Scale Modeling, a Friend in Town, and Aerospace History

After a rather quiet weekend and a busy start of the work week, I was at Calvary Presbyterian Church (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/) this past Tuesday night (21 August) for the IPMS/Gateway (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/) (https://www.facebook.com/IPMSGateway/) meeting. Besides helping set up the Fellowship Hall for the meeting and taking down the meeting minutes, I was drafted to help run the contest judging seminar. Our contest director, Marion Morris, could not make the meeting due to a family emergency, so Bill Wagner and I gave the talk about what judges should look for in contest models. We used a few models of our own and others loaned to us in making our presentation. This seminar was done because we will need as many judges as possible for our Invitational on 8 September.

Off work the next day, I met up in mid-morning with my Saint Louis University (http://www.slu.edu/) classmate and friend Stacy Alcorn-Davenport. She was visiting family and friends here from her home in England. We last met four years ago when she was in town for a visit. It was great seeing Stacy at Saint Louis Bread Co. (https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/home.html) in Mehlville. Over coffee, we caught up on things in our lives. It was great talking with Stacy and was so happy to see her, as she was to see and talk with me.

After a brief stop home, I was off again. (My mom was hosting her monthly bunco get together that afternoon.) I drove up to visit the James S. McDonnell Prologue Room (http://www.boeing.com/company/tours/prologue-room.page) at Boeing's St. Louis Headquarters near St. Louis Lambert International Airport. I had not been to this museum since before Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997. The Prologue Room tells the story of Boeing and its component companies--Douglas, Hughes, North American, McDonnell, Piasecki, Vertol, McDonnell Douglas, and Rockwell--through models, pictures, and memorabilia. Full size engineering mock ups of the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft, which McDonnell built during the 1960s, were also on display. It was very nice to visit this museum, which is open to the general public during June, July, and August, and to organized groups throughout the year.

I definitely recommend this place to aerospace history buffs and to educational groups.

Later.