X-15

So no face to face meetings today, so a bit of a lie in then a couple of hours email.

Then time to set of for a bit of a look around.

Headed down to the Smithsonian American History Museum. A quick hour's conference call in the reception hall and then off to see the exhibits. I'm sorry to say I wasn't that impressed. I guess half of it is being redeveloped, but the breadth of the exhibits was poor.

The history of American technology was covered by a section on Thomas Edison, an Apple II computer (not even an Apple I) and an original server rack from Google.

So headed next door to the Natural History Museum. It was better, but fairly standard affair and I would say the Natural History Museum in London was bigger and better.

I couldn't resist it any more - so headed over to the Air and Space Museum. Picture above of the NASA X-15.

It still holds the record from the '60s for the fastest and highest manner aircraft.

After all that walking, I decided to catch the Hubble 3D in the Lockheed Martin iMax. Sitting waiting for the film to start, I though "Surely as the Chief Aviation Technologist - Global Airports, I should get some sort of staff discount". So I texted one of my American Colleagues, and sure enough - if I showed ID I could have got in for free along with a guest.

Oh well, next time anyone comes to Washington with me - at least we can see an iMax for free :)