Sunday, May 16, 2010

Sometimes

Sitting at my desk on Sunday grinding on mandatory training, not neglected, just not made high enough priority to shoehorn into incredibly BUSY days. Thinking of all the places I would RATHER be today...Woods, Lakes, Rivers, Mountains....just about ANYWHERE but a desk.




Yesterday I was here as well, listening to the growl of radials and the snarl of big V-12s powering the warbirds up and out of the pattern to come around and then thundering down over the crowds. Saturday was General Aviation Day at the local airport, leavened with a large dose of the wonders from a bygone era. One of the local successful folks has a flying collection of the wonders of those days, mostly in flying condition unless the parts to return them to the skies are made of Unobtainium or are just too difficult to handle and too dangerous for Modern Sensibilities. Fah.

After work I went over to the source of the beautiful sounds, just as the doors were closing, shutting away the sleek lines and unbridled power. I'll have to get over there next weekend when some of the others will be flying, along with some visitors.

Thinking back to the travels of late, I was AT the site of the birth of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries A6M Zero, an unassuming concrete clock tower, now the site of the MRJ and the MHI portion of the Boeing 787. This shot was one sunny evening, just before the sun fled below the hills across the bay. The light was surreal and crisp enough to stop and take a minute to appreciate it.

Now where factories stood making the nimble aircraft, while the B-29s tried to remove that capacity, a new generation of aircraft takes shape. Maybe its irony that the same Boeing that designed the B-29 to reach the Empire of Japan, now works with the same companies it built bombers to destroy in order to further the reaches of aviation.

That minute nearly cost me the walk to the main station instead of the spur train, but with a steady jog I made it just as the bell for the doors rang. In Japan, when the doors close, the train GOES. The walk is not a bad one and until recently it was leavened by the glow of a beer machine on the corner near the station. The demise of the beer machine is all the more reason to jog to the spur train.

Back to my training so I can get OUT of here and go see the marvels of a by-gone era...