posted 01-04-2006 10:16 AM              

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Scott Schneeweis

URL http://www.SPACEAHOLIC.com/

posted 01-04-2006 11:09 AM               

http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/press_suit001.html

Now if only someone would put an S-1026 helmet up for auction. David Clark Apollo EVA suit...

Cheers,
Matt

posted 01-05-2006 12:58 AM               

I was a bartender at an Air Force Officer's Club in the 1980's. A SR-71 pilot came in hopping mad that an airman had broken a one of the Gold visors. He explained that there were two types of visor. One was acrylic with a gold coating and scratched easily. The second was shaped quartz with a gold coating. The pilot said that the shaped quartz type was the same as used in the space program but was no longer available because it was made by a small company in California whose owner had died and taken the secret of making a shaped quartz visor with him. The pilot said that the Air Force and NASA had tried (and failed) to make shaped quartz faceplates.