747-100 NASA SCA retirement. One down, one to go

MikeD

MikeD

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In addition to the retirement of the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles, another less-seen part of the Shuttle program will finish retirement: NASAs two 747-100 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA); N905NA and N911NA; 905 being the original acquired in the early 70s from American Airlines and flew for a number of years in its former AA livery and with NASA logos. NASA 911 was acquired in the early '90s from Japan Airlines. I used to see one of the SCAs often at KMZJ by my house, stored in its off time there. 911NA was retired 2 months ago, and the original......905NA, will retire after delivering the remaining retired Space Shuttle Orbiter's to their final museum display locations.

Well done, Boeing birds. Your missions are complete.

Pic below......one of the mounting points atop the 747 SCA, with printed instructions for mounting the Shuttle Orbiter. :)

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I'm bummed that I'm stuck at work when the SCA and Discovery will be flying over the Potomac. Why did I take so many days off this month?? Haha
 
Neat machines. One of the earliest toys I can remember having as a child was a matchbox 747 and Enterprise. Played with that thing so much the paint was gone -- it was down to bare metal. I've only seen it in real life once and I was fascinated. You don't really get an idea of the size and scope until you see an Orbiter on top of the 747. That, in and of itself, is a technological marvel.
 
Those things better end up in a museum too, and not wrapped up in the desert somewhere. Truly the end of an era. I get a little depressed every time I fly over Cape Canaveral..
 
Mark815 said:
Those things better end up in a museum too, and not wrapped up in the desert somewhere. Truly the end of an era. I get a little depressed every time I fly over Cape Canaveral..
Click to expand...

I would love to see one with the shuttle still on top on display.
 
Just landed on 1R at IAD and it's quite the parking lot on the road leading up to the museum. Gonna be a beautiful day here!
 
i got to see the shuttle on the 747 in flight. i was still in the USAF at Davis Monthan and it was either STS-5 or STS-6 comming back from KEDW. i was working local control and i get a call from a NASA1 Heavy. ask him what i could do for him since we didnt have an inbound strip on any NASA flight that day. he asked me if i ever saw the shuttle on the back of the 747, "well no sir " i said . he comes back with "look out west and youll see us comming over head in a few minutes.one of the coolest things i ever saw watching that big fly by ,boy only wish i had my camera that day.
 
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