NASA Aircraft
Aircraft NASA uses for R&D, training, chase duty, and everything else
The Northrop T-38 Talon has been the standard advanced trainer of the USAF since the early '60s. NASA has used them for astronaut training, chase planes, research, and transportation since the mid-'60s, and still uses them today. This photo is from '74, when this T-38, NASA 514, was used at Langley. It flew noise research missions, and was used as an "adversary" aircraft against the XV-6A Kestrel-forerunner of the V/STOL Harrier tactical jet. 514 has since returned to the T-38 fleet at Ellington Field in Houston. NASA Photo.
Pilot astronauts are not the only ones allowed to fly in or even pilot T-38s. All American space crewmembers-pilots, Mission Specialists, Payload Specialists, and astronauts and cosmonauts from other nations-are encouraged to fly in T-38s as much as possible, not just to learn the ins and outs of flying jets, but also to learn how to coordinate with their crewmates. And Mission and Payload Specialists, if they are qualified, may act as Pilot-In-Command of the T-38 as well. Here, the crew of STS-103/Discovery arrive overhead at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility in formation, before Countdown Demonstation Tests in Nov. 1999. The crew for this mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope included Commander Curtis Brown Jr., Pilot Scott Kelly, and Mission Specialists Steve Smith, C. Michael Foale, John Grunsfeld, Claude Nicollier of Switzerland, and Jean-Frangois Clervoy of France. NASA Photo.
NASA's use of the T-38 dates back to the days of Project Mercury and spans the history of the agency. Here, CMP Ron Evans (left) commiserates with CDR Gene Cernan on the ramp at Patrick AFB (to the south of KSC) the week before leaving for the Moon on Apollo 17. Like all NASA aircraft, the T-38s carry civilian N-numbers. Like the USAF, NASA has had few problems with the T-38 (although 4 astronauts have lost their lives in them), and there is no replacement on the horizon, so they plan to keep using them for the forseeable future. NASA Photo.
Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCAs) are used to ferry the Shuttle Orbiters wherever required. Here, Atlantis is shown on Sept. 1, 1998, on the back of an SCA on the way back to KSC from Palmdale, CA, after a 10-month refurbishment. NASA 905, a 747-100, was the first SCA, obtained from American Airlines in 1974. SCAs feature struts for mounting the Orbiters on their backs, along with numerous structural reinforcements in their gutted cabins. They have instruments to monitor Orbiter electrical loads during ferry flights & ground operations, and their tails have been modified with big, rectangular vertical stabilizers to aid directional stability. Shown here is the second SCA, NASA 911, a 747-100SR obtained from JAL in 1989 and delivered to NASA the next year. Both SCAs have a wingspan of 195 ft 8 in, a length of 231 ft 10 in, and a height at the tail of 63 ft 5 in. They are powered by 4 Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7J turbofans, rated at 50,000 lbs of thrust. On mated flights, the SCAs don't exceed 0.6 Mach and 15,000 ft, and carry a crew of 2 pilots and 2 flight engineers. Max takeoff weight is 710,000 lbs. NASA Photo.
Video: Discovery & NASA 911 after STS-92 (Q)
Orbiters are mated to the SCAs via a huge scaffolding/cargo-handling apparatus called the Mate/Demate Device (MDD). Here, Columbia is demated by the MDD from NASA 905 on delivery to KSC in March, 1979. NASA Photo.
Video: NASA 911 & Endeavour in the DFRC MDD, Part I Part II (Q)
Watch these videos closely and you'll get an idea of how precise (and slow) this process is. Note the jackrabbit at the beginning of Part I!
Gulfstream II Shuttle Training Aircraft (STAs) are used to train astronauts to land the Shuttle. The left-side panel is modified to resemble the panel of the Shuttle, the controls have been modified, and the windscreen has been made to look like that of the Shuttle. The simulation begins at high altitude; the main gear & flaps are lowered, spoilers deployed, and the engines thrown into reverse-thrust. The STA drops rapidly but controllably, just like the Shuttle. The simulation ends just above the runway, to simulate the "eye height" of the Shuttle at landing, and they go around to do it again. STAs are also used to check landing site conditions for the Shuttle just before re-entry, and as chase aircraft. NASA Photo.
