I only had a portion of a day in Seattle after the 2021 open source summit, so I figured I'd go back to EMP now MoPOP which has been changing quite a bit, and I visited too quickly last time. Well, it's quite big now, and you can spend many hours there (arguably a whole day). I spent over 3H. This museum is a bit all over the place, from SciFi to Pop music, but it's definitely fun to visit:
Definitely cool buildings:
Since I only had a portion of a day in Seattle after the 2021 open source summit, after doing EMP/MoPOP again, I had a bit of time left and Mohai was a good choice for something I hadn't seen. Frankly it's not a must visit museum, but I enjoyed my 1.5H there, especially the section on Leonardo Da Vinci:
While in Seattle for 2021 Seattle open source summit, one of my coworkers took us for a quit visit of the new Lake Union buildings after the conference. It was nice to have a look and take a few pictures
the 2 buildings are connected with a few bridges between floors
The game room (closed during covid) looked pretty rad:
Well, this was interesting: a hybrid remote/in person conference. About half the speakers were presenting remotely and the other half (or was it third?) went in person to the Seattle Hyatt where the conference was held. I was one of them.
There were not that many attendees, I think 4/5th were remote, so most speakers (including myself) gave talks to a handful of in person attendees, it was a bit weird, but hopefully it worked. The conference required everyone to be vaccinated or have a negative test every day (and they checked). Given that, I found that requiring masking the entire time was a bit over the top, and annoying for speaking to others, but so be it:
Jim Zemlin opened the conference as always:
The various keynotes were good:
Linus and Dirk came in person for their usual firechat
Most speakers, including myself, gave talks in breakout rooms during the 3 days:
My talk went well, despite the low in person attendance:
video of the talk:
And of course we had a vendor floor and per person wrapped snacks (per covid rules):
So I probably wasn't having the best day due other stuff going on, and lacked focus a bit? Here's the end result:
Session1: 1:44
Session2: 1:45
Session3: spun
Session4: 1:42, spun in T2
Session5: 1:38
Session6: Spun T1
It was all fun and games until these happened:
By the 3rd one, I didn't have tires anymore:
It was fun, but definitely not one of my best days.
That said, since I had my Tesla, I did a couple of laps, which is very bad for the brakes, and I probably don't need to do this again. This time my first lap was 1:55, and second lap was 1:59 as I wasn't able to go full speed in several places due to lack of brakes. 1:55 was also my best lap last time I tried so I think that's the best the regular model 3 can do without the track package (and mine has faster acceleration than the regular M3).
A lot of warnings came all at once again, and this time my brake pedal now feels like my pads are much lower. They probably got a lifetime's worth of wear in 2 laps :) This time I said I'd remind myself not to do this again, it's fun but the wear on the car (non track version with cheap brakes), is not worth it :)
After being up all night for the 4th day of untold, and hurried to the airport to catch my flight out (only a single flight to Paris from Cluj and the next non stop one was 2 days later). After arriving in Paris, I went to bed for some much needed sleep:
After getting up, I had a nice buffet dinner with my dad and family that could make it (thanks to them for coming):
The next 2 days, I went to Paris to see some friends and a few things outdoors:
hadn't seen Rani in a few years and got to meet Siri
I'm glad Paris has money left over for random BS like this
Another dinner with my dad;
And another day out:
tried to get into google Paris, but they wouldn't let me in because of covid
One last dinner with my dad, couscous:
And I had an early flight the next morning, going through FRA (no more United direct flight to france for now):
and the plane invited something great: things you can watch in the flight time you have left, genius!
this coveted picture took many tries, hard shot, and always people in the way :)
I had heard about untold after Armin's massive 7H+ sets there, and multiple DJs saying how much they liked playing there, and that it was their favorite festival, so I had to check it out.
With CV19, I'm sure it was not exactly as great as it could have been (including Armin unfortunately deciding not to play there this year, and playing in Bucharest 2 weeks later, sigh, why Armin?), but Untold was still plenty great for me. I agree that it's one of the best festivals I've gone to, and simply the best in some metrics (like having almost the entire town attend, including kids).
