The Incredible Story of NASA's Boeing 747s: Shuttling (and making) Space History!
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- Опубликовано: 3 дек 2022
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How much do you know about the NASA 747s that were used to carry the Space Shuttle? For example, did you know that their name, “Shuttle Carrier Aircraft” or SCA, isn’t really an accurate or a complete description of what they were for?
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Below you will find the links to videos and sources used in this episode. Enjoy checking them out!
• Space Shuttle Endeavou...
• Space shuttle Discover...
• Space shuttle Endeavou...
• American Boeing 747-12...
• NASA's Two Modified 74...
• New Looks at Atlantis ...
• Tour of the C-5 Aircraft
• Approach and Landing T...
• Stratolaunch First Flight 
Наука
Best thing about this aircraft is the inscription on its mount points:
"Attach Orbiter Here - Note: Black Side Down" 😂🤣
kinda reminds me of a sticker i saw on the side of a 757: fragile. do not drop.
always keep the blue side up.
😂😂
NASA really missed a great opportunity. Had they called it the Orbiter Carrier Aircraft, OrCA would have been a perfect acronym.
especially since the orbiter kinda looks like an orca with an inverted color scheme
True!! 💕
That’s a clever insight
Seeing the orbiter on the 747 like that reminds me of the last scene in Dirty Dancing.
Nasa would NEVER construct a weird name just to get a cool acronym!
I was present at the Griffith Observatory when the Space Shuttle Endeavor and the 747 Carrier did their fly over of Los Angeles. Words could not sum up how awesome the experience was. Those few seconds of the fly over made the hours long wait in the hot sun worth it.
I remember glancing out of my office window in the Washington, DC area in the late 1980s and seeing an airplane, then doing a double take when I realized I was looking at the Shuttle on top of a 747. I yelled out "The Space Shuttle!" and everybody in the office ran to the windows on that side. It was only in view for a few seconds (our office didn't occupy the whole floor and only had windows on the one side) but it was a real treat and a great memory.
Awesome!
Lucky you! ✈
Herndon?
I think that was when shuttle Enterprise was being delivered to the Udvar-Hazy center at Dulles. I think the made an entire circuit of the DC beltway. I also saw it but we had been forewarned and were all outside.
@@clarkpj1 That sounds right. I wish I had been paying attention to the news the day before, I could have been prepared and gotten a better look.
I don't know if it was Boeing or NASA, but someone stenciled on top of the SCAs "Attach Orbiter Here. Black Side Down"🤣 Your videos on the history of the 747 are a worthy tribute, she'll leave behind a great legacy that will never be rivalled! ✈✈👍👍
Yes, that one is hilarious if a bit redundant.
There's also apparently the giant stuffed spider that lives on the exposed rear pressure bulkhead that has a spider web-like pattern on it..
Oh, my. That's hilarious, and worthy of googling "Attach Orbiter Here. Black Side Down" to see photos.
😂 Black side down
@@BigMikeECV *runs immediately to google* hahahaha worth it! 👀 😄
I was working at Edwards Airforce base, working for NASA back in the early 90's and got to see the shuttle and 747 up close and personal. Every mission the shuttle launched we were always prepared for it to arrive at Edwards because of the unpredictable weather in FL. My first time I saw it land and then hoisted to the 747 after about 10 days of telemetry downloading (yes, it took 10 days to fully download all of the data back then, 24/7 :) was a site to be hold. We would get in our cars and drive to the end of the 12,000 foot runway and just wait for it to SLOWLY take off. It took every foot of the runway before lifting off in the air. They would always circle the base 1 time before heading for the first refueling location in another state like you said. It was a memory i will never forget...
Thanx for the info.
*a sight to behold
I said it to Wilber; I said it to Orville; I say it to you -- It'll never fly.
That must have been amazing. Thanks for sharing.
I think many of us love it when somebody takes the time to share a story like yours and I know I certainly love sharing life stories if and when relevant ( not so much my of my own service life having been a Royal Marine and technically 100, totally, super honest, I was never in most the places I was definitely never in 😉😆and I believe that still generally applies to this day). I honestly think when we can share things like this we are imparting knowledge to others that they'd likely never know about and as they say: Knowledge is Power.
Petter, personally I think we will never see the likes of the Shuttle, the 747 and Concorde again.
Technology may move on, but the design of these three aircraft have not been beaten.
Another great video, Petter.
Yeah, the golden year of engineering is coming to an end 😩
Add An225 and Buran to your list. We will never see the like again. Our children may :)
I dunno... Starship seems like it’ll be quite something once Elon gets it to orbit?!
@@ABrit-bt6ce Once the war is over, Russia will likely rebuild the AN-225, though probably not the Buran.
@@sparky6086 Ukrane has #2 part built before Russia killed #1. Ukraine will out live Russia.
Living in central Florida, I had the opportunity to see the 747 piggyback operation on several occasions, and witness many of the Shuttle launches in person, as well as being shaken out of bed by the twin sonic booms when Shuttle came home from space in the early morning hours. On the first boom you would think your neighbor's house had exploded, and on the immediate second boom you'd smile and think, all is well. Shuttle coming home. Go back to sleep. Two amazing machines. I do miss seeing (and hearing) the old girls.
I can still remember the BOOM BOOM of the twin sonic booms of the space shuttle, when it would land at Edwards AFB.
Why were there two?
@@bethhentges the air pressure returning normal causes the second "boom"
I live close to Eglin afb, we get those periodically. Never know if they're testing moabs or an F-15 just got a little fast on departure out to the gulf.
Wow, amazing how much of a show (and sound) they were!
