... roger's thinking of volunteer for the owls head vintage motorcycle meet in august, so we took a little drive over so he could talk to the co-ordinator ... she wasn't in, but we took the time to enjoy the museum ... i didn't take notes, or for that matter pay much attention to dates and nomenclature, instead i just wandered enjoying all the fascinating human interest stories the guide related to his audience of one ... here, with a bit of information gleaned from the web, are my impressions of some of the exhibits ...
... this marvelous "ornithopter" with its feather filled wings would've been the first airplane ever, except, that is, for the slight problem that no matter how furiously the wings were flapped it never left the ground ... another of those great ideas that didn't work ...
... the wright airplane, the first human-carrying powered airplane to make sustained flights and also be fully controllable as to both height and direction of flight ... that is, of course, if you dismiss the claims concerning gustave whitehead ...
... an example of a motorized bicycle, a 1946 "whizzer" ... gives whole new meaning to the phrase, "i gotta take a whiz," doesn't it ...
... the museum is currently displaying what hemmings calls "one of the most comprehensive mg collections in the country, if not the world" ...
... here's william stout's "scarab," an experimental vehicle that had unibody construction, a first ever fiberglass exterior and was rear-engined ... in addition, the seats were removable so that the interior could be customized, to include the placement of a card table ... at the time too "ugly" to attract the attention of the driving public, only nine were built ... william drove his own over 250,000 miles ...
... like the wrights, etrich's "taube" used wing warping (bending and twisting of the wings) to control the movement of the aircraft ...
... this is a 1909 "deluxe" pierce motorcycle ...
... italy's iso decided to sell its "isseta" (nicknamed das rollendi ei, "the rolling egg") ... bmw, at that time in severe trouble financially and facing buyout by mercedes benz, bought the egg hoping to make some fast cash ... by 1959 the introduction of the mini brought an end to the isseta, but it had achieved its purpose since the bmw company survived ... in england some issetas were sold with only three wheels, thus avoiding the steep tax on automobiles ...
... i remember cars such as this ... three kids could spread a blanket on the roof to watch the northern lights, try doing that with a modern chevy or toyota ...
... in the lobby hang many detailed models of world war one aircraft ...
... roger and i had a great time ... pretending we were flatlanders on vacation, we stopped for lunch in rockland, then played chase along back roads all the way home ...