I took over 2500 pictures, almost 4H of video, and about 10H of work to put everything together and condense down to this blog post.
If you'd like to see more pictures:
I used the opportunity to do a 4 day tour of Romania between Bucharest and Cluj where the festival is held, and arrived thursday afternoon just as the early acts of the festival had started. By then, there was a monster 1-2H line for getting wristbands to get in (you could get them in other locations and earlier if you had planned), but thankfully VIP had a separate entrance with no line:
entrance with lines on both sides
and lines went way back
they required covid vaccination or a test every 2 days, thankfully they did accept my CDC vaccination card
I however never received my PDF ticket, so I had to go to a special place to get my ticket verified and a wristband, it was sorted reasonably quickly
The one rant I'll have is how Untold forces you to use their digital money on your RFID wristband. Maybe in the past, it was easier and faster to have contactless money, but in this day and age of contactless credit cards, it's absolutely stupid that they still force you to use it. It was cumbersome, didn't work for me (told me it failed when I added money, but it didn't fail, it took my money 3 times), and after it had a bunch of money, I still couldn't see it on my phone or spend it because the whole thing was broken and had to go to a special place to get it fixed. It worked eventually, but it was all pointless and a waste of time if I have contactless credit cards (which I do). And of course you also have to worry about getting your left money back at the end too. I hope they get the hint and switch to a dual system in the future:
Ok, other small rant, I'm not a fan of commercials on the screens in between sets:
Anyway, let's get started!
Security is something I really liked at Untold. They did it well on many levels:
perimeter security was quite good (hard to get in without being checked, unlike both creamfields and luminosity that gave me grief and had such glaring holes in their security, so they literally were only annoying to honest people)
I was wary of the entrance check, especially after the utter BS at creamfields, and also because my LED backpack was a bit over the allowed size, but they were super nice. They really only looked for big weapons and didn't waste time opening all your stuff looking for drugs that they wouldn't really find anyway. Of course, no attack dogs looking for drugs person by person like at creamfields. They asked me a few questions the first day about my outfit which indeed looks a bit unusual, and when they saw what it was, I was in 15 seconds later. That was super, thank you.
One way they kept the event safe was an impressive amount of police, army, and even firemen. It felt like the entire city was there to keep things safe. I thought that was great, well done!
Romania also has had less to worry about terrorism, which is nice. England was way over the top about it, and being a real pain to everyone
yeah, I didn't quite meet that, but they were nice enough to let it slide
nice that they were giving bands for bag ok'ed
they were also hiring :)
Another thing I really have to mention is how clean the place was, both because people were being more responsible, but also because they had crews cleaning continuously during the entire night. Well done!
The People
The crowds and people attending are what makes the event truly special, and why I love festivals. The vibe is not the same everywhere, at creamfieldss, there were some nice outfits, but virtually no LEDs/lights/glow sticks. Luminosity, very few outfits even, but while untold wasn't on par with US insomniac events with the amount of wearable night lights, it definitely was for everything else.
Lots of places where you could get costumes, makeup, tatoos:
even small girls
Ah yes, did I mention children? Children were allowed, no age restriction as long as the youngest ones came with parents. How refreshing:
Mainstage :)
Multiple groups playing music, wearing outfits, and entertaining the crowds:
It was a bit light on LEDs (ha!), but I found a few, including making a new LED friend, Alex (Oleksandr Rozhok). We will slowly convert/encourage others to wear LEDs (I saw some LED shoes and glasses):
If anyone is curious, this is actually the crap I was wearing :) (not counting the 2nd computer and huge batteries in the fanny pack around my belt):
They have a pretty nice location, an entire park fenced off (solid perimeter by the way), and a huge arena. Nice grounds:
getting a good picture with this covettted sign turned out to be hard :)
lots of random decors, they were nice
I've only seen this level of decors at EDC, well done untold!