From 1979 until 1981 I was fortunate enough to work on the early STS glide missions. Our job was cabling infrastructure at Rogers Dry Lake Bed. The crew I was on was responsible for getting comm, data, video and metrological cables ran across Edwards AFB to the Lake site for the first glide tests of the STS landing site there.
I had the honor of watching the B747 do many, many 'touch and goes' with the glide test model attached to the top. It was amazing!
At times we would be within a couple hundred feet of the runway while this was going on.
Just watching the skill of the pilots, the power of the plane itself and the techniques involved in this was something to behold.
Our crew spent countless hours in the desert heat preparing for the first glide test. We ran miles of buried cable, worked day and night at times there, summer, fall and winter. We brought that project off months in advance.
I look back fondly upon those times.....I was young, this was important and we did it!!
Thanks for the memories!!
Russell Donegan
USAF 1978-1982
Sgt. 1835th EIS Norton AFB
The Road Runners
Another memory....
The small, stubby winged early experimental model you show, in the -70's the TV show 'The 6 million Dollar Man' features a crash of one of those early prototypes in the opening scene. The pilot acutally lived through that crash!
When I was at Edwards the scar on Rogers Lake bed was still visible from the impact of that crash.
Also, one of our rally points out there was the building used for the early static engine tests of the X-15.
Lot's of good history and memories from that era.
I went to the german airport Koeln-Bonn (which was also an emergency landing spot for the orbiter), when the SCA 905 and "Enterprise" landed there on their way to the International Flightshow in Paris in may 1983. Oh, and the 747 was equipped with an infrared countermeasures system to protect the aircraft from heat-seeking missiles.
What a gigantic view from the parking lot! I also had the opportunity to take a heli-flight around these two. A memory I´ll never forget!
If only I had been alive back then in the best time of aviation... But I do have to say that trains are more efficient, so fewer planes is sadly good
Yes, I was also there with my Family at the Age of eleven. I have a Picture with my mother, my sister and me in front of it. Before they land at CGN, they fly circles around in the wider aera at low high, so that many poeple had the posibility to see them and they flew over our house in the Eifel. At that moment, I was "stucked" on the toilette, till I've managed to get out of the house to take a look in the sky, I could only see the rudder of the 747, the rest was covered by the clouds. Moments you never forget.
Oh my God. The bravery of the pilots who would either fly the 747 or be in the orbiter during these flights is something to applaud. 👏👏👏 Having watched hundreds of videos where things went wrong just flying one plane, I can’t even imagine the complications involved in these orbiter-carrying flights. Kudos to the brave folks who made our world so exciting back in the days where every American was glued to their TV watching the shuttle launch and return.
I'm a controller here at Southwest FL Int'l Airport (KRSW) and we have a locally based cargo company (Western Global) whose fleet includes 747s and MD-11s. Right now, we have three 747s parked on the ramp outside our tower (ex-JAL, from what I understand) and it's always a treat to work them. The Queen of the Skies indeed.
I was lucky enough to be able to see it stop and refuel. What a sight it was sitting there and yes I was late for work because I had to watch it take off too.
I got to see the SCA when it brought Enterprise to the Intrepid museum. It was really cool to see it flying over my office!
I can imagine! What a sight!
@@MentourNow it was gorgeous. I work in a college in Brooklyn by the ocean, and I got some lovely pictures of the SCA and shuttle coming over the water on its way into the city. It was still pretty high up, as it hadn’t descended for the lower pass it did around Manhattan yet, but basically everyone in the office stopped and ran to the window to watch.
And if you ever get to go to the Intrepid Museum, the shuttle pavilion is incredible too, you can walk under the orbiter and really get an appreciation for how big the shuttle was. They even have a Soyuz capsule in there, and it’s dwarfed by the orbiter.
I had the honor of working at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in 1977 as a college intern in the Flight Systems Technical Laboratory during the Approach and Landing Tests of the Enterprise Shuttle. I recall the 747 carrier with the shuttle attached rolling past our viewing location on the Dryden flight line no more than maybe 200 feet away. It was like watching a tall building roll by. Just awesome! We got to watch the takeoff, flyby, separation and shuttle landing, through the separation and landing had to be viewed, of course, via TVs set up in the hanger. It was an incredible opportunity for a young man not yet 20 to experience this historic moment first-hand.
I was at Edwards AFB, in a CHP helicopter, for the first shuttle landing there. When the airspace was closed we landed on a hilltop about 10 miles away until after the shuttle landed and the airspace was reopened. We then launched and returned to the area where there were a few thousand spectators, to provide assistance with traffic control.
I saw this in flight over my house in Tulsa carrying The Enterprise, leaving McDonald Douglas. I remember chasing it on my bicycle (for a very short time.) It was awesome to see in the skies in person.
Cool
And then everyone clapped
My office pretty well shut down when the last 747-shuttle flyby went past. I think the building tilted as we all ran to the windows on the west side.
I would have never clicked on aviation history videos before I found your channels. Now, only a few weeks later, I am racing to click play as soon as I get a new video notification. I came here for the incident investigations and ended up staying for all of the rest, too. I do believe your content has turned me into an aviation enthusiast!
In 1984 when I was 10 years old, the Enterprise was ferried via the 747 to a base in Mobile, Alabama and then put on a barge for transport to the World's Fair in New Orleans. I attended a school that was right along the flight path on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and I can still remember how cool that 747 looked with the Enterprise on it's back to this day-our school let us kids all go outside and watch as it flew past, it was awesome.
Seeing the shuttle on top of the 74 really gives you a size reference. I never imagined they were that big!
