NASA's "New" WB-57F Flies

[APG85]

First flight in 41 years after a total rebuild...

http://globalaviationresource.com/v2/20 ... 7na-flies/

[Kyleb]

Interesting that NASA needs a real-time secure satellite link (which I presume is the purpose of the bump on top) on their bird.

[CAPFlyer]

The upper hump can be used for multiple purposes, but as the WB-57s are frequently deployed all over the world and many of the instruments put out a lot of raw data, a high-quality, high-bandwidth satellite uplink is needed. Security (encryption) of the signal isn't necessarily the primary concern in these cases, it's the security of the quality in delivering all the data with very low loss rates at or near realtime to the receiving station(s) for processing and storage. They also use the WB-57's for testing of satellite instruments so sometimes that hump will contain whatever communications array will be used in the final satellite so that they can evaluate not only the instrumentation being tested but also that the communications systems work right as well.

[Chappie]

Thanks for the link! I've never seen that site before- it has now been bookmarked!


Chappie

[Dan K]

Anybody else catch that old/new bird's id?

So what would it take to convince NASA to have Chad paint "Ol' 927" on her hide?


(pic stolen from Chad's website with little thought of consequences)

[Fouga23]

Anybody else catch that old/new bird's id?

So what would it take to convince NASA to have Chad paint "Ol' 927" on her hide?

I like the way you think ^^

[Rajay]

Looks like it'd be a real bitch in a crosswind! If you try to land it in anything but a perfectly flat attitude, you'll be dragging a wingtip. Kinda looks like a wingtip or two were missing in some of those shots. Maybe they already had that problem....

Must be hard to stay current in such a rare aircraft - especially one that hasn't been flown in 41 years....

[CAPFlyer]

The wingtips were off for some of the pre-flight activities because Centennial Airport has taller than normal edge lighting to deal with snow in the winter. They had to replace the edge lighting on the big runway (17L/35R) with shorter models for the WB-57 to take flight. The wingtips being off ensured that there were no clearance issues.

As for currency, this is NASA's 3rd WB-57 so there are plenty of opportunities to keep current. Because the WB-57 is more versatile for NASA and its mission than the ER-2's, they get a lot more flying time and so there's usually not much of an issue getting flight time.

BTW, here's NASA's page on their WB-57 operations - http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/wb57/index.html

NASA927 isn't listed yet.

[Steve Nelson]

She certainly looks a darn sight better than when I saw her in 2004!

SN