In Warren, Ohio a replica space ship serves as a memorial to Neil Armstrong with a half-scale replica of the Apollo 11 lunar lander that was installed in 2003 as a tribute to Armstrong. The fake spaceship stands nearly 13 feet tall and 12 feet wide, and is made of titanium. The ship is set on a fake patch of lunar surface that has permanent astronaut footprints.
The memorial was made by a local retired steelworker and set in place in 2003 next to a MacDonald’s and a shopping center that was a former airstrip, where, coincidentally, Neil Armstrong’s father took him on his first plane ride when Mr. Armstrong was thirteen.
Ohio, mother of presidents and astronauts, reveres its political and aeronautical heroes. Unfortunately Warren, Ohio is at the epicenter of Rust Belt frustrations, and quietly struggles with both being left entirely behind with the new economy and still being a factory town.
William Mckinley, the Warren native and former president, rose to power when the area was more like an industrial Silicon Valley with economic innovation. Titanium used in this capsule model and on all aircraft since WW II, was invented in Toronto, Ohio and manufactured and finished on a large scale in Warren. Although not as big as it once was, the titanium indutsry is still ative in the Mahoning River Valley in Warren, as are consprcists who insist the moon landings were fake.