I saw this fly over when I was stationed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, UK. I think it was on its way to the USA base at Fairford for an air show. Brize Norton ATC where routing the aircraft so as a curtesy they flew over at 1000ft for everyone to see. Unfortunately, with only a 5 minute warning I didn't get the chance to grab a camera. I didn't carry one around in my pocket in those days.
I saw the Challenger on top 747 May 10,1985 at Kelly Air-force base, just a short little visit for it. Arrived at 5:45pm and left 7am next morning.
One additional SCA note: STS-3 (March of 1982) actually landed at Northrop Strip in New Mexico because the lakebed runways at Edwards Air Force Base were flooded, and NASA was not willing to try landing on the Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida at this stage of the program. The SCA ferried the orbiter back to KSC.
Thank you for that!
Because our Transportation Squadron at Holloman AFB assisted with ground support logistics, courtesy was extended to us to watch the landing of STS-3 at White Sands Space Harbor. After Lousma and Fullerton gave their speech, we got back on the bus and saw that the shuttle had already been lifted onto the 747.
Just to finish this story, Edwards was flooded due to weather (a very unusual occurrence) and the facility in Florida was not quite ready for use although the runway had been built. This was the only landing at White Sands Missile Range. All in all, 59 missions landed at Edwards, and 78 landed at KSC in Florida (beginning in 1984).
I had an amazing, and unexpected, opportunity once to see the 747/Orbiter combination in flight, at altitude. I was flying back from LAX to New York when the captain made an announcement that we would be overtaking the NASA 747 on the left side of our aircraft, which would be a couple of miles away, and 2000 feet below. And shortly, there it was! Quite an amazing sight. I also had had the opportunity, in connection with my job, to be present at the launches of STS-1 and STS-2. As unbelievably loud as those engines were, old NASA hands who were present told me that the Saturn-V's were far louder!
On the flight back to Florida from White Sands they stopped over for fuel at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. I was 10 years old at the time, but we were actually able to go see it come in.
@@SteveTheFazeman Your memory of seeing the Shuttle already on top of the 747 shortly after landing seems to be faulty. Mounting the Shuttle onto the 747 was a pretty big operation, at KSC and Edwards they used huge structures called the Mate-Demate Devices. The entire operation took a couple of days including preparing the Shuttle for transport. At White Sands they did not have a Mate-Demate device so they had to use cranes and other equipment which had been shipped in by rail. The process took a week and the SCA 747 flew Columbia away from White Sands on April 6, 1982 exactly one week after the landing. www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/multimedia/imagegallery/Shuttle/EC82-22205.html
In 1985, while in basic training for the United States Air Force at Lackland AFB, Texas, I was privileged to witness an orbiter carrier landing. Truly an amazing sight. The engineering and piloting spoke of the professionalism of everyone involved.
My weekends are always better when you drop a video.
Thank you David. I try to always have SOMETHING for you guys.
Thank you David. I try to always have SOMETHING for you guys.
The drop tests were a very big deal carried live on national television. I remember watching it at work. Years later seeing it low at Mississippi Beach and parked at Mobile’s Coast Guard Air Station was really dramatic. The stack was absolutely huge and looked almost impossibly big.
In the 1980’s (1987 I think) I was recovering from a long illness so on sick leave from my work as a teacher, but I was just fit enough to go to RAF Fairford to see the orbiter Enterprise on its 747 landing in order to refuel while en route to an air show in Germany (again, not sure but I think Frankfurt - it was a long time ago). We were allowed to stand next to the taxiway as it taxied in so almost under the 747 wingtip(outboard engines shut down) and got an incredible view of the landing and lots of photos which I still have. A fantastic experience!
I remember hearing an astronaut pilot of the orbiter, when asked what it was like landing the shuttle, he responded, "It is like flying a brick." Don't forget that nearly all NASA astronauts are highly trained pilots. I followed an astronaut on twitter who mentioned a couple of times that he had a meeting in Houston. So he hopped into a T-38 and flew it round trip from Cape Canaveral to Houston just to keep his hours current (They probably all do.) :) Good catch on that small quote Petter.
Historically many were Naval Fighter pilots. There's a gallery of all them at the Naval Postgraduate School in California.
For Shuttle pilots to practice, they also configured some aircraft to behave like the Shuttle.
@@mgscheue Yup, Shuttle Training Aircraft or STA.
@@mgscheue They Used a Gulfstream GII that was modified to allow the thrust reversers to be deployed in flight. That thing dropped like a rock.
@@dougrobinson8602 So cool. I’d love to see a Mentour video on that.
Along with the good and the bad of the shuttle program, I happened to witness two of the bad events, one was on TV right when it happened when we watched the launch of the shuttle that broke apart shortly after takeoff, and then I was in Texas watching the skies to try to catch a glimpse of the shuttle coming in for a landing at FL, and it started to break apart as it passed almost directly overhead of where we were.
It's hard to get those memories out of my head.
Although many people seem to have memories of watching the Challenger accident occur on live TV, the fact is that for most people this would not have been possible. By 1986 the Space Shuttle had been flying for five years and the major networks CBS, NBC, ABC had long since stopped carrying Shuttle launches live, however they did carry the Challenger launch live because of large interest in the teacher in space Christa McAuliffe. However a minute after the launch the networks went back to regular programming. The accident occurred about one minute later but was not seen live on the major networks. Within a few minutes the networks resumed coverage after word of the accident spread, and they immediately began showing replays of the accident. This is what most people saw, even though 35 years later many think they remember seeing the accident live.
