Museum of Flight



2/8/13 Platinum Carbon Black ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

A flying car! That’s one of many amazing things I saw and sketched at the Museum of Flight today with Kate, Peggy, Carleen and Nilda. The museum also houses many other amazing things that, unfortunately, I never got around to seeing and sketching this time, so I’m looking forward to going back again.

“After World War II, many people envisioned an airplane in every garage,” according to the placard. Moulton Taylor, a man with that vision, developed the Taylor Aerocar to meet that apparent need. This sketch is of the Taylor Aerocar III made in 1968. It took only 15 minutes for the car to fully sprout its wings and be ready for flight. (By the way, this counts as my car-sketch-of-the-week. As I sketched, I thought the Aerocar’s front oddly resembled my Miata.)

2/8/13 Diamine Grey ink, Zig markers

On May 15, 1918, the first U.S. air mail service flight was made. Along with the mail, this Boeing Air Transport, Inc. plane carried passengers, like this one about to board her 26-hour flight from New York to San Francisco. (Whenever I sketch people, I try hard not to make them look like mannequins. Here, I sketched a mannequin and wondered if she would look like an over-dressed museum visitor.)

Another mannequin takes flight aboard the Gossamer Albatross II, a pedal-powered aircraft that weighs about 70 pounds (according to the docent I overheard as I sketched).



2/8/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Zig markers



Outside the museum, a bronze sculpture called “Team Effort” by Larry Anderson is a memorial to Katharine B. Lenhart and Lieutenant John J. Lenhart, U.S. Navy Schneider Team Pilot, 1927.




2/8/13 Diamine Eclipse ink