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NASA’s new WB-57F (high-altitude aircraft) flies for the first time in 41 years

globalaviationresource.com

11–20 of 38 posts

Re: NASA’s new WB-57F (high-altitude aircraft) flies for the first time in 41 years

#11
post #3

I got to see an English Electric Canberra flying at a Temora Air Museum flight day. Very impressive machine and it boggled my mind that it was originally introduced to service back in 1951. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8OwMQ3JXKU

Love it. I have only seen the static one at RAF Cosford, they are really nice looking planes. IIRC the one there is white and fitted out for reconnaissance.

Re: NASA’s new WB-57F (high-altitude aircraft) flies for the first time in 41 years

#12
post #11
post #3

I got to see an English Electric Canberra flying at a Temora Air Museum flight day. Very impressive machine and it boggled my mind that it was originally introduced to service back in 1951. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8OwMQ3JXKU

Love it. I have only seen the static one at RAF Cosford, they are really nice looking planes. IIRC the one there is white and fitted out for reconnaissance.

Presumably Anti-Flash White?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-flash_white

Re: NASA’s new WB-57F (high-altitude aircraft) flies for the first time in 41 years

#15
post #13
post #6

Such a cool looking plane. Great to see it has a new purpose in life.

As a child raised on Gerry Anderson's designs, this is how aircraft should look!

The inevitable link to a pic of a TSR2 - which is what the future really looked like in the 1960s:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Air/BAC-TSR-2/0979919/L/

Re: NASA’s new WB-57F (high-altitude aircraft) flies for the first time in 41 years

#16

I got the restoration but I didn't get what this plane is actually to be used for. Why do they need this plane? How will it help open up the first tourist hotels on Mars? Seems going backwards to space exploration.

Aeronautical research. The Aeronautics part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration isn't just a bygone relic. Their most visible projects are their space side, but they do a fuckton of research into making planes fly better/faster/safer. They do research on new control methods of planes, new geometries, how weather phenomena affect planes, etc.

Re: NASA’s new WB-57F (high-altitude aircraft) flies for the first time in 41 years

#18
post #14

Is it my browser or is this website disabling right clicks? Javascript needs to die...

Not just you, it's doing it for me also.

Probably caused by:

    (function($) {
        $(document).bind('contextmenu dragstart', function(event) {
            var target = event.target || event.srcElement;
            target = $(target);
            if (target.data('ngg-protect') || target.parent('a').data('ngg-protect') || target.attr('id') == 'fancybox-img' || target.attr('id') == 'TB_Image' || target.attr('id') == 'shTopImg' || target.attr('id') == 'lightbox-image' || target.hasClass('highslide-image') || target.parents('.ngg-albumoverview').length == 1 || target.parents('.ngg-pro-album').length == 1 || photocrati_image_protection_global.enabled == '1') {
                event.preventDefault()
            }
        })
    }(jQuery));
It's extremely annoying when sites do this...

Re: NASA’s new WB-57F (high-altitude aircraft) flies for the first time in 41 years

#19
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Love it. I have only seen the static one at RAF Cosford, they are really nice looking planes. IIRC the one there is white and fitted out for reconnaissance.

Presumably Anti-Flash White? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-flash_white

Highly probably, since several Canberra squadrons were equipped with wither Mark-7 Thor (US) or Red Beard (UK) tactical nuclear devices.

Re: NASA’s new WB-57F (high-altitude aircraft) flies for the first time in 41 years

#20
post #17

Maybe I missed it but where is the necessity for using such an old airplane for doing what they're doing?

Companies do not build similar airplanes nowadays, as there is no tactical role for a high-altitude high-speed unarmed medium bomber. Yet NASA needs to do high-altitude high-speed research.
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