The only live network broadcast of the Challenger accident was on CNN, but in 1986 CNN was still very new and had very few viewers. In fact many people didn't even have cable TV at that time as it was still new. There was also a local California television station that had a former Florida space reporter as its morning news anchor and they continued with the coverage live including the accident. So if you were watching CNN or local TV station CNBC in Los Angeles you could have seen it live. If not then most likely you saw the immediate replays.
@@StevePemberton2 No, the networks weren't covering the launch, but NASA Select TV (available on many cable networks) was, and because Christa McAuliffe, the Teacher in Space astronaut, was on board, that coverage was shown live to many students in school as a special event. Many people about my age saw it live that way--the Shuttle blew up while they were watching with a whole classroom full of distraught kids who were expecting to see a teacher go to space.
I was home from school for bad winter weather, and I actually saw it live because one of the PBS stations in the Washington DC area was mirroring the raw NASA Select feed. I figured I'd watch the shuttle launch because I didn't have anything better to do. I went to a science and tech magnet school and there were a lot of upset kids in class the next day.
My step-father worked on the Enterprise in the late 70s. As a family we were honored to see 3 out of the 5 drop tests. Starting with the 1st. We were able to see all the odd numbered tests. Got to meet all 4 of the pilots who flew those missions.
This is the kind of content I love to see. Not the ambulance chasing plane crashes that every RUclipsr even remotely associated with Aviation as Beat to Death
I was fortunate enough to not only see 747-SCA and orbiters fly together but also attend the first drop test of Enterprise. Definitely fired my engineering imagination that we could design and build anything we set our minds to regardless of whether it was practical or not LOL
I was there that morning, too!
Big fan of the 747 and the MD-11 they are amazing planes that pushed me into wanting to be a an aircraft mechanic. I hope Mentour does another series on the MD-11. Thank you for the awesome video!
I did see the final flight standing on the roof of one of the buildings at McClellan Airport by Sacramento in California. The plane plus orbiter flew past us coming from the south, did a 180 degree turn and did a second pass over our heads. A few years later I saw the Endeavor at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Pretty effing cool.
I worked at White Sands long after the only time the shuttle landed there and still got an earful from the people there about how NASA would never do it again given how much service was needed to remove enough weight in sand just to shuttle it back to Florida, let alone how much was done after that. Your video had me curious about that mission so I just did a web search about it but there were very few details about exactly how much more that shuttle weighed after its landing or other maintenance that had to be done. The staff at the base told me they had to replace all of the windshields due to pitting and had to strip, inspect, and repaint nearly all external painted surfaces.
Some of the problem I think was they left it outdoors overnight or something and wind driven sand did even more damage. At least that's what I remember hearing not sure if its true.
I remember it was in the news back in 2006 that White Sands had been activated as a backup for STS-116 due to possible bad weather at both KSC and Edwards. Didn't happen obviously but I think that was as close as NASA came to using White Sands again.
@@PaulN504 It was used very early in the shuttle program but from what I was told it delayed shuttle launches by almost as much as the first shuttle accident because of how much service it needed after landing there. When I worked at White Sands was before 2004 because that was the year I became fully disabled as a result of a toxic exposure while fighting a fire.
@@StevePemberton2 the wind driven sand down there gets into everything. I haven’t lived in NM since 2009 but I’m still occasionally surprised when I’m working on something that came back with me and find sand poring out when I remove something.
I got to see Enterprise in person at the Smithsonian Museum a couple years ago (and I remember the minor Star Trek fan in me being extremely amused about its name. Yes, it is not a coincidence). I was quite surprised at how big those things were - I'd always imagined the Space Shuttle quite a bit smaller.
Yes, I think it’s worth going to see it. I was awes by the size and the technology it represented. Like Petter said, “Science is awesome!”
FWIW, Enterprise is in NYC now, at the USS Intrepid Museum. The Smithsonian has Discovery now (since shortly after the Shuttles were retired.) They're both pretty cool to see. I'm hoping to get a chance to see Atlantis over at KSC sometime, too, but haven't done it yet.
As a school child I was taken on a field trip to where they were developing the tiles for the shuttle way back in the 70s. They did a little demonstration where they took a blow torch to the tiles and they were unaffected by the heat. I remember the test flights when the 747 dropped the shuttle, it made front page news back then. And wow...1000 nm range for the 747...that IS comical.
They use to do that demonstration at the Kenedy Space Center many years ago. Amazing demo. Haven't been there in many years so not sure if they still do or not.
I remember seeing the shuttle on the back of its 747 arrive at London Stansted airport during one of its global tours. It took us 4 hours to get out of the car park, but well worth it. It inspired me to become a pilot.
I also went to see it at Stanstead but I can only remember being in a pub beer garden.
In 2012 I got to see the SCA 747 take off from Kennedy Space Center with Space Shuttle Discovery on its way to deliver Discovery to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. NASA sold tickets to this event and there were a few thousand in attendance. We got to watch it from the viewing grandstands at the Shuttle Landing Facility which is the big runway that Mentour mentioned in the video. After takeoff the SCA came back and did a flyby overhead which was terrific, but they did the flyby not only for us they flew along the entire space coast beaches near Kennedy Space Center so that thousands of people were able to view it.
My best, and also saddest memory of seeing the SCA 747 was when I went to the STS-4 Columbia landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California on July 4th, 1982. I lived in Southern California at the time and I saw several Shuttle landings because the early missions all landed at Edwards. For the early landings they had a large section of the dry lakebed open to the public on the opposite side of the lake from the runway, and there were tens of thousands of people in attendance for each landing, many of them camped out overnight in their RV's. We were too far away to see the actual touchdown but we got a great view of the Shuttle as it came in on final approach.
