Boat Tail over Nation's Capitol
 

Taxpayers in Washington D.C. got a final glimpse of a performing boat tail as NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery made a few overflights during its final flight atop its 747 carrier en route to Dulles Airport and Smithsonian Museum.
Perhaps Steven Chu was looking up and got a clue.Perhaps not.
PS 'the things that pass for knowledge I can't understand.' Becker & Fagen

Something like this happened in montreal in 1983. Enterprise, the prototype spaceshuttle fixed to a B-747, had a flight over montreal and its metropolitain region.

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/2499/shuttle.png

It takes a whole day to attach that tail cone on the shuttle... ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C55ukk9Fqq0

I saw it fly over work several times between 9:45 and 11:00. I work just at the northern edge of Dulles Airport. Cool sight to see... being an astronaut was every kids dream back when I was in elementary school.

A final tooting the horn as it were; honoring those who voted to spend the money that it took!

I'm not against the space programs, just thinking about people in power positions sometimes go overboard in patting themselves on the back, so to speak.

Interesting. I was a fan of the shuttle program and feel sad about its end. More casual than hard core so I missed the tail cones. I wonder if it was to (a) reduce drag for piggy backing, (b) protect the rockets, or (c) both. If (a) it seems steeper than ideal per template but top view would help complete the picture. It also occurs to me that two streamline bodies in close proximity might be something that NASA analyzed at some point so it seems naturally curious to ponder what they might've published that might be of interest to us in the ground effect game. Interesting indeed. Thanks, Phil.

How things behave in free air are different than ground effect, you can't compare them directly.

NASA have been on a European tour with the Shuttle - I've seen it fly overhead as a young kid, apparently in June 1983.

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In one way they are identical. That big bluff flat area is bad either way, unless you have a bazajillion pounds of thrust filling the void :P