Western Pennsylvania Aerospace Archive and Gallery

Western Pennsylvania Aerospace Archive and Gallery This is a private collection of documents, art, and memorabilia related to the history of aviation and spaceflight.

This was a gift from the son of a very close friend of mine. He is a newsman, not an internet influencer, but an actual ...
09/11/2026

This was a gift from the son of a very close friend of mine. He is a newsman, not an internet influencer, but an actual bona fide, newspaper reporter and editor. He encountered Anna Fisher earlier this year and asked her to sign a photograph for me.

Anna Fisher is a physician and chemist who became an astronaut in 1978. She is a veteran of STS - 51A from 1984, a mission that launched two satellites and retrieved two more to bring back to Earth.

Among her many achievements she was the first mother to fly in space.

This is a cover of the January 3, 1969 issue of the year with the crew of Apollo 8 presented as Time’s men of the year. ...
08/17/2026

This is a cover of the January 3, 1969 issue of the year with the crew of Apollo 8 presented as Time’s men of the year. It has been signed by the entire Apollo 8 crew.

The crew of Apollo 8 were the first to venture beyond low Earth orbit. They traveled a quarter million miles through cislunar space, fired their engine to enter lunar orbit, and became the first humans to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes. On their return they traveled faster than any human before them.

My family and I watched their live broadcast from lunar orbit on Christmas and it remains one of the most incredible experiences of my life.

I thing the flight of Apollo 8 was every bit as significant as the first landing on Apollo 11.

This is just an old magazine ad from the early 1970’s. It is interesting though. The Lockheed C-5A was very seriously co...
08/11/2026

This is just an old magazine ad from the early 1970’s. It is interesting though. The Lockheed C-5A was very seriously considered as a shuttle carrier aircraft. In fact NASA hadn’t been cost trimming at the time it very likely would have been selected. (They bought used Boeing 747s instead.)

The first proposal was to actually sling the shuttle between two C-5As with the aircraft joined by a new center wing! The “piggy” back method was finally settled upon, but the ad mentions a third option that I had never heard of previously - towing the shuttle behind the C-5A on a cable!

Given the shuttle woeful L/D ratio and the masses involved that may have been an exciting ride. It is also interesting that the shuttle seems to be depicted as bare metal. Not only that but the orbiter cockpit looks a lot like the cockpit of a DC-3.

I am not sure this belongs here, but this is a nearly 70 year old Russian Poljot Kirovskie watch produced to celebrate t...
08/06/2026

I am not sure this belongs here, but this is a nearly 70 year old Russian Poljot Kirovskie watch produced to celebrate the first satellite - Sputnik 1. Apparently it has a 16 jewel movement. It no longer works, at least not reliably. It stops and resumes working when tapped, which I am told indicates shock damage or dirt. It is a pretty little watch with rockets in place of some numerals.

This is a vintage 32 page book published in the UK in 1969 by the Daily Mirror, released just before the launch of Apoll...
08/03/2026

This is a vintage 32 page book published in the UK in 1969 by the Daily Mirror, released just before the launch of Apollo 11. The whole world watched Apollo and its success was celebrated internationally.

This is a vintage company patch for the original Blackhawk, Sikorsky’s S-67 attack helicopter. The S-67 used the propuls...
08/02/2026

This is a vintage company patch for the original Blackhawk, Sikorsky’s S-67 attack helicopter. The S-67 used the propulsion and rotor system (but with swept tips) of the highly successful SH-3 Sea King paired with a slim fuselage and auxiliary wings. The result was an extremely impressive machine that set a helicopter speed record. Unfortunately, in spite of much interest, Sikorsky never found enough customers to start production. The S-67 remains on my list of cancelled aircraft that probably should have been built.

This is a model of the original Sikorsky Blackhawk a unique and now forgotten aircraft.Sikorsky lost the 1966 contract f...
08/02/2026

This is a model of the original Sikorsky Blackhawk a unique and now forgotten aircraft.

Sikorsky lost the 1966 contract for the Army's Advanced Aerial Fire Support System to Lockheed, but when Lockheed's AH-56 ran into problems four years later (it would be cancelled in 1972), Sikorsky decided to offer a cheaper, but still high performance, alternative in the S-67.

Essentially the S-67 was an SH-3 Sea King with a slim fuselage and tandem cockpit.

It was the fastest helicopter in the world in 1970. It could carry 8,000 lbs. of ordinance and was armed with a three barrel 20mm cannon. If necessary it could also carry up to eight people internally.

Its 275 mile unrefueled combat radius, high speed, rescue winch, and ability to carry people internally, would seem to recommend it as an ideal combat rescue helicopter. Unfortunately, in spite of much interest, the S-67 Blackhawk never sold.

Sikorsky subsequently recycled the "Blackhawk" name for the unrelated (but stupendously successful) UH-60 family.

Though far from vintage, we couldn’t resist this model of NASA’s Lockheed L300 Starlifter, better known as the Kepler Ai...
07/24/2026

Though far from vintage, we couldn’t resist this model of NASA’s Lockheed L300 Starlifter, better known as the Kepler Airborne Observatory. Before Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope this aircraft carried a telescope to 48,000 feet above 98% of the Earth’s atmosphere. As such she almost certainly spent more time at extreme altitude than any other Starlifter.

The basic aircraft itself was unique. The KAO wasn’t a stock Air Force C-141 bailed to NASA and modified to carry a telescope. The L300 was a one off prototype of a civilian air cargo plane derived from the C-141. It was constructed to comply with international civil regulations and outfitted with civilian style airline avionics. Unfortunately for Lockheed no civilian market emerged for the L300, but it was perfect for NASA’s needs. More important the Kepler Airborne Observatory was a very successful astronomical platform. The KAO verified Pluto’s atmosphere and first identified that Uranus had rings like Saturn. It also made extensive observations of a 1987 Supernova while operating out of Christchurch, New Zealand to view the southern sky’s.

This is a remarkable model considering that it is made of mahogany. Though in 1/200 scale they replicated various tiny antenna! We have paired the model up with a bit of aluminum skin from the actual aircraft. The blue paint is also original. This section came from the Starlifter’s blue cheat line.

Fifty seven years ago today, humans first walked upon another world.
07/20/2026

Fifty seven years ago today, humans first walked upon another world.

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