For the July 4th Columbia landing President Reagan and Nancy Reagan were in attendance. After Columbia landed the Reagans christened the new Space Shuttle Challenger which had been build in nearby Palmdale and was about to be flown to Florida. We couldn't see any of this because we were miles away, although we could hear it on radios and TV's that people had with them, as this event was covered by the major news networks. After the ceremony the SCA with Challenger on its back taxied out onto the lakebed, then started its takeoff. The takeoff roll lasted a long time, and there was an incredible amount of dust kicked up by the 747's engines from the dry lakebed that it took off from, it literally looked like a Saharan dust storm. Fortunately for us it was far enough away that we were not affected by the dust.
After takeoff the SCA came back and did a low pass over the crowd, I would estimate maybe 500 ft and we had a great view of Challenger on top of the 747 as it passed by.
Both a happy and a sad memory now, as Columbia and Challenger were the two Space Shuttles that were involved in the fatal accidents.
Petter/Mentour,
Thank you for this! Big 747 fan here. My late wife and I toured the Everett WA Boeing plant in 1992 which was an incredible experience. Interestingly I've just finished reading Clive Irving's _Wide Body: The Triumph of the 747_ (written in 1992) a detailed history of the development of the 747 (and much Boeing history as well) which I would recommend to any aviation enthusiast.
Paul (in MA USA)
I remember one afternoon in New York when this combo circled the city a few times. It was truly AMAZING and MAGNIFICENT to see. Millions of people standing on sidewalks looking to the sky with rather stunned looks on their faces.
I can still remember being very excited when I went to an airshow at Edwards Airforce base around 2005 and noticed the NASA space shuttle 747 parked there (it was the converted American airlines airplane), with stairs on both sides of it towards the rear allowing people to walk through it, I can remember it being a very long line, but it was definitely worth the wait.
I was surprised to see that it looked very much like the upper deck of a 747 cargo plane inside with a lot of empty space inside.
A few years later I was able to see the space shuttle Discovery in the loading rack at the NASA facility at Edwards AFB where they were giving tours to see it.
Then when they flew the space shuttle Endeavour for the last time, I can remember watching it on the news and it eventually flew over my house as they were flying it to Los Angeles to go into the museum, it was definitely an amazing and beautiful sight to see, eventually in 2018 I went to the Science museum in Los Angeles to see Endeavor it was amazing to be able to finally have the chance to see it up close🙂
I enjoyed this video very much, it is very interesting👍🙂
I Always loved these kinds of 747, The QUEEN OF THE SKIE aircraft can fly with these heavy machines
Also worth mentioning the Stargazer, which is a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar used to launch Pegasus rockets. The last Pegasus XL launch was in 2021 and it is still active, although it become quite expensive so it is not clear if there will be more launches in the future.
I miss your dogs! 🐕🐶
I have had the honor of witnessing this several times when I was in the US Air Force. The first time was during BMT on December 14, 1983, we did the “obstacle course,” which for myself, I really enjoyed.
While marching back to the dorm, we started hearing jet engines, and we all looked up, and the flight was halted. I've researched it and discovered that it was the Space Shuttle Columbia being ferried by the special 747 coming in to land at Kelly Field. We watched it until it was out of sight and then continued marching.
I would later serve at Davis-Monthan AFB, which was one of the bases that the shuttles stopped at when being ferried. The Challenger landed on August 10, 1985, and November 10, 1985.
The Columbia landed on January 22, 1986. Six days later, on January 28, 1986, the Challenger exploded. No more shuttles were launched until after the end of my enlistment. Then Columbia was destroyed on February 1, 2003, such terrible disasters for our country with significant loss of life.
Those are the only two shuttles that I ever saw in person.
----------------------------------------------
“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.”
President Ronald Reagan
I've been inside the 747-100SR from Japan Airlines. The aircraft was originally used as a commuter craft, only flying domestic island-hopping routes. The orbiter support structures on the inside were impressive; also impressive is just how big the inside looks when stripped out. Fun Fact: In the stairwell up to the cockpit, they never removed the original Japan Airlines wallpaper.
I remember as a kid the NASA 747 with the Orbiter visited my local airport - London Stansted. We could walk right up to it. This would’ve been the mid 80’s I think. The next time I saw it by surprise was arriving into NY JFK in 2012. I couldn’t believe my luck!
You saw Enterprise which was used for the approach and landing tests. After the approach and landing tests it toured Europe and then it was at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. for several years and then in 2012 it was moved to the Intrepid Museum in New York City where it now resides. It arrived at JFK airport and then was transferred by barge to the Intrepid Museum. Believe it or not during the trip the barge hit some pilings and did some minor damage to Enterprise. Do you remember where you saw it?
@@StevePemberton2 Hi Steve, yes I remember it was the prototype. It did a low pass prior to landing - I’ll never forget. The whole area around Stansted was gridlocked with parked cars viewing it. In NY, I recall seeing it in an open arch-shaped hanger whilst taxing in. I’m pretty sure it was JFK, but possibly Newark. Did so many trips to NYC in the 2010’s and memory’s fading! Stansted’s now the London airport for visiting AF1. Seen her fly over with Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump over the years! We also get plenty of FedEx MD-11s and 747 freighters at Stansted so still lucky! Even saw an Arab 747SP recently.
I was fortunate enough to watch the final tour in person and got video of it. It was so cool.
