BACKROADS • MAY 2022
Page 12
BIG CITY GETAWAY
daytrip ideas to get out of the daily grind
VIRGINIA AIR & SPACE SCIENCE CENTER
600 SETTLERS LANDING RD., HAMPTON, VA 23669 757-727-0900 • VASC.ORG Along the banks of the Hampton River, in the southeastern part of Virginia, you will find a most remarkable museum. We rolled into town, and Shira had booked us a room at The Landing Hotel, more or less, right down the block with a neighbor of an excellent brewpub – Bull Island - and with restaurants abounding. Looking out from our window facing the museum we knew that this was going to be special. The Virginia Air & Space Science Center is celebrating more than 25 years of educational excellence as the official visitor center for NASA Langley Research Center. Located in Hampton, Virginia, the birthplace of America’s space program, the Virginia Air & Space Science Center features interactive aviation exhibits spanning 100 years of flight, from the beginnings of manned flight to where we are today, bringing it all to its visitors in a succinct and informative manner, with more than 30 historic aircraft, a hands-on space exploration gallery, unique space flight artifacts, and more! The Center is home to the Apollo 12 Command Module and the Orion PA-1 Test Vehicle… and that is just the beginning. The Center’s aircraft depict a number of aviation firsts and milestones. Our room at The Landing faced both the pier with its many private craft and the center itself – ships of a more altitudinal nature - and, even at night when closed, the Virginia Air & Space Science Center is a showpiece and sight to behold with its giant windows allowing a peek inside at some of those magnificent flying machines illuminated from inside. The museum opened at 10 am – and we were already at the door. As we strolled into the large, open, and airy building we were taken with the wonderfully displayed models of aircraft through time that dominated the very beginning of the museum’s lower level.
The Great Masking had brought back the model maker in us and Backroads Central has a plethora of military aircraft – albeit mostly small Snap-Tite models, as 8+ years is a skill level we are comfortable with! The reproductions here were beautiful and so well crafted. Opposite these were a couple of jet aircraft engines and we wondered how big a diversion we would need to create to snag the Pratt & Whitney F119 F-22 engine and shoehorn it into our Dodge Durango, as we all need 35,000 lbs. of thrust, right? Across from the F-22 engine was a Pershing Missile and above that, a plethora of some of the greatest aircraft ever flown. Bell P-39Q Airacobra, Convair F-106B Delta Dart, F-18, F-16, F4 Phantom, F104 Starfighter, and a replica of the Wright Flyer and even a humble Piper J-3 Cub – the peoples plane! We were like kids in a toy store – a very serious and adult toy store. Much as I am bamboozled by military aircraft it
