Tour Of The Airbus A-380

The A-380

The largest and the smallest. This little plane was brought to Oshkosh inside the belly of the A-380
In the upper deck
Thursday July 30

The big deal today was my chance to board the largest airliner in the world, the Airbus A-380. Boarding started at 10:00am this morning and as hundreds of other people, I took my place in line in the rain. After an hour and fifteen minutes, I stepped inside the cabin. The plane that is here at AirVenture is the second one ever built, and as such is a test bed for the Airbus company. What I mean by that is that this plane is not full of seats, but mostly test equipment. This plane is used to test various layouts that a customer may require. The large gray barrels you see in the pictures are used to add weight to the plane to simulate the weight of passengers or other things. Never the less, this is a huge plane. We boarded near the rear of the plane and proceeded to go to the second level via the rear spiral staircase. As we made our way to the front of the plane we returned to the main level by a large much wider staircase that brought you to just behind the flight deck. Off limits, of course. As a mater of fact, you weren't even allowed to bring a back pack on board.

BIG !!

White Knight II

Eric Lindbergh
Sealing the deal
Airbus A-380

Monday and Tuesday

The first two days of EAA AirVenture 2009 have been BIG to say the least. On Monday we saw the arrival of “White Knight II”, the aircraft that will carry "Space Ship Two"and eventually take people into space. The aircraft is a joint venture between renowned aircraft designer Burt Rutan and Sir Richard Branson, and a deal was signed at AirVenture on Tuesday, between Virgin Group and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi. The deal is a 280 million dollar investment giving the Abu Dhabi firm a 32% share in Virgin Galactic.

The big, and I mean BIG thing on Tuesday, was the arrival of the largest airliner in the world. I'm talking about the Airbus A-380. A double decker aircraft capable of carrying a maximum of 500 passengers. It flew over the crowd of thousands to demonstrate the capabilities of the huge plane, before landing and taxiing to Aeroshell Square, where it dwarfs everything in the area, and will remain on display until later in the week.While wandering around the vintage aircraft area in the afternoon, I ran into a young pilot that I had the pleasure of meeting a few years ago. This young man flew a small plane SOLO across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris, France. His name is Lindbergh... Eric Lindbergh, grandson of the other famous Lindbergh... Charles. Eric was gracious enough to allow me to take his picture. Thanks Eric.

One Day To Go

Sherpa K300 bush plane

A different kind of Ford...a Ford Tri Motor

$100 give you the chance to win this one of a kind Ford Mustang built especially for AirVenture.
Although AirVenture doesn't officially start until Monday, I got a sneak peek this afternoon and found everyone hard at work getting their respective displays ready for the morning. Tomorrow morning there'll be a mad dash for the gates! Here's a little of what I saw. Remember, there's more in the photo gallery.

First AirVenture Update

The trip to Oshkosh was a long one. Before leaving home, I studied various routes to get me around Chicago and all the road construction that goes along with that city. So, I chose to take route 294 North, just to the west of Chicago. Boy was that a mistake! There was more construction going on in that area than there had ever been in the City itself. The tie-ups were horrendous and there was no getting around them. After about twelve hours of riding, I’d had enough and found a motel. The weather was closing in on me and I was ready to stop for a while.

This morning, refreshed and re-invigorated, I rode the last hour to Oshkosh. After checking in at the main gate, and getting all my passes and what have you, for the week, I went to find my usual spot in the campground. As you can see from the picture above, I’m all set for the week, and just waiting for the gates to open on Monday.

EAA AirVenture 2009 Coming Up

This coming week end I'm off to Oshkosh, Wisconsin on the motorcycle, to the annual EAA AirVenture. “The Word’s Greatest Aviation Celebration”, one week of everything aviation. One of the biggest attractions (no pun intended) this year is the largest commercial airliner in the world, the Airbus A-380. It will arrive on Tuesday. I will be updating the site from AirVenture and should have lots of pictures.

Back From Detroit

Ford Model "T"

The original Kenneddy car
Some early motorcycles

The town center

Driven from southern Chile to Dearborn, Michigan

The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village are well worth the trip. The museum complex houses some of the rarest and best collection of cars, planes, inventions and memorabilia from the days of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers and beyond. Things you will see nowhere else. An incredible collection from all over.

Sharon and I left home on the K1200LT at 6:30am on Friday and headed to the Lewiston bridge to get into Canada and head toward Detroit, Michigan. We hit some rain on the way, but as we neared Detroit, the sun came out and stayed that way until we left to come home on Sunday. We went direct to the Marriott (the worst Internet connection ever) on the outskirts of Detroit and checked in.

Saturday morning we headed over to the Museum to spend the day exploring all it had to offer, and it was a lot! After a full day at the museum, we found a great Irish Pub where they offered some exceptional Prime Rib and cold beer.

On Sunday we headed back home and the closer we got to New York, the crappier the weather got, but the trip to the Henry Ford Museum is definately a trip you want to make. Go to the "Photo Gallery" to see the rest of the pictures.

The Henry Ford Museum

Dearborn, Michigan is the home of "The Henry Ford Museum". Sharon and I will be riding the bike to the museum later this week. The museum complex also includes "Greenfield Village", an area of historic buildings and attractions, including Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, the first light bulb, a real "Model T", a Ford Tri Motor, the car that President Kennedy rode in on that fateful day in Dallas, and many more historic artifacts. The ride to Dearborn should take us about five hours, going thru Canada. I'll post pictures in the "Photo Gallery".

New Addition To The Blog....VIDEO

I'm trying something new on the Blog, Video! With the release of the new iPhone 3G S, and now the phones ability to record video, I thought I would attach the phone to the bike on my trip to Pennsylvania and see what it would do. I shot some video on Route 184 just to see how well the phone records video. Other than some unexplained waviness at times on the screen, I think it takes a fairly good video, given the constraints of the phone. I've uploaded the video to You Tube and you can see it by going here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBP3gncTUi4 Don't expect too much! Remember, it's only a test.