Growing up new Edwards AFB and the Rockwell/Rocketdyne assembly center at Plant 42 in Palmdale, CA, I had the unique experience of seeing the 747-SCA and Orbiter combination mated/demated, take off, and fly. My dad understood this significance. I missed some school but can happily say that I went to more Orbiter landings and other activities than all of my days at Disneyland combined. I wish everyone had these unique opportunities to experience pieces of technological history.
I would've loved to have seen them fly as well, or, even see an Orbiter (thanks for making the distinction between Shuttle/Orbiter, i wasn't aware of that) at all in a museum or something.
I want to see many crafts still, like the, F-4 Phantom II, ME 164 Komet, F-117 Nighthawk, SR-71 Blackbird, B-2 Spirit (and the new B-21 Raider), Bell AH-1 SuperCobra, Mil Mi-24 Hind, and a full size replica of the Hindenburg because i just love Zeppelins.
If you ever visit New York, go to the USS Intrepid museum. Lots of cool planes, AND NASA's Enterprise, the one used in the air drop tests, is there too!
@Games_and_Music I highly suggest the museum of flight in Seattle at Boeing field. They have an SR-71 variant the M-21, one of only 2 made. And a mock up of the sr-71 cockpit you can sit in. I love this museum and recently had a chance to go back after first being there 25 years ago. As well as an orbiter full fuselage trainer from NASA. It’s a full size mock-up of the orbiter without wings that was used for training by NASA. As well as a Concorde and so many great aircraft. I spent over 4 hours there last time and could have spent longer.
Excellent as always. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you
That's what she said
As a kid, I saw this aircraft with the shuttle Enterprise on it in 1979 when it landed in Denver’s old Stapleton international airport! It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life to this day! It was so cool! I was just as in awe of the chase jet!
There will NEVER be a more stunning livery than the polished aluminium livery of AA 👌🏾😍😍😍😍
Yes especially on the 747. Eastern Airlines had that look too for a short time. I have heard the main reason airlines don't use it anymore is because of corrosion issues.
@@shrimpflea Agreed 747 type was the best. Corrosive issues, really 😲 that's a shame. I'm just glad there are still 74s in the skies at the moment, whatever the livery I'm making the most of them whilst we still can 😍👌🏾
I had just entered the US Air Force in 1983 and was in training to become a Security Policeman in San Antonio, Texas, when we were sent to neighboring Kelly AFB to assist in crowd control when the orbiter carrier touched down for refueling one afternoon. The shuttles had only been flying for two years at that point and it was rather novel. Huge crowds came out to see it.
John Kiker, a NASA engineer and model airplane flyer came up with the idea. NASA was not convinced, so he built a large R/C model of the 747 and shuttle. After flying it, they bought into the concept. John was a brilliant, yet quiet and very humble mn and was luck to work with him and to call him a friend.
Very interesting. I remember a family holiday when I was 10 or so that we took to Texas, and I have fond memories of visiting the Houston control centre's museum. It included a very simple flight simulator (think Windows Flight Simulator, not actual pilot flight sim setups) showing just how hard it was to land the space shuttle. We all gave it a try, and we all crashed and burned. I hit the runway, just not in the way a pilot wants to hit a runway. My brother did the best: he crashed it into a swampy area which the simulator said was survivable for the crew but not the vehicle. I think he did a second attempt and actually landed it, but I don't remember. It was definitely more like flying a brick, though - very unresponsive, very prone to overcorrecting when you did manage to get it to respond (though that is true of pretty much everything that flies in the hands of someone with no experience.
So yeah, even if you could mount jet engines to the wings of the Orbiter somehow, you definitely would be better off mounting it on an actual aircraft that has decent maneuvering capacity.
The early concepts for the Shuttle often imagined that it would have pop-up jet engines for maneuvering in the atmosphere, but I think that was one of the first things to go, because the engines and the tankage and jet fuel for them are just so much parasitic weight that you have to carry into orbit and back, useless except in that final stage of the flight and perhaps for non-spaceflight operations. Some of the Soviet Buran prototypes had jet engines, but the one that made an uncrewed flight in space did not.
Thanks Petter. I am so glad I flew the Queen, my favourite aeroplane of all time! I ended my career on the 737 NG, but it is like a twitchy sports car and much harder to fly compared to the limousine (the 747-400)l which I will love forever.
Did you know our proud Aussie Qantas overhauled NASA’s 747 engines as our engineering workshop had such a great reputation, and NASA couldn’t risk engine failures. I visited that engine shop when one of NASA’s engines was being rebuilt!
Love that old Action Line two-tone Chevy truck towing the AA 747!
I saw it fly low in front of the Mississippi Coast beach, probably a couple thousand feet or less for the gathered crowd. Then I drove over to Mobile Alabama to look at it lit up bright at night at the Coast Guard Air Station where Airbus has a facility now
That higher angle of attack for the orbiter on top of the 747 probably also meant that the 747 could take off easier as it's load was actually generating lift.
Personally I prefer the AN option for shuttle transportation services. However that B747 is a thing of beauty. Great content, cheers mate!
I was at south side of Manchester Airport UK when the 747/Shuttle overflew. It was amazing and should have a minimum height of 1000 feet but it was much lower and it was really hard to fit the two aircraft in the camera frame. There was a mixture of silence and awe from some while cheering from others. So glad I was there.
Great video! The Space Shuttle and Boeing 747 will live on as 2 great examples of incredible human engineering for our time.
We in IAD Washington Dulless were honored to have Discovery land at our statuon and one of our sups from United Cargo got to be the one to photograph it while stationed prior to being delivered to Udvar Hazey Air and Space Museum. We got to see jot only from the observation deck but got to drive up to it and see firat hand something that was in space. Amazing what humans have been able to ceate.
