This is the second time I've been to this venue. The first time was actually for a microbrew tasting event. It was more of a bunch of booths and walking around in a circle tasting beers and was rather uneventful. The building is the Human Centrifuge where astronauts trained along with Navy pilots in Johnsville, PA (a part of Warminster, PA). It was part of the former Naval Air Warfare Center (aka as the Naval Air Developmental Center at one point), which opened in the 1930's and closed in 1996. It was a fully operational Navy base with a long runway that would even allow C-5's to land on it.
Photo credit: Dave Compton
In building 70, which is one of the buildings that was not demolished, contains the gondola and human centrifuge that astronauts trained in. It was the largest one of its kind at the time and was part of the training for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts.
Here is the simple outside view of the building; being used a banquet hall, now named, "The Fuge".
There is an old article poster that you'd need to download and rotate and zoom for review.
Here is a view of the gondola that so many astronauts had to endure 16g's of gravity pressed against them for extended periods, along with other Navy pilots.
Here is a wider shot of the gondola attached to the rig to the center of the circle shaped room. As you can see, there is an actual breakfast buffer being served under it right now. The centrifuge is 100% disabled for use. No one is any danger.
Here is a photo of it when it was in use, to contrast agains the one above it: (photo credit Dave Crompton)
Here are some nice old gauges and controls for people to have a look at, I also took a closer shot of each panel. I wish I knew how to rotate these images in a portrait style view which they were taken in.
Here is a narrative about the flight suits they wore and a sample of one.
Then there is an old storage tank with a narrative as well.
These old signs and phone still remain intact as well.
Now it is a place where people do wedding receptions, graduations, or any other type of catered event surrounded by NASA and U.S. Navy History. It is amazing to be in place, knowing that people like Neil Armstrong walked the halls and trained there. It is even more amazing to see the gondola right above your head, as you walk around with coffee or a drink and eat. These people went to the moon, and I'm drinking coffee in one of their training facilities.
John Glenn and Allen Sheppard at the site, photo credit: Dave Crompton
Inside the control room, that they didn't let us see today; but I understand it is still viewable.
Photo: Dave Crompton
I'd rather see a place like this, with so much history behind it, repurposed into something useful; rather than simply knocked down, without the surrounding community even knowing this technology was right in our backyard. I live minutes away from this old base and didn't know all of this until today.
Here is a free NASA image from 1973 of the base:
By USN - U.S. Navy Naval Aviation News October 1973 [1], Public Domain
Another free NASA image of someone entering the gondola:
By NASA - http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/nasaNAS7731282135147, Public Domain
I was truly amazed to see what I saw today and think about what it resulted in. It really puts your mind in perspective, when your son is graduating from 8th grade and going into high school. It made me look around and see the possibilities of our future by looking at our past. I felt so happy for him.