Field Trip -- Oklahoma City -- Omniplex

Over the winter break I visited Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and stopped in at
the Omniplex. The "Field Guide to American Spacecraft" lists it as having
Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo models, Gemini 6, a LM model etc. (Back when I
lived in OKC, they had an Apollo boilerplate, which has gone to another
museum now.)

The good news -- They are devoting a large area to the Space Race -- in
fact, I would say that it will probably be the largest exhibit devoted to
Mercury through Apollo outside of the NASM. The bad news -- Neither CSM nor
LM models were on display. The Mercury and Gemini modules were pretty
accurate but exterior only. There were a lot of cool stuff, including
Stafford's backup suit for Apollo X, Cooper's backup suit, and flown food
from ASTP. They also have the Apollo 1-G trainer -- you can go up and look
in the windows. As part of the exhibit, you can see parts of an interview
with Stafford commenting on a variety of topics, from food, to the launch,
to ASTP.

The bad news: Gemini VIa is no longer there, and is at another museum. The
docent had no idea which musuem, and after watching him fumble around his
desk for five minutes, I decided to go and see the exhibits. I suspect that
there is a flight museum somewhere in town, since last time I visited (ten
years ago) they had an extensive aviation exhibit, including a couple of
WWII airplanes. Most of the web references list an aviation musuem as being
co-located with the Omniplex, but that is evidently incorrect.

The great news:
They have engines. That you can walk up to an around. That have their turbo
pumps, and plumbing, and all sorts of stuff. Upstairs, they have a
"not-for-flight" SPS (minus engine bell.) Downstairs, they have a J-1 and an
F-1, each sitting in a cradle. I have never seen anything like it. (The NASM
has an F-1, actually 1 1/4 of them, arranged with mirrors to look like the
full cluster, but you can't get up close, and you can't see the plumbing. I
must have spent fifteen minutes at the F-1 alone.

Ami