Enterprise was actually supposed to be refitted to fly but being of the heavier design like Columbia they decided to build the lighter design of the latter shuttles.
I was working at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in the San Francisco Bay Area when the shuttle on the 747 did the final fly-by on its way to its resting place in Southern California. Hundreds of scientists, engineers and support staff went outside to view it as it went by, complete with chase planes. It wasn't the easiest thing to photograph, but I got some nice photos as it looped around the area from our vantage point on the hill the laboratory is on overlooking Berkeley. Thanks for this video and triggering those good memories. :)
I was fortunate enough to see Columbia atop it's 747 transport fly into Barksdale AFB in Louisiana to refuel after STS-3 in 1982. It had landed at White Sands that mission. I was 10 at the time and it was such a big deal to me. My parents drove us 3 hours to see it, and the base was open so the public could watch it come in and taxi up. It was quite the sight. I wish now that I would have taken my kids to Florida to see a launch.
Our whole family drove to Fl from Ohio back in the day just to see a launch. The oldest was 8 at the time, the youngest 4 and I was the most excited. The rumble of those engines is something to behold! We were plopped on a beach across from the launch site (you could barely see the orbiter...but once it was lit WOW!!!)
I saw the first drop test and landing in 1977. In school, there were TVs set up in several rooms and class effectively stopped while we watched live during the interesting parts.
Interestingly, it was a tour of the Houston facility that I learned that the prototype was being named Enterprise. I was in the press/observer gallery of the control room. They also passed around samples of the tile material for us to examine.
I was able to watch Discovery get delivered to Dulles airport in 2012. I remember telling my work "The Space Shuttle is getting delivered to the museum tomorrow, I'll be late" or something kind of crazy like that. After that, I checked the wind to see if they would be landing from the north or south, found a parking lot straight south, and went. While waiting, and chatting with those next to me, we saw something on the horizon and everyone went 'is that it?'' at once, then a 'oh yeah, that's it' as the 747 passed over a cheap sandwich shop. Cameras came out, it was such a wild experience to see the shuttle pass over on a 747 with the T-38 flying next to it.
I was lucky to see one of these up really close sometime around 83 when it stopped over at RAF Fairford on the way to show the Orbiter at the Paris air show. I was so close that the tip of the 747s wing actually passed over my head. Left a lasting impression on a 13 year old me.
I saw the last tour of the Space Shuttle on top of the 747 in Long Beach, CA. My company was based in downtown Long Beach and we all walked down to the end of Pine Ave. to watch the flyover. It was awesome!
The 747 carrying Discovery made an unscheduled stop at Carswell, AFB in Fort Worth, Texas once due to high winds. It is a huge assembly and dwarfed all of our B-52s and KC-135s. A sight to behold. It stayed overnight and they let the public drive by it the next day.
As a school kid in the mid 1980's, I was lucky enough to see the test orbiter, Enterprise flying low, mounted on one of these modded 747s while it was visiting Scotland. So cool to see! I now live in Los Angeles and have been to see The Endeavour multiple times now. We 80's kids love the Space Shuttle!
Some people say, the shuttle had worse glide characteristic on itself compared to a shuttle packed for shipping in a container ;)
Hahaha!
I actually DID see the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft overflying LAX in a VERY happy coincidence while driving up to UCLA to help my son move in! The sight of the SCA with the shuttle on top was so massive that I initially mistook the F-18 chase plane for a much smaller F-5.
Another awesome video 😍 I really enjoyed it! Thank you so much 🙏
Interesting to listen to your description and watch the video. It took me back 45 years to the drop tests excitement and years later seeing the dramatic low altitude flyby just off the beach. It was a stunning sight.
I always fast forward over al of the advertisements and use an ad-blocker to block the rest, as you should do. Without ads, this isn't a bad video at all!!
My parents lived at a golf resort in the Mojave desert. I was playing golf one morning with my dad when the orbiter and 747 left from Edwards. It took a LONG time to gain altitude, so it was pretty low when it came by us. Got an outstanding view.
For those who weren't sure, that disected diagram of the shuttle and 747 at around 2:40 is the current assembly and fit out of the grounded orbiter and 747 at Huston Space Center museum.
And you get to walk inside of it which is pretty cool. At least they got the SCA they wanted an orbiter but didn't get one.
@@StevePemberton2 Yep I've been in it! So cool!
A decade ago in 2012, when Space Shuttle Endeavour was on its final fly-by around Los Angeles, it flew above my school near the end of our lunch hour. I knew it going to land at LAX, but we were 2 miles out of the airspace used for landing, so I thought I will never be able to see it for myself in the sky. It was a huge treat! It flew by going eastbound and the 747 turned left, almost doing a 'u' turn, and started heading west towards the airport so we got an even better look. I still remember other fellow 12-13 year olds seeing and saying "Is that another plane on top of a plane!?" and "Look it says NASA!"
Anyways loved this video! I always wonder why they used a 747 and never saw the history behind it, thanks!
Had the pleasure of seeing this in the 80s at Stansted Airport.
I hope you'll do a one and two-year followup on the Russian airline industry. I really enjoyed your analysis following the invasion and seizure of leased aircraft.
Former Boeing Everett.... we are proud of our special 747's including 2 Shuttle Carriers, 2 Presidential Movers, and other special purposed aircraft. Imagine walking into biggest factory in the world and seeing the majestic 747 with "United States of America" painted on it's sides. Or, seeing "NASA" painted on it's sides.
