Comments on: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There http://blog.nasm.si.edu/behind-the-scenes/the-untold-story-of-getting-from-here-to-there/ Mon, 20 May 2013 19:01:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Roger Connor http://blog.nasm.si.edu/behind-the-scenes/the-untold-story-of-getting-from-here-to-there/comment-page-1/#comment-61645 Roger Connor Wed, 06 Jun 2012 19:35:15 +0000 http://blog.nasm.si.edu/?p=4312#comment-61645 @Doug Ramsdell

You are correct that there is a hint of truth. I have heard variations on this story, but the most consistent urban myth is that the Hershey wrapper was found on the B-26 “Flak Bait” from WWII. Items of this type are found on an occasional basis in the restoration process and if the items date from the time of use, they are generally cataloged and stored separately for preservation.

Roger Connor
Curator, Air Navigation

]]> By: Roger Connor http://blog.nasm.si.edu/behind-the-scenes/the-untold-story-of-getting-from-here-to-there/comment-page-1/#comment-61644 Roger Connor Wed, 06 Jun 2012 19:29:43 +0000 http://blog.nasm.si.edu/?p=4312#comment-61644 @Ricardo Reis

We’d love to be able to display an example of a Coutinho sextant in the Time and Navigation gallery, but sadly, we do not have one. It was certainly a significant development, though I should note that it was hardly the first bubble sextant designed for airborne celestial navigation (with various experimental models appearing at the start of the twentieth century). While Coutinho used the sextant in his remarkable 1922 transatlantic flight, the bubble feature was problematic (as were his competitors’) and he took his celestial sightings at low altitude. After it emerged later in the 1920s in a more technologically mature, and reliable form, it competed against other commercially available bubble sextants. While we aren’t showing an actual Coutinho sextant in the Time and Navigation gallery, there will be a photo of Max Pruss using one on the Graf Zeppelin in 1929.

Roger Connor
Curator, Air Navigation

]]> By: Doug Ramsdell http://blog.nasm.si.edu/behind-the-scenes/the-untold-story-of-getting-from-here-to-there/comment-page-1/#comment-49244 Doug Ramsdell Sun, 18 Mar 2012 03:13:03 +0000 http://blog.nasm.si.edu/?p=4312#comment-49244 Thank you, Mr. Gosse, I think you have one of the coolest jobs in the entire world, and as far as I’m concerned you can post here any old time & twice on Sundays.

I once heard a story, I wonder if it’s true, about the restoration out at Suitland of one of the WWI fighters, I forget which one. The story goes that during the dismantling of the aircraft for restoration, a Hershey bar wrapper was found down under the floorboards, roughly of the same vintage as the aircraft. Also according to the story, there was some controversy about what to do with the wrapper, it being of some cultural significance, and potentially worthy of a place in a number of Smithsonian collections. Ultimately, so the story goes, the restorers decided to put it back where they’d found it, and there it supposedly is today.

It’s too good a story to be completely true, but is any part of it true?

]]> By: Ricardo Reis http://blog.nasm.si.edu/behind-the-scenes/the-untold-story-of-getting-from-here-to-there/comment-page-1/#comment-48941 Ricardo Reis Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:34:41 +0000 http://blog.nasm.si.edu/?p=4312#comment-48941 I wonder, will it have a mention to the first crossing of the South Atlantic by portuguese Sacadura Cabral e Gago Coutinho? After all it was the modified sextant by Gago Coutinho that allowed the pin-point crossing, showing that accurate aerial navigation was possible. This type of sextant was then bought by Plath and it was used on the around-the-worl voyage of the Graf Zeppelin.

]]> By: Amelia http://blog.nasm.si.edu/behind-the-scenes/the-untold-story-of-getting-from-here-to-there/comment-page-1/#comment-48816 Amelia Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:58:48 +0000 http://blog.nasm.si.edu/?p=4312#comment-48816 Nice post and interesting photos – the compass is my favorite.

]]> By: Hunter Holins http://blog.nasm.si.edu/behind-the-scenes/the-untold-story-of-getting-from-here-to-there/comment-page-1/#comment-48803 Hunter Holins Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:17:14 +0000 http://blog.nasm.si.edu/?p=4312#comment-48803 Good Job Charlie!

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