Need A Lift
by Touch n Go
Title
Need A Lift
Artist
Touch n Go
Medium
Photograph - Color Photograph
Description
Not many aircraft can say that they've been used to carry another aircraft, and far fewer can ever claim to have done so with their counterpart on their back. And when you think of a plane carrying another one a la piggyback style, chances are you're going to think of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
The SCA's were a pair of highly modified Boeing 747's whose sole job was to ferry NASA's fleet of Space Shuttle orbiters wherever they needed to go (short of to-orbit). Traditionally, this need was at the end of a mission where the orbiter landed somewhere other than the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC, but there were other reasons this need may have arisen. Each orbiter made at least one trip atop the SCA after they were constructed at Palmdale CA and most of them occasionally made an odd trip there for periodic overhauls. But perhaps most famously, the SCA ability to lift over 80 tons worth of orbiter was instrumental in helping NASA determine the Space Shuttle's ability to glide to a landing, taking Enterprise up to altitude, then releasing her for five test flights over Edwards AFB.
In 35 years of service, NASA's two SCA's ferried all of the orbiters a combined total of at least several hundred times (at least once as far as France), all without incident. This particular image is that of the first, N905NA, carrying Endeavour over Los Angeles International Airport. The orbiter's name has intentionally been blanked out, allowing "Need A Lift?" to commemorate the massive wide body aircraft that faithfully transported the entire shuttle fleet throughout it's career.
Uploaded
October 25th, 2016
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