3555 - McMinnville, Oregon, United States of America

I love these type of cards! The sender is from McMinnville, which is located in the Willamette Valley and along the Yamhill River. It is home to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, which houses the Spruce Goose (Hughes H-4 Hercules
), Howard Hughes' flying boat. He built a prototype and wanted to utilize it as a Trans-Atlantic transport plane during World War II. It was completed in time. However, on 2 November 1947, the plane made one brief flight

The plane was made from birch wood using the Duramold process. Wartime restrictions on aluminum, and concerns about the weight of the craft were cited for using wood. Critics gave it the name Spruce Goose, but mechanics allegedly gave it the nickname Birch Bitch.

The plane was designed to carry 68 000 kg, or 750 fully equiped soldiers, or two 30 ton M4 Sherman tanks.

The Hughes H-4 Hercules would be manned by a crew of 3, be almost 67 m long, and have a wingspan of 98 m. It's empty weight was almost 114 000 kg. Twenty-eight Pratt and Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major 28-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 3000 hp each, would power the plane. The cruise speed would be 400 km/h, with a flight range of 4800 km. It would be able to fly at 6400 m.

The plane cost USD$23 million (almost USD$250 000 in 2023 dollars).

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3584 - Blaine, Minnesota, United States of America

The sender was in Las Vegas recently and bought this card from The Mob Museum. The Mob Museum, officially known as the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, is located in downtown Las Vegas. It open in 2012. It features artifacts, stories, and the history of organized crime in the United States, but also the actions and initiatives by law enforcement to prevent such crimes. The museum is found at the former Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse, which was built in 1933. The quote on this card was from John Gotti. John Gotti (1940-2002) was the mafioso and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. After ordering the killing of Gambino boss Paul Catellano in 1985, he took over the family and led what was the United States' most powerful crime syndicate. He was known as The Teflon Don after three high profile trials in the 1980s resulted in acquittals. Later it was revealed that the trials had been tainted by jury tampering, juror misconduct, and...

3564 - Kassel, Hesse, Germany

A wonderful message on this card that translates to to those wh o can wait, everything comes with time.

2346 - Iwate, Iwate, Japan

Keita is a junior high science teacher in Iwate 岩手町. He sent me a photo of the Tokyo Sky Tower during a fireworks display. The Tokyo Sky Tower is a broadcasting and observation tower in Simide, a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis. It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010. In 2011, when it was completed at a height of 634 meters, it became the tallest tower in the world, and the second tallest structure in the world, after Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE.

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