Flying High

Today we went to the National Air and Space Museum, which has exhibitions about space and air travel. This museum has the largest historical spacecraft and aircraft in the world. We spent the majority of our day here because there was so much to see.

When we walked into the entrance I spotted the Apollo 11 command capsule. I was able to touch this capsule as well. Apollo 11 is an important icon because it carried the first  astronauts who landed and walked on the moon in 1969. These astronauts were Neil Armstrong (he also walked on the moon), Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

I also touched a small piece of moon rock that came from the Apollo 17 mission. It felt very smooth.

I really loved this museum, therefore I will make note of only my really favourite exhibits. These were:

• Amelia Earhart’s plane – Amelia Earhart was a famous female aviator and she was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.
• The Wilbur and Orville Wright’s original 1903 canvas and wood flyer. The Wright brothers invented and built the worlds first successful plane. They tested and crashed many models before successfully flying the canvas and wood flyer.
• Going into the cockpit of a jumbo jet and looking at all the controls.

My most favourite activity at this museum was riding in an interactive  F-4 Phantom II jet fighter simulator. In this simulator there was a pilot and a gunner. I was the gunner and had to shoot attacking fighter jets. My dad’s mate, Justin, was the pilot. When Justin moved the controls to fly the jet it moved the simulator from side to side, and spun it up side down. Therefore when flying the plane Justin flipped the simulator and us upside down. Justin and I both screamed like girls the first time we were hung upside down. After a few flips we just thought it was funny and I actually shot some enemy. I think that we would not make very good fighter pilots