Fandom High School

Murdock had a large bowl of candy, many of them of the holiday variety, sitting out on his desk.

Probably best not to ask where they came from.

Like his shoes.

"Hey class," he grinned. "Wow, hard to believe the semester is almost over. I hope y'all have been taking notes 'cause there's supposed to be some kind of test thing y'all have to take."

He may not have realized that part when he first started teaching. Ah, ooops?

"It shouldn't be too hard, though. Anyway, we got one more thing to cover first. Space Flight!"

(ocd up! coming!)

Murdock had handwavily told his students to meet him at the end of the causeway this morning. He was grinning from ear to ear and leaning against a black and grey van with a red stripe.

"Hey guys! Ready for some fun? I figured since we're so close by, we'd check out the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. It's got lots of things on the history of flight, space travel and even some of the aircraft we discussed in class."

"And today," he waggled his eyebrows, "is even better becuase they're doing a lecture on the Vought-Sikorsky XR-45, which is America's first military helicopter." Yes, he was practically bouncing over that.

"Oh, and later, they're doing another event, the Annual John H. Glenn Lecture. The Apollo 8 Astronauts will be there."

He slid the door to the van open. "So hop in and grab a seat! Who wants shotgun?"

(ooc: for anyone interested, there is a live webcast of the Apollo 8 discussion starting up at 7:30pm EST. The event itself begins at 8pm. I thought I'd share for all!)

"Hey guys," Murdock told the students once they had settled in, "I know the syllabus says we're supposed to cover avivators today, but I think we can do the regular class lecture on that next week. In the meantime, this film covers one of the most noteable avivators, Howard Hughes. So just chill and relax."

He even brought popcorn and other moddable snacks and drinks.

"Oh, and in two weeks' from now, we'll have a field trip!"

Murdock had a TV in the classroom today, but before he got to putting on a movie about a a famous bomber, he had a few notes for the class.

(ocd up in a few)

It might look like the class had a subsitute, despite the fact that the woman at the front of the room was wearing a very familiar brown leather jacket.

"Don't ask," he muttered once the students were settled. "Let's just focus on class, alright?"

And no that wasn't him muttering as he started scrawling on the chalkboard. Might not look like Murdock, but the handwriting was exactly the same.

"The reason I didn't cover the Wright Brothers last week is because I planned to include them today. Didn't want make things to redundant for y'all."

"Of course history was made on December 17, 1903 when Orville Wright flew 120 feet at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The thing that makes this attempt stand out more than any of their predecessors is that they made the first successful controlled flight of a powered aircraft. Before them, the previous attempts by early inventors were gliding only, completely unpowered except by the wind, or launch-assisted powered craft. The Wright Brothers were the first to have a successful flight of a piloted, powered aircraft that took off with nothing more than its own power. They were also able to sustain that flight, and land, without mishap. That is why they are credited as being the first men to fly."

"After the Wrights' success, many entrepreneurs jumped on the bandwagon, eager to conquer the skies. Of course, there were many failures, and some of the more distinctive ones we'll be covering later this semester, but we're going to look at those which had the greatest impact on the early development of flight."

(ocd up!a'comin')

As the students were filing in, Murdock was busy writing on the blackboard.

Flight was generally looked upon as an impossibility, and scarcely anyone believed in it until he actually saw it with his own eyes.
~Orville Wright.

To invent an airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything.
~Otto Lilienthal

He turned around and faced the class. "You may have heard of the first name, but probably not so much the second one. Though many people know who the Wright Brothers are, there were many who came before them, paving the way into the skies."

(ocd up! coming)