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You Never Know What You'll See At Your Local Airport

Nels_Anderson

Entry posted by Nels_Anderson

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Smaller airports can be fun to visit as you never know what will fly in. My local airport has a weekly drive-in / fly-in event once a week during the summer so it gets lots of cool cars as well as some fly-ins. You might see an ultralight or an old Cub fly in, or one week it was a Lake Amphibian. When I drove in for this week's event, though, something quite unusual had arrived:

 

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It looked like a Gemini space capsule from the 1960's...It is a Gemini space capsule from the 1960's! And it's for sale:

 

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So, what's the story? No, it's not space-flown hardware, all of those capsules are in museums. But it is a real artifact from the Gemini space program. It's a test capsule, one of a number constructed to test various aspects of how the vehicle worked. This one was use in recovery systems testing. If you have a really good memory of the program, at time time the Gemini spacecraft were intended to land on ground, using wheels or skids and a parachute similiar to a hang glider. So testing of that as well as the more normal parachute that was ultimately used was required.

 

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The owner is trying to reduce his collection, thus the sale. Oh, in case you're interested, he has an Apollo capsule for sale too.

 

Pretty cool. I think I'll make a point to attend the drive-in / fly-in next week too! You never know what you might see...

 

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8 Comments

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PhantomTweak

Wow! And only $65,000.00 too! Whatta bahgain!

Still and awesome sight at a small airport :) Very very cool! Wish I could afford the Apollo capsule. What a rush to b in! Especially if you can find a real/authentic suit to wear. Too bad they were/are all custom made just for the user...

 

Pat☺

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RatRace

I'm surprised how small it is.

 

And what does

If you have a really good memory of the program
mean? Is this a place of sexagenarians? :)
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Nels_Anderson
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They were quite small. What I meant was not many people would have enough interest in the space program to remember it to that level of detail whether they lived during those days or have studied the history since, since what I was talking about was something that never went into actual use.
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Cwhitt1
That was the program I worked on at the Cape in the mid-sixties. I was a maintenance tech on the midnight shift. And yes, the capsule was very cramped. Somewhere I have a photo of Gus Grissom sitting in one of these -- bobbing around in the Gulf. The silly caption at the bottom read, "Can I go around again for another quarter?" Chuck Whittington
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napamule2
Isn't it tied down backwards? The aerodynamics of the bottom of the capsule must result in a 'wagging' trailer, I would imagine. But I could be wrong. Maybe the way he has it tied down is correct? Of course, at higher speeds the truck would 'part' the air and there might not be any problem. (Dynamics, always dynamics - hehe).
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