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 |
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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.
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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. |
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How things behave in free air are different than ground effect, you can't compare them directly.
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The Spokesman-Review - Google News Archive Search |
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The boattail was solely to reduce drag as the 747 had a very short range and had to make too many refueling stops between CA and FL when carrying the shuttle with the rocket nozzles exposed. That boattail shape is the shortest curve that will retain attached airflow and similar in shape to that found on the Questair Venture and on some helicopter bodies.
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Flying without the tail cone caused massive buffeting on the 747 as well as loss of rudder control hence the 2 extra vertical stabilizes on the 747.
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/in...9_20122264.jpg The space shuttle carrier and Enterprise flew several glide tests in the 70s without the tail cone. http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....nterprise1.jpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sCPzEZaA8I |
i should of woke up earlier to watch it leave...
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Enterprise
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I bet it did!
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