There were games and attractions:
I even got to play a bit :)
Of course, plenty of things look better at night
I'm told that if you aren't sober, the pictures move :)
They had a bit of fireworks every night, but they were really only visible from the Arena, where I never was during the short time they were shot. They were definitely not EDC caliber, but that's fine
As far as amusement rides, go, they only really had a couple, and you had to pay for them, so creamfields and EDC were ahead there. Still, 2 is better than nothing :)
took a ride for some pictures, but they weren't EDC level great
nicer at night
VIP was Ok, but maybe not super necessary. I only found a VIP section in the main arena where I spent almost 0 time:
well organized
they had massage chairs, and they were nice :)
the VIP area was ok, but it was a side view, not great for nice pictures
and they had the annoying uber VIP within VIP, areas you coudln't actually go to. In the end, I didn't bother much
Smoking... OMG everyone smokes in Romania. They had almost as many cigarette stands as beer stands. IF you bought enough and won some golden ticket, you could go on some fancy ride. They were nice enough to let me ride with a group of 2 and it was very cool. Lucky were the few who got to ride it:
Here's a video of 5 degrees of freedom:
The Main Arena
I actually spent very little time there (again, sad that we didn't get an Armin mega-set), but it looked good when I went, just the music wasn't my favorite, except when Paul Van Dyk played.
all kinds of artists, including singers (not just EDM)
Main arena had the best lighting by far, it was impressive
There is one issue with the main stage, it's fantastic, but they have huge structure on top and behind the sound booth that totally blocks the view, that just doesn't make sense and really prevents seeing the stage from the other side, kind of sad:
even a bit sideways, the stage view is blocked
but nice lasers :)
Daydreaming Stage
I spent most of my time at the fortune stage, but the nearby was the daydreaming stage was definitely trippy. The music was "interesting". I'm sure it was great if you were high :) Since it was playing trippy stuff, it would have been great to add psytrance there.
the sound engineer was running the show from the middle of the crowd, sweet!
The beginning of this video has a bit of the music played at Daydeaming, with a OMG remix of bohemian rapsody:
Other Stages
There were 7 stages total (I think some years, even more). Some were not for me, but some others were cool, like one that played good drum and bass at times (I missed most of it, it was too far of a walk from fortune). Nostalgia was not why I was there, but quite cool too:
a random DJ stage outside the arena
Day #1
The event opened quite early (14:00 or so), but most stages only really started at 20:00, so I was there in time for the start of Trance at the fortune stage where I spent most of my 4 days due to the really good lineup of trance DJs:
the fortune stage had quite decent lighting
great to see solarstone again
cosmic gate was next
always happy to see JoC, even if he didn't play my most favorite set of his
Bryan Kearney, although tech/hard trance isn't my thing as much
That was it for Day #1, I didn't go to bed too late (left a bit after 03:00), although I ended up missing Alex M.O.R.P.H., he wasn't shown on the schedule and I missed him :(
Day #1 summary video:
Day #2
Men-D was a Cluj local, interesting and very different music
Aly & Fila B2B Paul Thomas, and interesting B2B
GO was next, energetic set as always
Richard Durand
Paul Van Dijk closed the night in the main arena
Even though it was 05:00 by the time PvD ended, some stages kept playing:
I ended up leaving as the nostalgia stage was still playing probably until sunrise
Day #2 summary video:
Day #3
gret to see Ruben de Ronde again
Andrew Rayel
The biggest treat of day #3 was Susanna singing live, and she sang a lot for us, that was lovely:
The local trance DJ, Roman Messer was next with an excellent set too:
and bogdan finished the night
Day #3 summary video:
Day #4
Saved the best for last, Day #4 was over 12H for me, and really good, Gardenstate started with an excellent 2.5H set:
Markus was next
Will Atkinson did one of his hard/tech trance sets, not my favorite as much, but still some good tracks
And then, a really powerful Craig Connelly B2B FactorB, awesome:
Craig was focussed :)
Craig almost went crowdsurfing :)
De WLT (Dana) finished the night, good set too
After the last set, I ran out about 10mn early as I had to hurry back to my accomodation, pack my stuff quickly and get an uber to the airport to get a flight taking off for Paris just 2H later (only flight every 2-3 days, Cluj has a small airport).
