military pilot. He learned to fly in college and just caught the bug. He'd fly more, he said, if his wife didn't get a bad habit of being airsick.

I asked about the foam chocks inside his engine inlets, which had string sticking from them, which was wrapped around the propeller. He explained that those were in there to keep birds, bugs, and other stuff out. "And when the prop turns on, they have the benefit of just flying right out."

Several of the Russian YAK-52s I saw at Scottsboro a couple weeks ago are based at MT. I asked how, exactly, one acquires a Russian trainer aircraft, Czech-made or not. One young guy just shrugged and said, "Russians. They'll sell anything."

This plane just intrigued me, like the cockpit window was added as an afterthought. The name on the side was "Pawnee D," which might be the name of the plane or the name of the pilot's tribe, for all I knew. (Follow-up note: It's a Piper PA-25-235 Pawnee.)

The guys there in the "tower" are most likely checking their watches. There's not much other equipment there besides a radio.

The reason I and a lot of other people were there, of course, was to see the Douglas DC-3, which got held up by rainy weather between Huntsville and Atlanta. I had enough time to finish a magazine and take a nap.

When the gray lady finally showed up, she did a couple of low passes over the field, the first one so low and close that I d@mn near dropped my camera. There are "mountains" (big, friggin' hills for anyone who's been to Colorado) past either end of the runway, so the plane came in at a bit of an angle. Must've made for an interesting time in the cockpit.

It's hard to get an appreciation for how big these things are until you see them up close, especially if you're a tourist like me who's been flying on commercial jets all his life. For example, compared to one of the last McDonnell-Douglas aircraft, the DC-10, the DC-3 looks like a little putt-putt plane. However, she compares favorably if you've spent any time in regional jets.

The DC-3 held a record for years as the most-produced aircraft in history, a record that I believe was finally surpassed by the 737. She was big for her day, carrying 30-35 passengers, unpressurized, and probably noisy as heck onboard, but she over 16,000 of her sisters managed to provide air transport in war and peace...and obviously still do.

Unlike most of the commercial DC-3s, which were drafted for military service or the C-47s that were built specifically for war use, this particular aircraft did not serve in World War II. She rolled off the assembly line in 1938 and was sold to Swissair, which remained neutral throughout the war. The plane was subsequently sold to Ozark Airlines and then Academy Air before the current private owner acquired her.

The plane is still flying with her original Pratt & Whitney Wasp piston engine, carefully maintained. Where do you find spare parts for a 70-year-old engine, anyway?

AVWeb.com has been doing a web feature on this plane. Thus the sponsorship banner on the nose.

The airport operator was interviewed by AVWeb...

I'm not sure if it was standard equipment on all DC-3s, but this one has a double door, one half of which opened for passengers, the back half of which opened to stow cargo.

The interior ceiling was surprisingly roomy. The plane itself was a bit cluttered from the other stuff they were carrying. The four seats shown here were the only passenger seats on the plane. The rest of the interior was used for cargo.

I couldn't wait to sit down in the cockpit of this baby. All of the instruments are mechanical, hydraulic, or electrical, not electronic. The pilot and copilot seats had wool seat covers. I felt like I was in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon or something.

This beast must be a pain to taxi, as you cannot look directly forward most of the time--the nose is pointed up toward the sky--leaving you only the side window to see the ground and the tail wheel and your propellors to move you in the direction you want to go. However, the view from up there is pretty impressive, as long as it's not raining. (Correction from Scott: the tail wheel has no role in turning--thanks for the catch!)

Who knows how much longer hobbyists will be able to keep the "Dakotas" or DC-3s or C-47s in the air using their original equipment. But while they can, it's worth your time to see one of these planes up close. Seeing one in the Air & Space Museum is one thing. Climbing into one that's still flying is something else.