The Air and Space Museum in Washington DC holds some of the most historic air and space crafts in the history of flight. The invention of flying machines is quintessentially American and this museum is a testament to that fact. I was recently visiting DC to see my daughter and had a few hours to kill. So I moseyed over to this museum with my camera and took some photos of these amazing machines that I am sharing here with you.

The first thing that strikes the visitor is the rapid pace of development from flimsy Wright Brothers plane to the SpaceShipOne that will soon be ferrying space tourists. This evolution of flying machines happened within a century and was in large part driven by defense spending and two world wars. As you enter the museum you find yourself in a huge hall that boasts planes and spacecrafts that were the first in their genres. It has aircrafts like Spirit of St. Louis that crossed non stop the Atlantic Ocean, the first space craft Sputnik, the first plane to go supersonic X-1, the first plane to go hypersonic and space X-15, the first jet aircraft and many other firsts. Another adjacent hall boasts the evolution of civil transport aircraft without which I would not have come to the States. These days we take reliable and safe air travel for granted. But when you look at these aircrafts it is obvious that not too long ago the act of flying was full of risks. The photo of the flight deck of 1950’s transport plane shows that the complexity of controlling the aircraft was very high. The flimsy mechanical controls and primitive radar scope is an indication of the frailty of the plane.

There is no other piece of machinery where the form strictly follows the functionality. Each aircraft evokes the sensibility of the role of that aircraft. The high flying U2 is reminiscent of flying sea gulls. X-15 evokes raw power and speed. Air breathing crafts are stream lined with smooth flowing skins. As they enter space the construct suddenly turns exoskeletal and the internals become exposed. Spacecrafts exude the free style dictated by the insatiable need to replenish power through their solar cells and connectivity through multiplicity of antennas. The design of satellites is light and has the minimalist feel of insects. The SpaceLab is a bulky precursor of eventual space colonies.

The UAVs are the first forms of airborne robots. The technologies developed for these robots will eventually find its way into all kinds of future robots that will allow us a much higher quality of life and be our surrogates for most menial tasks. Highly evolved robots many centuries from now may look at these robots as we view Neanderthals and view us as their creators.
As an aeronautical engineer I can imagine the zillion design tradeoffs that must have gone into the design of each of these birds. The photos of the internals of piston and jet engines expose the beauty of designing something intimately tied to the laws of thermodynamics. These machines are the result of synergies of innovations and understandings in materials, propulsion, lift, drag, control, communications, gravity and navigation.

The Apollo 9 mockup on moon brought back distant childhood memories of the summer night in Peshawar when I lay awake looking at the moon listening to Neil Armstrong’s words on radio as he first stepped on it.

These machines have brought about a qualitative change in our lives which is so omnipresent that we are at many times not even aware of it. When an overnight package arrives at our door steps, when we watch weather reports or when we make an overseas phone call we are enjoying the fruits of these machines. Even the evolution of computers was sped up by the effort to land the man on the moon.

We are indebted to the pioneering spirit of those who designed and flew these machines first. The U-2 and F-104 are the artwork of my all time engineering hero Kelly Johnson. Wernher Von Braun engineering and administrative genius led to the lunar landing in record time. The rest of the space endeavors since then have yet the catch up with the marvels achieved in the 1960s. Charles Lindberg succeeded in crossing the Atlantic where so many had failed because of his complete belief in the success of his flight which allowed him to take fuel instead of rafts and other survival equipment. He navigated to the landing site in France by following the cars headed to the landing field. Chuck Yeager’s X-1 in which he broke the sound barrier and other X planes can also be seen here.

I have put the album of these photos for your viewing pleasure. You can view the album and also download the high resolution images HERE. They are for your personal consumption only.
Enjoy.

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by Imran H. Khan

Fall colors in New England are well known in the US. There is a whole tourism industry built around the leaf peepers coming to see the nature in all its glory. I have compiled some photos of trees in the attached album taken from the neighbourhood that I live in, and couple of golf courses that I frequent. Golf course’s open vistas are ideal to capture the colors when the grass is still green and the cold crisp air makes the sky and the clouds look pristine. The trees in the fairways are exposed to cold air and tend to acquire color before other trees.  I have also included a scanned image of a leaf as it is transitioning colors. The intricate structure of a leaf has a beauty of its own. As you will notice that I got carried away with the Japanese maple tree. Its leaves become deep red towards the end.  I have taken photos in different light conditions. When you open the album, click on the “gallery” button to open the different directories. I hope you find these Halloween Candy to your eyes. Enjoy.

Click here for accessing the album

You can download the high resolution image by pressing the download arrow.  They are only meant for personal consumption.

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Soon after the October 2005 earthquake, I had scanned some very old photographs taken in mid and late 1800s in areas that now constitute Pakistan as a means for raising awareness for that part of the world. The photographic techniques used at the time by Photographers John Burke and William Baker were cutting edge. I have presented them using three different types of technologies. Each one presents different kinds of information and experience to the viewer.

World famous author Mrs. Thallasa Ali was kind enough to write a prolog for this presentation.

The northern part of Pakistan is beautiful. The flat, dusty plain of the Punjab rises first to bare hills, then to high mountains, where valleys lie flat between steep, wooded slopes, and the sun gleams on distant, snow-clad peaks. Alexander the Great came here. King Ashoka made Mansehra one of his seats of government. A thousand years later, Taimur Lang left soldiers at Mansehra, to guard the road between Kabul and Kashmir. A hundred years after him, the Mughal emperor Akbar took the same road to Kashmir.

After the British annexed the Punjab (including the Northern Areas) in 1848, they began the great task of documenting it. They wrote gazetteers, describing every detail of the people, vegetation and geography of the area. When photography arrived, they took photographs. I first saw Omar Khan’s “From Kashmir to Kabul” two years ago, while researching my new novel, “Companions of Paradise.” The book was just what I needed to see—a catalogue of black and white images taken only a few years after ‘Companions’ ends. They perfectly capture a place and time, making it easy for me to picture the British army on the move in 1842, and the people of Kabul who fought them.

Photographers John Burke and William Baker lead us from the Punjab to Kabul, showing us people and cities and scenery as they were nearly 150 years ago.

It is in the northern areas that the South Asian Earthquake of 2005 took place, destroying whole mountain villages, wiping out schools and hospitals, and killing tens of thousands of people.

We must rebuild these villages and towns, and restore the livelihood of the proud people who have lived in this region for so many thousands of years.

Thalassa Ali

Boston, Massachusetts

Thalassa Ali is the author of “A Singular Hostage,” “A Beggar at the Gate,” and the forthcoming “Companions of Paradise.” These books are set in 19th Century Lahore and Kabul.

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In order to experience the photographs at full screen and read more information you can click on the album here.

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