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These were taken this morning at the Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy location. The only clouds all day were (of course) when she arrived! The first pass was directly overhead. Then she did a tour of Washington, DC- She came back and did a photo pass, then set up for a beautiful landing. It was very impressive in person!













Hope you like them!

Joe

Edit: 3 more- A close crop of the overhead pass... the full shot of the earlier crop, and Discovery heading out over the trees...

You'd think they'd at least give it the dignity of a good cleaning. I suppose it'll get done when it finally reaches its parking spot but still, sad to see it's last flight had to be on the back of a 747.

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Real Life: Airman First Class (E-3) 140th AMXS; Buckley AFB, CO

Thanks for these fotos!

Would be interesting how this 747 behaves with such a heavy load on the back ...

Great photos Joe
Makes you wonder what will happen to these NASA 747 once the shuttles are delivered to their respective homes. If I recall, they have 2 in service. I would imagine they have quite a few hours on their airframes.

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"The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

FSXF-Psycho: The museum is not going to clean Discovery any further. They decided that since she flew 39 missions and spent about 365 days in space, leaving her weathered and used is the appropriate look. I tend to agree... They have a number of aircraft they left in used condition rather than restoring them to new. The shuttle Enterprise, however, (which never went to space) is pristine and shiny. That is being delivered to NYC on Monday the 23rd and will be making a low pass over Manhattan landmarks including the Statue of Liberty.

Guenseli: Apparently the 747 SCA handles like you'd expect with Space Shuttle on it's back. It changes the center of gravity, and adds a LOT of weight and drag (it is almost 200,000lbs), despite the inside being gutted of essentially everything a regular 747 would have. According to the SCA pilot (who I did not speak to), it is a lot heavier on the controls than a normal 747 (as you'd expect). He noted one of the tricky aspects is that they are not allowed to bank more than 20 degrees in turns or maneuvers, and naturally landings need a very long runway.

Joe

Edit- pilottj: Thanks! I believe they already retired the first one. These remaining flights are being flown by the other. I hope they have space at KSC for one of them, or maybe give one to Houston as a consolation prize for not getting a shuttle. Obviously they are a little big for most museums, but I hope they don't get scrapped!

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These pictures make me realize once again how friggin' huge the space shuttle really is! Without a point of reference it looks rather small, because the cockpit windows are so big. But seeing it strapped to the back of a 747 really puts the dimensions of the shuttle into perspective.




I would also imagine that all that discoloration on the fuselage is burned in for good from the tremendous heat during reentry. In that case "cleaning" would mean to replace the panels with brand new ones, which kinda reminds of the old joke: "Yes, this is George Washington's axe. The handle and the head were replaced a few times, though".

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Happy Landings
- Patrick

I'm glad you guys like them! Here are two of NASA'a T-38 jets which escorted Discovery on her final flight. They were also used as photo ships- the close range air to air photos taken of this flight (easy to find on Google) were taken from these two jets.





Joe

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