Day #4 summary video:
Conclusion
Untold is truly special, it is very much a festival of its own kind, and while not the same as EDC Vegas, definitely on the same level in many ways:
many stages, but unlike creamfields, they all had proper sound and attention to detail with people who really cared to do as great a job as possible (the 2 trance states at creamfields had terrible sound and pityful visuals)
decors and attractions, many of them, definitely on par with EDC, they probably cost a bit less, but it's not about money, it's about the atmosphere, and that atmosphere was great
the people, the performers, they were definitely on par with EDC (creamfields had exactly 0 for comparison)
security done right, I wrote about that above, thank you. I really felt it was all about having a good time
super clean, as said earlier, they really worked hard on keeping the event clean in real time
it's a whole city festival. You definitely hear the music multiple kilometers inside the city up to 06:00, anyone trying to sleep at home probably needs earplugs. Not sure how they get away with it, but thanks to the residents for allowing this (of course, many also attend the event at probably reduced prices, which is only fair)
Suggestions:
allow use of contactless credit cards
add psytrance to the daydreaming stage
several DJs were changed but not reflected in the untold app (schedule was not updated), and the online web schedule was hard to find, please fix that, I missed sets due to the incorrect times
ask@untold.com never answered the question I sent, weeks in advance. Use a ticket system?
more VIP benefits? VIP seemed a bit useless outside of main stage
more rides?
Untold was a great experience, and I'm sure it wasn't even a 100% of what it was supposed to be due to covid restrictions and artist cancellations, but honestly I was thoroughly impressed and really enjoyed it. The best part was that I was able to sleep literally 5mn from the festival entrance, that beats EDC by so much where my bed is over 1H away.
To all the organizers of untold, and active participants: thank you.
Love you too Alex, thanks for all the glow sticks and great vibes!
tt's true that Romania wasn't really on my next to travel list, but I always make it a point to visit countries that I happen to be at for another reason, and this time, Untold Festival was a very good reason, and I made it so :)
I owe thanks to Andrei Nicolau from Tours of Romania for the custom private tour they made for me. It was a good overview of Romania between Bucharest where I landed, and Cluj where I left back from.
Day #0: Bucharest
After landing in Bucharest, I started by visiting Bucharest for a half day before the tour started the next morning:
I finished the day with a nice dinner
-
Day #1: Bran Castle, Brasov
George, my knowledgeable driver/guide met me the next morning and we set off:
Bran Castle is known as Dracula's castle, because Vlad the impaler (Dacrul), used to reside there:
long line for the castle, but thankfully George knew people and got us in quickly
Dracula is really a bunch of marketing around a story that took off
nice gardens
We then drove to Brasov:
-
Day #2: Sinaia and Peles Castle, Saxon Trail and Villages, Sighisoara
We went to Peles Castle first thing in the morning, beautiful decors:
Next, we continued our trip through Saxon Trail and Villages and onto Sighisoara:
this was an actor that came out to scare you ;)
-
Day #3: Gypsy Village - Biertan Fortified Church - Sibiu Tou
We started the day with visiting a Gypsy Village and an artist known for making complex single piece metal sculptures:
Next was Biertan Fortified Church and Sibiu:
back in the days, it used to be held by the germans
I agree ;)
George and I had time for a good lunch
I went to check out a nice art museum:
-
Day #4: Corvin's Castle - Deva Fortress - Turda Salt Mines
For the last day, we went to check out Corvin's Castle, which was massive and pretty:
A quick look at the remmants found in the ground:
Next was Deva Fortress, which is half ruins at this point, but a fun ride up and unusual ride:
I climbed to the top, which was not super safe as it was in disrepair
and last, but not least were the Turda Salt Mines, definitely setup for tourists but very cool to visit:
The inside of the caves is very nice if you pay attention:
The really cool part of the cave is the underground amusement park:
amusement rides underground
we went for a ride
I saw the light :)
A few more things on the way out:
-
Day #5-8: Cluj Napoca
-
Once in Cluj for Untold, in the few hours in the mid afternoon, I took some electric scooters to go around:
A couple of museums:
orthodox church museum was really good
The inside was really beautiful too:
More of the city:
Another day, I did the botanical garden, quite nice too:
The last day, my host nicely took us to a nearby village with traditional houses:
And that was it for Romania while being there for Untold Festival. I got to see a lot more than planned, lots of fun.
