The space suit that Neil Armstrong wore on the historic Apollo 11 moon mission is falling apart, and while its custodians at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space museum are trying to preserve it, the suit is showing its age.
The main culprit is a layer of neoprene embedded in the fabric of the suit. Neoprene is the material that is used to make wetsuits, and over time it hardens and becomes brittle. Despite fierce competition from his fellow paragliding aerobatics competitors, Spain’s Horacio Llorens, 35, impressed the judges with spectacular maneuvers and gained the top spot on the podium of the Acro World Tour Finals. The final battle between Horacio Llorens and Rafael Goberna proved to be extremely tight. Despite a less precise landing, Llorens’ better technique and flight choreography allowed him to get the better of Goberna and win the competition. The Tillamook Air Museum, in cooperation with Doug Scroggins of Scroggins Aviation of Las Vegas, NV, is adding to its growing collection of historic aircraft and aviation exhibits; the forward fuselage of a 1960 Trans-World Airlines (TWA) Convair 880 jetliner, one of the finest, most comfortable (and fastest at 615 MPH) commercial jet aircraft ever produced.
After sitting in the Mojave Desert for the past 38 years, this relic from a bygone era will now be the only Convair 880 on display anywhere on the west coast. Built in San Diego in 1960, and delivered to Northeast Airlines, this particular Convair 880 (Serial #23) set two speed records during its lifetime, one in 1960 from San Diego, California to Boston, Massachusetts in 4 hours, 17 minutes, and another in 1962 from New York's La Guardia Airport to Fort Lauderdale, FL in 1 hour, 43 minutes, a record that still stands to this day. All this -- and MORE in today's episode of Airborne!!!
Airborne 08.31.18 is chock full of info in this Daily News Episode, Friday, August 31st, 2018... Presented by Aero-TV veteran videographer and Airborne Hosts Laura Hutson, Brianne Cross, and Christopher Odom, and is supported by ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell, Chief Videographer Nathan Cremisino, and Aero-Journalist Tom Patton, this episode covers:
- Neil Armstrong's Lunar Space Suit Is Deteriorating
- Horacio Llorens From Spain Wins The Acro World Tour 2018
- Historic Convair 880 To Be Acquired By The Tillamook Air Museum
- Lake Aircraft, FAA Type Certificate And Assets Offered For Sale
- FAA SAIB Focuses On Beechjet Flap Cables
- Martha King Named To CAP Board Of Governors
- Final Assembly On NASA's Orion Spaceship Underway
Get Comprehensive, Real-Time, 24/7 coverage of the latest aviation and aerospace stories anytime, at aero-news.net. And be sure to join us again for the next edition of "Airborne Unlimited" here on Aero-TV. Thanks for watching. See you, again, tomorrow!
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