Shuttle Transport 747 at Carswell Ft. Worth

It flew over my house back in 93 or 94.

What it was doing flying about 1500 agl 50 miles south of SLC I have no idea

But it was a very impressive sight.
 
I'll be on base tomorrow morning. I'll be sure to get some cool pictures. I'm really trying to find someone with a nice camera!

Stay tuned.
 
It flew over my house back in 93 or 94.

What it was doing flying about 1500 agl 50 miles south of SLC I have no idea

But it was a very impressive sight.


They parade it up and down the beach a few times before they head to KSC. I remember seeing it when I was younger at the beach near Patrick AFB. It was really an awesome sight.
 
Here's a question.... How much lift might the shuttle produce while on the back of the 747? Would the lift be enough to help cancel out the weight it adds to the 747? Might be a dumb question, but one of my students asked and I didn't really know the answer. I would imagine some lift is created.
 
Here ya go...what a sight!

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I wish I would have known about this earlier, would have been way worth the hour drive.

What exactly do the winglet looking parts in the rear do?
 
Plan on going over (near) there tomorrow with my camera. Hope to get some shots. Just found out about it tonight whilst watching the news.
 
The winglets are the rudder for the 747 since the orbiter disrupts the airflow to the vertical stabilizer.

I don't know for sure, but my best guess as to why it was 1500 AGL around SLC that one time is for a flyover near Morton-Thiokol who makes the boosters (?? just a guess) When was that anyhow?
I'd love to see this sight; I've seen the shuttle in just about all phases of flight - launch from 3 miles away, landing from a viewing stand 1/4 mile off the runway, in orbit, even the plasma trail of re-entry, but never riding piggyback. Will look forward to the pictures!
 
Yep, kinda like floats on a float plane. It provides enough lift to cancel out it's weight.
I highly doubt that. That's a 180,000 pound orbiter up there with pretty small wings. No doubt there's some offset, but not nearly enough to cancel out it's weight. In any event, the drag would certainly cancel out any advantage that you might get from the wings.

What exactly do the winglet looking parts in the rear do?
Basically it provides additional lateral stability as the orbiter disrupts the normal airflow around the 747's rudder.

This is found on one of the mounting points:
Shuttle_mounting_point.JPG
 
Is "NASA911" the standard callsign for those flights? I wonder why they picked that particular one. Interesting how they're capped at 15,000ft.
 
BLACK SIDE DOWN

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. Good reminder.

That would be a cool job to fly the shuttle around with the 747.
 
Interesting how they're capped at 15,000ft.

Apparently what I've heard from a couple AF guys is that they don't go too high with it because they worry about possible icing with it. There are so many blunt surfaces that they fear they could pick up too much ice. Don't quote me on that, but that seems to be a good reason.
 
Anybody know why NASA is using this flight plan? Can't they save a lot of money by flying a more direct route?
 

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