Well, festivals had been cancelled for over 1.5 years now, and that weekend there were 2 to choose from, ASOT 1000 and ABGT (which itself was a reschedule from an earlier data), but ASOT got cancelled, so that made the choice easier.
So, I did:
I have to give a big thanks to the Drumsheds staff for allowing me in with my LED backpack (which was oversized), and LED outfit, which was within the rules, but because wires and bombs and scared people, could have been denied (like it was at Creamfields where the security staff was much less nice and didn't give a rat's ass that they were pointlessly punishing customers):
plenty of drink options and some decent enough food
So great to see my friends again, ironic that we have to go around the world to meet :)
Natalie came with a lot of dancing energy :)
The ABGT favorites of the year opened the day:
oh no, I have bad news for you :)
trancewax, not really trance, though
tony means business :)
genix was not really my favorite
Ilan did a nice set again
better gear than me :)
And then it was finally time for the trio, ABGT is the only time you don't get a random 2 out of 3 :)
and the signature wave off
We sure had a great time:
Video summary:
Natalie and I made it to the live stream a bit:
This was obviously not ABGT350 Prague scale, but given the travel restrictions (and the UK sure made it a pain to travel there, not counting the required additional covid test required for foreigners as their vaccine cards were not recognized), this was a good party, plenty of people were still able to attend.
Those who know me, know that I've become a bit wary of Above and Beyond shows since they include more and more random EDM genres that I don't appreciate as much (yes, that's on me), but this set was enjoyable overall, not too much 'deep' which really isn't my thing (indeed, that was kept for the next day).
Thanks to everyone, including again Drumsheds for letting me in with my outfit and LED backpack, which sure wasn't true of creamfields.
And yes, getting up at 06:00 the next morning to catch a flight to Romania for untold festival, was a bit rough, but it's all worth it in the end :)
Somehow I got a well targetted spam that told me Thrillseekers and a couple of other DJs I didn't know but were quite enjoyable too, were playing on the Thames on a river cruise just before ABGT. I had to change my plans slightly to arrive in London just in time (from Cambridge), but that was well worth it. I really love Steve and everything he plays, and the Thames river cruise was beautiful too
I had to rush to get there in time, but made it, albeit a bit short on sleep ;)
We had several DJs play for us during the cruise:
found a fellow coworker also sporting LEDs
I left my backpack to entertain people
Steve finished the night, beautiful tunes as always
Video summary:
The views were beautiful:
This was an absolutely gorgeous night, thanks to all
There are multiple Imperial War Museums in the UK, and Duxford is likely the biggest plane museum in the country, 7 hangars and next to an active runway used to demonstrations and flights you can rent/pay for. I was there for opening time (took an uber from cambridge as it's not convenient to go by public transport):
first impression: it's big
I had a tour booked to get a private tour of a spitfire and sit in the cockpit. I didn't know that for just 60 times more money, I could have flown in one for 30mn. A bargain :)
this was the actual aircraft, recovered on the beach in normandy
I then went to sit in it
After my tour, I went to visit the hangars:
auto gyro
I went back to hangar #1 to see the concorde that closes earlier:
They had one of the 6 concorde prototypes in the world. I had seen severals, but prototypes are always special, so it was worth seeing:
it never had passengers, it was a test airplane for multiple systems including anti-icing and engine management
the seats in the passenger versions, were much smaller
lots of test equipment
cockpit was off limits
the numbers were references to see how much icing happened
harrier engines are awesome
Next, I went to the restoration hangar, lots of planes being worked on:
Next was a small control room that re-enacted the only real air attack from Germany that was stopped:
Further down was a very nice hangar filled with US planes. Not as interesting to me since I had seem them all many times in the US, but still worth the walk through:
Last, but not least, was land warfare, this was a war museum, not just a plane museum:
And that was it for the visit, I finished just 30mn before closing time.