Never a dull day at Boeing Everett. Might see 747's with a laser weapons or even telescopes. Pretty sure the Government kept our innovators at Boeing Phantom Works busy. Our Phantom Works is same as Lockheed's Skunk Works. Crazy ideas came to fruition and into production.
One thing that had a big influence on the shape of the shuttle was the military wanted it to be able to fly a specific mission profile which would require it to make a bigger turn in the atmosphere than the designs NASA wanted:
ruclips.net/video/_q2i0eu35aY/видео.html
By this point NASA should have realized that the Shuttle had grown beyond being practical or safe as a crewed vehicle, and instead made it an autonomous satellite launcher/retriever and spacelab. For crewed missions the payload bay would carry a Spacelab type of module that an Apollo capsule with three crewmembers would dock to, later using a reusable four person capsule launched on an existing expendable rocket. From inside the Spacelab crews could perform all of the tasks that were done on Shuttle missions including science and Hubble servicing including EVA's, although only small satellites could be launched on crewed missions. For space station assembly missions the autonomous Shuttle would carry large modules and hardware and dock with the station. Space station crew members could then operate the Shuttle robotic arm in addition to the station robotic arm to attach the new module.
Whether a 3B mission could have been done autonomously is a question, but as long as the DOD believed it could be that's all that would have mattered at the moment as far as getting their buy-in on the Shuttle program.
It's amazing that they even thought that might be possible--not only did the Shuttle never do it, it never even came *close* to doing it, yet it was this huge influence on the design.
Hi Scott hi Scott, huge fan. I was surprised to see you here until I remembered the content of the video and had a chuckle. While I'm here I was wondering if you could make a video about hobby simulators people make of spacecraft and "fly" using those simulators.
Saw Colombia on the 747 at Bergstrom A.F.B Austin TX after one of its first flights, it was diverted from San Antiono due to weather. very impressive.
I can imagine! That would have been so cool to see.
I was lucky enough to see the Orbiter piggy-backing as it flew over Glasgow, Scotland. My dog had done a disappearing act and turned up in Cardonald Cat & Dog Home. I had just retrieved him and we were heading back home when a weird looking plane caught my eye. One of those times I've ended up kicking myself for not having a camera with me.
The airport I learned to fly at KLNK in Lincoln, Nebraska was one of the alternate landing airports. Although it never got utilized for this purpose. The extra long runway made great practice for low approaches!
I've been to NASA here in Houston about 10 times and I remember going see the shuttle at the airforce base close to it
Me and a fellow aviation photographer made a day trip to LAX from Phoenix to catch Endevour. I almost couldn't make it but my friend insisted, I'm so glad he did!
That geeky grin when you pointed out the HAL.... loved it!
You should have mentioned as well the Stargazer Lockheed L-1011 TriStar HD Mother Ship Launch Pad for the Pegasus Launch Vehicle ...
I pride myself in thinking I know quite a bit about the shuttle, but I had no idea the programming language was HAL, lol. That is nuts! Thanks for that info!
Sad to see the decision to end the shuttle. I think it was a poor decision. And seeing the 747 come to an end is really sad for me. My first flight on her was at 4 months old, in 1966, and even with many since then I sure hope to have one more before the Queen retires. ❤ Great video Captain!
Sorry, but your family legend from 1966 cannot be correct about the flight being on a 747. The 747 had its first test flight in 1969, and its first commercial flight (on Pan Am) in 1970. I remember listening to that first commercial flight live on the radio, or maybe it was a press flight prior to the commercial flight. Somehow, they had a reporter talking live from the airplane, long before the days of airplane phones. Probably there was special permission to use one of the extra aircraft radios, I'm not sure.
We lost two of the orbiters catastrophically and statistically the next one was coming soon. Without building a new shuttle, there was no way to keep those airframes flying without losing more.
@@JoshuaTootell They lost the shuttles due to operational negligence. The lack of real maintenance inspections and perceptions of the public pushed an unsafe program.
The problem with the shuttles was cost. It's really too bad. Would love to see a fleet of 2 or 3 for working on stuff rockets can't. Hubble needs upgrades and repairs! Expand the ISS, etc.
@@christopherhunt147 They actually spent an enormous amount of time doing maintenance and carefully making each Shuttle flight as safe as possible. The problem on both Challenger and Columbia was that they had a problem with the design which needed to be fixed, but they would have had to stop the program for a year or longer to make the changes. The opinion at the time was that the Shuttles had been working fine and that it was okay to continue flying them while they work on the problem. The same thing happens in aviation. Usually it works out okay but not always. I am not making excuses for the Challenger or Columbia accidents, I am saying this does not mean that overall there was carelessness with the program, even though pockets of lapse of attention did exist, which is somewhat understandable as the Shuttles were extremely complex. But they definitely were much safer towards the end of the program, but still had quite a bit of risk.
@Steve Pemberton the challenger problem was a public perception problem. Many people tried to stop the launch. The managers wanted it launched after too many scrubbed launches. It's really too bad no one got charges brought against them. Needless loss of life and valuable hardware.
Again Columbia was a failure in culture. They knew they had issues and figured it wasn't a big deal as nothing ever became of the problem until it did. Again no one paid the price but the astronauts.
I do agree about the redesign of the fuel tank though. Especially since they knew about the problem pretty much from the first launch of Columbia.
It is my sincere hope that the 747 will live forever
Awesome video, thanks!
PS, The 747 will always be my favorite aircraft.
I was out in California in 2018 and paid a visit to Blackbird Air Park to see the SR-71and the 747 shuttle carrier was there....awesome!!!!!