Any pilots out there?

[Al]

Try flying this top-heavy bastard!


http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070708.html

[Fyndina]

Shouldn't be all that hard, it's just like strapping a DC-9 to the back! Actualy, it might be more like flying a Stearman!

[Phuggs]

When I was in the Air Farce, I worked at Edwards where the shuttle was mainly landing (at that time). I had to brief the pilots of that pretty plane on the flight from EDW to FLA. Talking with the Nasa guys , that 747-400 is actually Very easy to fly. The wing surface has been modified to produce extra lift. When the shuttle is bolted on it actually provided MORE lift that without.
The biggest problem they would encounter is the cieling hieght of the flight , 12000 ft (at that time) and they could NOT go through ANY vbisible moisture at all on the flight. It took em 2 days to get from Calif to FLA , stopping overnight in Texas.

ps , looking above my PC on the wall is a framed board with patches from all the Shuttle missions I had worked on , 22 of them.

[Winnow]

ps , looking above my PC on the wall is a framed board with patches from all the Shuttle missions I had worked on , 22 of them.

I used to collect the Shuttle Mission patches. Fun times back in the early days of the Shuttle.

[Phuggs]

Wiinow , these were not collected , but earned/given. Tradition at EDW was all the Weather guys doing upper air support would get a patch from a crew member. You can tell the diff by the sewn ring around it. That and the velcro on the back. The ring will be white if it was sold to the public , silver if it was For the crew.
That board I have mounted also has a picture of the second F-22 in flight (since they crashed the very 1st one and had to destroy it). Also is a simple Titan IV motor firing downwards on a test stand.The story on that was tragic. 5 people dies in the first attempt to test the motor, Then luckily nobody died on the 2nd motor , but it did go like a fireworks factory. Its amazing how much fuel is used for a test that should last 30 secs , and blows up on sec 5.
Summarizing my jiberish ... I was at Edwards at the right time. Saw a bunch of stuff I shouldnt have , and a lot that I did. planes I dealt with ... B1 , B2 , C-17 , yF-22 , yF-23 ,Space Shuttle ,SR-71 , Too dang many more , but those where the highlights.

[Winnow]

I wasn't comparing my collection of mission patches to the ones you "earned". I was trying to hint that I was proud of our space program back then and full of hope.

The Mars Exploration Rovers give me that kind of feeling these days.

[Phuggs]

It will be neat to see all that coming in the future. We as a country have relaxed way to much on the exploration side of everything for way too long. Oh and I wasnt bragging , or least wasnt meaning to sound that way. I look up and dont see patches , I see many many many days of work for that Shittle (as we called it then). We would start our thing 3 days before launch and wouldnt stop until it left EDW. We would be on such a tight schedule for the final 36 hours of launch or landing that we wouldnt get sleep until that particle part was finished. Man did all those delays at 12hrs KILL us. at one point it was no real sleep (outside of 1hr catnaps for about 4 days straight. Then it was regular (if you can call it that) 5-8 hrs sleep till it was ready for landing.