One of the last things I add to an aircraft model before calling it complete is the pitot tube. It's too easy to break off otherwise. If it didn't have such an important function and was not so noticeable on the aircraft, I think I'd leave it off.

A French engineer named Henri Pitot invented the pitot tube in the 18th century. It was a device to measure pressure and determine the velocity of a fluid flowing past it. It has since been modified and significantly improved to determine the airspeed of an aircraft. Today's sophisticated pitot tube measures the air pressure as the aircraft "flows" through the air.

Authorized in 1936, launched in 1940, and commissioned the following year, USS North Carolina was the first battleship constructed for the US Navy since USS West Virginia’s 1923 commissioning. The first of America’s fast battleships, North Carolina compiled a sterling combat record in the South Pacific between 1942 and 1945, earning 12 battle stars while participating in every major naval campaign in the theater, making her the US Navy’s most decorated battleship. Following the war, North Carolina was eventually decommissioned, but bypassed the scrapyard when she was purchased by the citizens of North Carolina to serve as a memorial to those who served and sacrificed to preserve America’s freedom. Today, she sits moored in Wilmington, North Carolina, as one of the most awe-inspiring floating museums in the world.

The early 1960’s were characterized, in large part, by the “Space Race” between the United States and the Soviet Union to place a man in orbit, with an end goal of a manned lunar landing. Struggling to keep pace with the Soviets in those early years, the United States ultimately forged ahead, leveraging every asset at its disposal. One such asset was the Redstone rocket. Originally designed as a weapons delivery platform, the liquid-fueled Redstone was more stable and reliable than its early solid-fueled counterparts, thus making it a preferred launch vehicle for placing America’s first astronauts into space, although not into orbit. Redstone supported two manned suborbital missions in 1961 – Freedom 7, piloted by Alan Shepard, and Liberty 7, piloted by Gus Grissom – prior to the introduction of the more powerful orbit-capable Atlas rocket.