No discussion of NASA's fleet of aircraft would be complete without mentioning the KC-135 zero-gravity aircraft-the "Vomit Comet." The KC-135, a close relative of the Boeing 707 airliner, has been the USAF's primary aerial refueling tanker since the late '50s, and has been used by NASA for zero-G research & training since the days of Project Mercury. The aircraft flies what are known as zero-G "parabolas." Typically, these begin at 24,000 ft/350 knots with a 45-degree, 1.8-G pull-up, as shown here. 20 seconds later, as the KC-135 passes 32,000 ft, the pilots pitch the jet over, like a fast car cresting a hill, and anyone in the specially-outfitted cargo interior will experience about 15-25 sec. of zero-G. Then the pilots pitch the bird 45-deg. nose-down, and 20 sec. later, pull another 1.8 G during the pull-out at 24,000 ft. A typical mission, launched from Ellington Field, will include a number of parabolas as the KC-135 circles in a racetrack over the Gulf of Mexico. While pilots are used to such things, their handlers inside the KC-135 often react badly to the cycle of varying Gs, and pretty soon....well, they don't call it the Vomit Comet for nothing! The KC-135 can also be used to simulate microgravity, short of zero-G; for example, during Project Apollo, hard-suited LM crews were flown aboard the KC-135 through maneuvers simulating 1/6-G, the gravity you'd experience on the Moon; the KC-135 has also been used to simulate the 1/3-G environment of Mars. Also, the Vomit Comet was used extensively during the making of the film Apollo 13, carrying mockups of the CSM & LM spacecraft; the convincing zero-G space sequences were shot about 20 sec. at a time during zero-G parabolas. One wonders how well Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton and crew fared during these sessions. NASA Photo.
NASA needed something really different to shuttle the big, outsized rocket stages & spacecraft from the plants and to and from various facilities. Trains were often too small, and although NASA had a small fleet of barges, these were slow, and were mainly used for the REALLY BIG stuff like Saturn V first and second stages. But for (comparatively) smaller items, like Titan II stages, space capsules, LMs, and rocket stages up to and including the McDonnell-Douglas S-IVB, they needed the speed and flexibility of an airplane-and entrepenuers Jack Conroy and Lee Mansdorf came up with the answer: the Guppy. Conroy and Mansdorf were discussing NASA's difficulties one night, and Mansdorf mentioned that he had just purchased some old Boeing 377 Stratocruisers-postwar Boeing prop-driven airliners based on B-29 and B-50 bomber hardware, now obsolete with the arrival of jets. They thought, "What if we took some of these Stratocruisers and enlarged the fuselages to haul outsized rocket boosters?" And they actually began designing airplanes on cocktail napkins! They came up with a Stratocruiser with an oversized upper-fuselage "bubble" and side-hinged "swinging" tail for cargo loading. Thus was born the Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy, which first flew from their base in Van Nuys, CA, on Sept. 19, 1962. It was flown to Edwards AFB for testing, and was pressed into NASA service. The original piston-powered PG was OK for NASA at the time, but they would need something bigger and more powerful for the Apollo & Skylab programs. So Aero Spacelines built the Super Guppy, which was a bigger, turboprop-powered aircraft, first flown Aug. 31, 1965. The Super Guppy had a hinged, one-piece forward fuselage "face" that opened to one side. An enlarged piston Guppy with a removable tail was built in '67, and four more Super Guppies with different engines were made from surplus KC-97 tankers in the '70s. Another "Mini Guppy" turboprop was built, but was lost in a crash during testing at Edwards. The Super Guppy could carry the big S-IVB, as well as the Skylab Orbital Work Shop derived from it. Airbus also used a Super Guppy to haul airliner fuselages until they developed their own, jet-powered Beluga "guppy" from an Airbus A300 airframe. NASA still flies a Super Guppy (the former Airbus airplane, assigned to NASA in return for hauling ESA payloads on the Shuttle) from JSC Aircraft Operations Directorate at Ellington, in support of Shuttle and ISS operations. Here, the Super Guppy arrives at the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC in 1999, carrying a section of truss for the ISS. NASA Photo.