Also, while I was there, I got to
Those planes did inspire me to do my own flight Over Cambridge From IWM Duxford.
Getting back home was also not easy, no ubers at all, and taxis were a 45mn wait. I got lucky and shared a cab with a woman who had already called a cab herself and was also going to the train station in cambridge.
While visiting IWM Duxford, I noticed that they were offering scenic flights in different kinds of planes (all the way to a $5000 30mn flight in a Spitfire). I had a hard time justifying that much time
I was a bit worried about how much time I had as I wanted to see the entire museum, so in the end I settled for a 30mn scenic flight, but there were none, so I rented an old carburated C172 with CFI since I am not legal to fly in the UK and know nothing about radio work, or airspace there.
I hadn't flown a plane like that for about 10 years, but ended up remembering pretty well how to do it. After landing the CFI said he didn't have to touch or correct me on anything and all he did was the radio work.
at least it had a garmin 430, but no autopilot legal to use in the UK
taxing amongst warbirds
good view of the multiple museum hangars
weather/lighting was not great, but a typical UK day. At least, no rain
overflying cambridge airport
weird that they don't use 23L and 23R
We then made it to Cambridge. Forgive the heavy color correction, the original colors were very dull due to the poor weatherpit
Flying over the colleges was very nice.
this delta is where I went punting with Louis, very nice views from the river
While in Cambridge, I asked if any friends were around while I was there, and David raised his hand, and then remembering that we both like good restaurants, offered to meet at Midsummer House, a really good restaurant in Cambridge.
Very yummy dinner was had:
As part of my 2021 quick festival tour of england, on my way back to London for Trance on the Thames and ABGT 450, I stopped in Cambridge on the way. Of course, Cambridge has plenty to see, although many of the colleges were still closed to visitors due to covid (Cambridge was much more careful than London which didn't seem to give a rat's ass about covid).
After arriving the previous night and checking in my hotel, my "we had never met in person" LED hacker friend, Louis Beaudoin of Pixelmatix fame. Since I had my dual CPU LED outfit with me for the festivals I was going to, I showed it to him, and we geeked out on LEDs:
-
The next day, I went to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, hands down the best flight museum in England with an active runway and all kinds of scenic flights:
It was not possible to get an uber back to town (only there in the morning), and getting a cab also took a very long time, but thankfully I found someone who had called one already and shared her cab back to the train station. Soon after, I went back our to meet the Woddhouses at Midsummer House, an excellent 2 michelin star rated restaurant
The next morning, I went to meet Anna and Paul who were nice enough to come meet me for breakfast to catch up:
I then went on in town to visit several of the smaller museums: Sedgwick Museum of Earth Science, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Museum of Classical Archaeology, and he Fitzwilliam Museum (that one was a highlight). Thanks to Louis for giving tips on what to go see. By then I had finally figured out how to use the stupid scooters they had lying around, you literally had to give them a valid drivers license and ID before you were trusted to use one, and only in some streets, as many were geofenced out...
I then went to meet Louis and family for some punting which he suggested, and that was a great idea: it is actually the best way to see nice views from colleges from the water side:
I gave punting a shot at the end. I wasn't too terrible ;)
I then had a timed entry for the small Whipple Museum of the History of Science:
and the time I had left, I scootered around to see one college that did let me in, and others from the outside:
It was then time to hurry back to my hotel by the train station and catch a train back to London for Trance on the Thames.
And just like that, my trip of England was over.
Highlights:
Visiting the Mclaren factory
The really good flight museums, plus Betchley Park
Flying myself over cambridge in a cessna
Meeting some of my friends (Jerome, David, Louis, Anna & Paul)
While creamfields had clear issues, it was run badly, and included mean staff, still interesting to see once. Trance on the thames was great ,and ABGT was also fun.
