AAMP!itude

Garber facility - aviation & aerospace

Yesterday, I joined a afternoon tour of the Garber facitiliy in PG County. Had last visited many years ago.
Thought I'd probably only be there an hour. It lasted 4 hours, and we saw scores of artifacts. Like the "Flying Saucer", missiles, airplane engines, tires, etc.
Loads of WWII aircraft. I was particularly interested in photographing German stuff, since I'd visited Flugwerft Schleissheim, the Deutsches Museum aviation annex (outside of Munich), a couple weeks ago.
The German museum had few WWII planes. I think I know why. They were probably grabbed by the Allies as war booty. There was some unbelievable stuff at Garber. Like prototype jets and V1 rockets. There was also an American copy or version of the V1.
There were a number of unique Jpnz WWII aircraft, as well.
I could go on and on, but I'll mention one anecdote:
The tour group went into a small building or warehouse that contained tires. It had a strong odor of rubber, worse than your average tire store. The warehouse was airconditioned, and the tour guide noticed that a line or pipe leading from an air conditioning unit or blower was dripping water all over THE ORIGINAL TIRES OF THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS. Yes, the tires of the plane that made the first trip across the Atlantic.
The plane is hanging at the Air & Space Museum in DC, and has a set of tires on it. So those ones aren't original? you might wonder. Well, those are the ones that were switched onto the plane after it returned to the States and made a triumphant tour of the country. (The tour guide said those were wider and were better suited to rugged landing spots.)
Incidentally, when I was in Munich, the tabloids were running the recent revelation of Charles Lindbergh having had a love affair with 2 sisters (affairs?) resulting in a birth or two.