South Dakota Air and Space Museum, Rapid City

August 1, 2012

Wednesday was another full day.  We drove to Rapid City, South Dakota, the 2nd largest city, to visit the South Dakota Air and Space Museum and to do a little "big city" shopping.

 We have visited air museums in other parts of the country but this is the largest collection we've seen so far.  Jim is an airplane buff from way back and was familiar with most of the planes we saw.  He gave me background on quite a few of them before we even got to the displays. 

Inner workings

EB-57 Canberra

B-26K Counter Invader

UH-1F Iroquois Bell Helicopter

Landing Gear and Liz

F-86 Sabre  "Open Wide"

Viet Nam War Camouflage

EB-57 Canberra

Under the Belly

South Dakota played an integral part in Stategic Air Command during the Cold War.  Situated in and around the Black Hills were many of the Minutemen nuclear missile silos.  They were organized in groups of 11, with a command center that operated each pod of those missiles, and there were quite a few of these around this area.  These command centers were manned 24 hours a day with 2 operators in each one, for over 35 years.  At the end of the Cold War all that changed.  The display in the museum was really informative and showed how the missile silos were constructed, as well as how they operated.  Jim and I learned a lot about our nuclear program.  South Dakota played many roles in the development of the U.S. air program, including the manned balloons that flew into the stratosphere, 73,000+ feet into the air.  I would have taken more photos of that, but it was difficult inside the exhibit area....lots of glass to thwart the flash and it was kinda dark....don't know why.  Usually museums are white and glare-y.  Not this one - it was built inside what looked to be airplane hangers, sprayed with insulation.  Quirky.

I got to sit inside the cockpit of a F-101 flight simulator.  That was special....

Instrument Panel

Me, Pretending

I really like the airplane "art"....the things that these pilots painted on the sides of their planes.  Here are a few examples.  They represented all kinds of things....most of them, unexplained!!

We left the museum and headed up the road for another popular attraction:  Cabela's!  Neither of us had ever been inside one, so we took the plunge.  Oh my!  They pretty much have everything for the outdoor lovers.  We spent an hour looking at all of it.  We bought some nice rain jackets, which are becoming necessary.  All I brought were sweatshirts and heavy jackets.  We've been having rain showers off and on over the past several weeks.   These fit the bill nicely. 

Cabela's, Rapid City, SD