Getting around without a car was possible, even if it included some expensive ubers here and there
Lowlights:
Not having a car meant I sometimes had my luggage with me. That was a huge problem as England does no profiling and everyone is a potential terrorist carrying bombs. That was very very lame to be honest
Actually creamfields half banned my outfit because of those ridiculous over the top fears
Covid handling was puzzling to say the least. Full musical theatres without anyone wearing a mask?
Anyway, That was a good trip, happy that I got to go and see a bunch of things I had missed in my last trip.
I was going from Liverpool to Cambridge, so I figured I'd stop at Cosford for its enticing RAF museum. I have to say right here that it is not easy to get there by public transport only, unless you have a lot of time. In order to save 1H off the trip, I took a trail to Stafford, got off there and caught a somewhat expensive cab to Cosford (public transport only requires going to Birmingham, and then changing to a once per hour slow train, plus a 10mn walk from the station to the museum).
I got there just before 10:00 as was my plan, and they nicely agreed to stash my luggage which was not a given in the UK (they are more against it as everything is now a bomb apparently). The best part though was that I was able to arrange a private guided tour with a guide called Frank who was a wealth of knowledge on the museum and gave me a 3.5h tour of everything. It was absolutely fantastic, and well worth the 50GBP donation to the otherwise free museum.
The museum is big, 4 different hangars:
this prototype plane actually had an alternate T tail made for it, but it didn't work as the elevator could stall at high angles
the english electric lightening is really a cool powerful plane
when the harrier went to a 98.5 degree angle, it could fly backwards
the brits invented ejection seats and made many different kinds
Frank giving me cool explanations like how this plane had motors to speed up the wheels to landing speed before they touched the ground, how cool is that?
brakes and motor in the same wheel
plane to test alternate pilot positions
this was uncomfortable but allowed the pilot to take more G forces (that was before G suits)
this one is a little bit black bird looking
The section on Japanese aircraft, was surprisingly good:
KI-46-III reconnaissance plane
the Yokosuka Ohka suicide powered rocket, was sobering
Spitfire Mk I
Nice german planes too:
Ju 88R-1 with advanced radar
German U-boats even had this towed autogyro, it didn't have power but would be towed by the submarine and take off high enough to see far away targets
let's not forget the first turbojet powered Me 262, so ahead of its time
and the Me163B-1a komet was liquid fuel rocket powered, super cool too (with dynamo generator in the front for electrical power)
This plane attached to a bomber turned into a bomb that work be flown to and dropped on the target, was interesting too:
A few russian planes too:
More planes in another hangar:
And a good rocket and missile collection too, the germans were way ahead during the end of WWII:
And that was it for the visit. Frank was a fantastic tour guide and really made the visit a lot better. A huge thanks to him and Cosford for putting us in touch.
Getting out timely was not trivial either, but byo sheer luck I was able to call an uber that happened to be driving by and got me 10mn after I called it. Normally it would have been a hard to get cab and a longer trip.
Since I was going by Birmingham (clickme) to stop by Cosford RAF Museum (click me), the most interesting attraction seemed to be the Thinktank Science Museum, so that's where I went. It was a bit unusual in layout and displays, but I enjoyed it:
The vehicles section was fair:
Other various displays:
There was an interesting exhibit that showed how different drugs worked on the brain:
Animals:
The last floor also had interesting displays on existing and future technologies:
-
Birmingham was not meant to be a destination on my trip, but iven that the Cosford RAF Museum (click me) was definitely a destination for me. It was a pain to get to (had ot take a train to Stafford and an expensive uber to get there without wasting an extra 1H+), but it was definitely worth it, especially with the private 3H+ tour that I got, it was fantastic:
FOMO me, instead of spending more time in the museum, elected to take an uber that was driving by (they are rare in the area, so that was a stroke of luck), I decided to spend the rest of the day in Birmingham and go visit the Thinktank Science Museum (clickme), which actually was a fairly decent science museum:
I then had just a few minutes outside of the train station before catching a long and slow transcontinental train to Cambridge:
