Guest WausauLotus Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 Some great pics of Discovery's last flight to DC. Now time to go into the Air & Space Museum http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/17/11245919-discovery-space-shuttle-circles-the-sky-over-washington-on-last-voyage?lite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bibs Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 Wow, lovely pics. I wonder how extensive the rigging to support the shuttle in that 747 must be! Quote 88 Esprit NA, 89 Esprit Turbo SE, Evora, Evora S, Evora IPS, Evora S IPS, Evora S IPS SR, Evora 400, Elise S1, Elise S1 111s, Evora GT410 Sport Evora NA For forum issues, please contact the Moderators. I will aim to respond to emails/PM's Mon-Fri 9-6 GMT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loose Cannon Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 Just, wow. I remember the same feeling when the the shuttle first rode piggyback on a 747, was so impressed I blew my holiday money on a Revell 1/77 model of it! So, is civilisation formally selecting reverse now? Quote In the garage no-one can hear you scream Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gold FFM mayevora Posted April 17, 2012 Gold FFM Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 Wow. That really is what you call excess baggage. I bet that 747 feels a bit different to the usual flight. Yep, progress in certain departments really has stalled. Quote Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk - that will teach us to keep mouth shut! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneshot Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 I guess that is one of Nasa's standard shuttle transporters - used in the early days to transport the shuttle from the normal landing at Edwards air force base back to Kennedy. I happened to be in Florida and saw the first landing of a shuttle back at Kennedy. if you do the extra tour at kennedy they now take you right up to the landing runway - pretty awesome up close. Quote Dave - 2000 Sport 350 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest allgoodpeter Posted April 19, 2012 Report Share Posted April 19, 2012 The shuttle Enterprise attached to a SCA (Shuttle Carrier Aircraft) made a goodwill trip to Europe in 1983 and flew right over my house in Birmingham, many years later I managed to see Discovery land at Canaveral - a non event except for the twin sonic booms as it came in but came down so fast you couldnt follow it. I then saw Entreprise up close at the Smithsonian in 2009 but despite several holidays to Florida I never saw one go up much to my disappointment. Enterprise is moving to New York and being replaced by Discovery at the Udvar-Hazy museum near Washington. Direct flights into Orlando from the UK come in and out over the space centre and you can see the runway all 15000 feet of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramjet Posted April 19, 2012 Report Share Posted April 19, 2012 So, is civilisation formally selecting reverse now? Yep, progress in certain departments really has stalled. That was my thoughts too. I wonder what now? Or are programs like this now a thing of a very recent past? Quote All we know is that when they stop making this, we will be properly, properly sad.Jeremy Clarkson on the Esprit. Opinions are like armpits. Everyone has them, some just stink more than others. For forum issues, please contact one of us Moderators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest allgoodpeter Posted April 19, 2012 Report Share Posted April 19, 2012 I exchanged several emails last year with an astronaut called Mike Mullane. He flew on 3 shuttles - his book Riding Rockets is an incredible account of the entire shuttle business as is his novel Red Sky which starts with a hair raising account of a return to launch site abort - thankfully never tried for real. His view is that they were badly flawed systems that were lucky to have not killed more astronauts. The shuttle programme was driven by a need to reduce cost by making the system reusable. In the end it was much more expensive to refurbish each time and the biggest flaw of all was to put humans on top of solid rockets which cannot be controlled once lit. NASAs own calculations prior to Challenger were for a non survivable incident in every 25 flights. Challenger was mission number 25. After Challenger the odds went down to a 1 in 67 flights likelihood of a disaster which hardly seems that much more reassuring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramjet Posted April 19, 2012 Report Share Posted April 19, 2012 One of the ex-pilots (or non ex-pilots) on here may wish to chip in and explain the winglets on the tailplanes? I'm presuming to counteract vortices from the shuttle perched on the top? Quote All we know is that when they stop making this, we will be properly, properly sad.Jeremy Clarkson on the Esprit. Opinions are like armpits. Everyone has them, some just stink more than others. For forum issues, please contact one of us Moderators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest allgoodpeter Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 Like being in the Mafia you are a Pilot for life! The wingtips on the horizontal stabiliser were introduced as the shuttle wake turbulence was affecting the stability of the 747 by masking the tailfin even with the big aerodynamic shroud in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molemot Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 Peter...thanks for that...I have "Riding Rockets" but didn't know about "Red Sky"...which I have now bought from the Great South American River Co. I read "Riding Rockets" in one go...Mike Mullane is the real thing, for sure, and his writing is too! Quote Scientists investigate that which already is; Engineers create that which has never been." - Albert Einstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest allgoodpeter Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 Red Sky was written a few years ago but you will find having read RR first that much of what you now know to be truths about NASA and the shuttle he used in the fiction. There is a female astronaut in RS that is clearly Judy Resnik who was killed on Challenger. Mike was very close to her and it shows. I sent an email to him after reading RR not expecting a reply and we actually exchanged several more - when I ordered RedSky from his site, he signed it for me as well. A jolly decent chap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red vtec Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 The shuttle Enterprise attached to a SCA (Shuttle Carrier Aircraft) made a goodwill trip to Europe in 1983 and flew right over my house in Birmingham, many years later I managed to see Discovery land at Canaveral - a non event except for the twin sonic booms as it came in but came down so fast you couldnt follow it. I then saw Entreprise up close at the Smithsonian in 2009 but despite several holidays to Florida I never saw one go up much to my disappointment. Enterprise is moving to New York and being replaced by Discovery at the Udvar-Hazy museum near Washington. Direct flights into Orlando from the UK come in and out over the space centre and you can see the runway all 15000 feet of it. It landed at stansted airport on the back of the 747 my parents took me and my brother to see it, got some pictures somewhere. Michael Rodd of Tomorrows World did the tannoy and it took about 5 hours to get out of the car park! Quote Amateurs built the Ark Professionals built the Titanic "I haven't ridden in cars pulled by cows before" "Bullocks, Mr.Belcher" "No, I haven't, honestly" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigeninja Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 Ha ha didnt take me that long I was on a bike zipped up the middle,Ive got some pics as well will find em and TRY to put them on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigeninja Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 Stanstead 83 bit faded now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gt111 Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 great photos Quote Kent monthly meet is the first Tuesday of the month at the Nevill Bull, Birling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ifly Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 If you want to see some of the internals that were added to the 747 structure look here. http://www.americaspace.org/?p=17354 Quote Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs Italian, the mechanics German, the lovers French and it is all organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the police are German, the chefs British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss and it is all organized by the Italians. You make something idiotproof, they'll make a better idiot You think professional is expensive, just wait until you pay for amateur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red vtec Posted April 26, 2012 Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 Ha ha didnt take me that long I was on a bike zipped up the middle,Ive got some pics as well will find em and TRY to put them on I was only 12 so would have been on my Mongoose! Quote Amateurs built the Ark Professionals built the Titanic "I haven't ridden in cars pulled by cows before" "Bullocks, Mr.Belcher" "No, I haven't, honestly" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigeninja Posted April 26, 2012 Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 I was only 12 so would have been on my Mongoose! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gt111 Posted April 27, 2012 Report Share Posted April 27, 2012 I would have been 9 and on a Grifter..... I hated that bike. Quote Kent monthly meet is the first Tuesday of the month at the Nevill Bull, Birling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moxie Posted April 27, 2012 Report Share Posted April 27, 2012 In an exhibition of subversive parenting skills, I took my son out of pre-K for an hour today and whisked him down to the World's Fair Marina, otherwise known as the park between the old Shea Stadium and LaGuardia Airport, where his head almost exploded when he saw this coming at us: Then I brought him back to school where he pretty much derailed the entire class by breathlessly ranting "747!!!...SPACE SHUTTLE!!!!...AND...AND...THERE WAS A...A...A T-38!!!...AND A 747 WITH THE SPACE SHUTTLE!!!" That's when we administered the sedatives. Quote 1983 "Investor's Special Edition" Turbo Esprit (#43/50) | 2012 Evora S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete Posted December 11, 2012 Report Share Posted December 11, 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20680253 Quote hindsight: the science that is never wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iconic Ride Posted December 12, 2012 Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 Eyes Only Termination Order B52NZ77 03:30Z 12 Dec 2012 Level: extreme prejudice Priority: immediate Target: P. Hutchin Authorization granted by Joint Cy-Ops chief of staff for Team Zebra to remove current threat to national security posed by subject's release of classified material. Elimination of target at earliest opportunity approved. cc: POTUS, NSA, JCS, NORAD, USAFE, and Interpol destroy upon reading Quote Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramjet Posted December 12, 2012 Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 Will someone please stop giving John red cordial?!?! Quote All we know is that when they stop making this, we will be properly, properly sad.Jeremy Clarkson on the Esprit. Opinions are like armpits. Everyone has them, some just stink more than others. For forum issues, please contact one of us Moderators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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