Travels With Frito: A Drive Across the USA to meet an airplane.

[Peter McLennan]

https://spark.adobe.com/page/0McWFgnfSgirE/

I wanted to fill a childhood dream to see an airplane. The best way to do this was to drive across the USA.

With some time off for photography. 

[JNB_Rare]

Great story, excellent presentation, some terrific photos. Sort of hidden away here in the Coffee Corner, which some now avoid. Too bad.

[Chris Kern]

The pictures you made during the western portion of your road trip are very evocative of the "big sky country" of the North American prairie.  I've been trying for years to persuade my sister in Frankfurt and her German husband to see something of the west besides California; I think they'd be astounded by how empty it is.

The Museum of the U.S. Air Force is an underappreciated national resource — probably because its location in Dayton is off the beaten tourist path.  I've had an opportunity to observe their restoration work in person: it's meticulously researched and fastidiously implemented.

[RSL]

Wonderful stuff, Peter. It brings back a lot of memories. I entered the Air Force in early 1951, flew fighter-bombers in Korea and was there when the war ended, was stationed in Big Sky Country at Malmstrom AFB in Montana, and flew various aircraft all over that part of the US and southern Canada. I finally retired in 1977, after three wars and a lot of cross-country auto trips. You did wonderful work with your camera on that trip. Wish I could have been with you.

[Peter McLennan]

Thanks, guys.

I'm sorta embarrassed to tell you that many of those images were made with my four year old Samsung phone. The two D800s were returned to the van after half an hour standing around on the concrete hangar floors. Too heavy. The Sammy did well, though, for a phone.

Agreed, Chris.  The USAF museum is underappreciated.  Next up in The Valkyrie Road Trip Part Two is the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC.  As are Rural Pennsylvania, The Big Horn Mountains, Beartooth Pass and other delights.  It was an action-packed two weeks.   As I age, the mantra "Buy experiences, not things" makes more and more sense.  In person, the XB-70 was truly an emotional experience.

[Kevin Gallagher]

 Great article Peter!! In my much younger days I was fascinated by that X85 and the whole parasitic fighter plane idea. Did they happen to have one of the VTOL pogo's there as well?

[Peter McLennan]

They did indeed, Kevin.  I stood there gobsmacked, wondering how the heck you'd ever land something like that. The runway is directly behind your neck.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

What a great story and photos, Peter. It felt as if I was riding along with you.
I look forward eagerly to Part 2.

Eric

[Chris Kern]

Next up in The Valkyrie Road Trip Part Two is the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC.

I hope you also were able to divert to suburban Virginia while you were here to visit the Air and Space Museum annex.  If you missed it this time around, put it on your list.  Some very interesting aircraft there which are perhaps a little too quirky for the more mainstream Washington, D.C., facility, as well as what I think is perhaps the most elegant-looking airframe ever designed, the SR-71 "Blackbird" reconnaissance aircraft.  (There's another one at the Pima Air Museum in Tuscon, Arizona.)

[Peter McLennan]

The Udvar Hazy Smithsonian annex was on my list, but it didn't work out.  The timing of my exit from DC and their operating hours didn't align well.  I have seen several copies of the SR-71 elsewhere, including the Pima County near museum near Tucson, which is fantastic for photography.

One aircraft that Udvar Hazy has that I'd like to see was the original 707.  The one Tex Johnson barrel-rolled over Lake Washington.  Now, that was cool.

Glad you guys are enjoying the trip.  Good to have you along.

[DougJ]

Yes, indeed a wonderful travelogue.  It reminds me of a similar trip that I took in 1976 with two of our sons, then young teenagers, in our Cessna 172.  Our trip was from Vancouver,BC to the Oshkosh EAA fly-in, and then on to the Wright brothers' birth place and the military museum which even then was the home of the first XB-70 Valkyrie.  Unfortunately at that time the plane was a sad sight as it sat rotting away in an outside display.  It really is nice to know that it now has a place of honour in the national museum. The rest of our trip us took north back into Toronto's Island airport to visit grandparents, and then back to Vancouver.

I'm looking forward to part 2.

Ciao,
Doug

[Peter McLennan]

I just realized.... I must have never posted Part II.  Sorry! 

https://spark.adobe.com/page/D0olA8FWEA08H/

[RSL]

More splendid stuff, Peter. Thank you. Thank you.

[aross007]

Peter,

Thank you for the enjoyable travelog. Among the memories it triggered for me - I was stationed at Wright-Patterson when they brought  the B-70 to the museum.   The pilot of course knew that this was the last flight, and it seemed to all of us that he didn't want it to end. He flew low passes over and over until he finally had to land.  There was still a runway at Wright field (the part of the base where the museum is) but it was too short for the B-70 so he landed on the long runway at Patterson field.  Later they shut down the highways and figured out a route they could use to tow the plane to the museum site, where they built a building around the plane.

Alan Ross

[John R]

More splendid stuff, Peter. Thank you. Thank you.

Splendid indeed. Loved every moment of it. You certainly know how to create a simple but effective narrative with superb images.

JR