Elliott Museum & Sikorsky X2 Helicopter

Earlier this month we had seen an article in our local newspaper about the Sikorsky X2, the world's fastest helicopter, being on display this week at the Elliott Museum in Stuart.

From Elliott Museum

The museum also has Leonardo daVinci's Machines in Motion on display and it has 40 operational actual-size working machines made from daVinci's drawings.

We left the house this morning at 9:30 and drove south on US-1 to Ft. Pierce to A1A and then south to the Elliott Museum on Hutchinson Island - a trip of 48 miles. We arrived at the Elliott Museum a little after 10:40 and paid $20 (senior rate for 2) admission.

Just inside the museum entrance was a display of bicycles and machines invented by Sterling Elliott (the museum is named for him and his son Harmon). Among many of Sterling Elliott's inventions was a bicycle designed for women and the egg carton just to name a few.

From Elliott Museum

Our next stop was at the Machines in Motion exhibit which is a traveling exhibit and has been at the Elliott Museum since March. It was great to see

some of Leonardo daVinci's drawings brought to life in the working models on display. Among the displays we saw were a wooden bicycle,

From Elliott Museum

an armored vehicle (tank),

From Elliott Museum

and a working robot knight.

From Elliott Museum

We passed by an exhibit of antique cars

From Elliott Museum

on our way to view the Sikorsky X2 helicopter - Sikorsky's prototype for the Army's advanced Scout Helicopter (see the video in our web album).

We were talking with a couple about the X2 and learned that he had been an engineer on the X2 and his wife had been an engineer on the Blackhawk transitions. We learned a lot from them about the X2 and its development.

From Elliott Museum

From Elliott Museum

From Elliott Museum

There is also a collection of 55 antique automobiles displayed on a 3-story stacking system. Visitors to the Wheels of Change Exhibit can select one of the automobiles and a museum volunteer will program the robotic retrieval system to bring the automobile down from its storage slot in the stacking system and put it onto a turntable for closer viewing.

I wish we had gotten a photo of the stacking system and the robotic retrieval system, but it was REALLY hard to get Mike away from looking at the X2.

From Elliott Museum

We decided to have lunch on the second floor of the museum at the Frances Langford Cafe which is a tribute to the Frances Langford Outrigger Cafe. Frances Langford was born in Florida and was a movie actress and singer from the 1930's to the 1950's. She moved to Jensen Beach and opened the Frances Langford Outrigger Resort with her husband Ralph Evinrude (Evinrude Outboard Motors).

Mike & I both ordered the Turkey, Bacon, Avocado and Swiss sandwich which was excellent. After lunch we stopped by the Gift Shop and Mike bought a coffee cup as a souvenir.

After leaving the museum we drove north on US-1 back home. We had a great day today and enjoyed the museum exhibits and our lunch.