195 – Flying the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft

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Guests: Arthur C. “Ace” Beall     Host: Markus Voelter    Shownoter: Kolja Dummann

The tail numbers NASA 911 and NASA 905 were used for the two Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, converted Boeing 747s that carried the shuttle between the landing sites and the launch complex at Kennedy Space Center. Our guest in this episode is Ace Beall who flew the SCAs for several years. We talk about operations, modifications on the airplane, the flight characteristics with and without the shuttle as well as some anecdotes from Ace’s time on the SCA.

Once again, I forgot to mention those of my listeners who suggested questions. I’m doing it here instead: Robert Kunov, Pieter Johnson, Bert Daanje, Thomas Tröndlin, Rob Thomasson, Jürgen Starek, Mathias Menzer, David Liaromatis, Georg Holderied, @schnassn, @alphadash0, Davide Sivolella and Evan Stanbury.

Here are two videos (number 2, number 1) I want to specifically link to, because it covers the Shuttle approach and landing tests, which we mentioned in the show: