We started early at Udvar-Hazy with a presentation and talk from a former SR-71 pilot. Buzz Carpenter shared information and stories about the plane on a private tour for us. Did you know there are only 85 pilots who have ever flown the SR-71 at 85,000 feet? Did you know the SR-71 had to refuel every 2 hours and did not have digital capabilities to send its information due to the speed in which it travels? The laser beam to send information to a satellite and to Earth would distort if it had to travel through the shock wave! We also had a class on a great program called Arc GIS, similar to google Earth, to track anything happening with the Earth and the atmosphere. Whew--lots of information!
