Boeing Future of Flight

Conor starts this up:

Yesterday morning I went to the Future of Flight museum.  The best part was the engine.  It was a fan that pushed air into a 10 part compressor then the compressed air went into a fuel  tank where it explodes.  Then more turbines extract the energy and push it out the back.  Another strange part about the tour was that the building where they build the planes is the largest building in the world.  You could fit all of Disneyland and enough parking into the whole building!  It even has its own weather conditions.  It actually rains inside the building, warm air rises and causes condensation. 

Back in the gallery they had a 42 foot tall tail of a plane.  It was from the "Dream Lifter" which carries half of one whole plane at a time.  The whole back of the plane opens up, then lifts and scaffolds carry the parts inside.  It is taken to the Boeing building center and they assemble by welding the front and the back together.  Then the two wings are built on the side of the place.  There is a huge crane that picks up the wings and take them to the other side where they put on landing gear and other parts.   I also learned that the planes' wings is where the fuel is stored. 

Mom:

Yes, we are definitely on an engineering path right now.  We were very sorry to have our last math class with our fun group of boys, but schedules just could not work out for us.  What we will probably do is add a math manipulative class at the community center-one that focuses more on games and patterns.  We have also still been plugging along in Singapore 3B, I think if we wanted to we could move quickly on up to 4a since this is mainly review, will see how it goes.  Having the added challenge of doing assigned work that others are doing, being able to show off what he knows to someone else has been a huge hit for Conor.  Hopefully we can start up another course like this at a time and place that works. 

This also fits into the practical projects components of a 3rd grade year.  We are getting our workshop area prepared so that we can start some wood projects.  I would like to see this be something both dad and I can do with Conor at different times.  First to get that mess of a carport cleaned up, then to decide what to build!