......today the NASA 747 with the shuttle pinned on top left Ft Worth for home and I was lucky to get a few files of it using the E-3 w/70-300ZD.

The flight path was approx 3-4 miles at maybe 5-7K ft elevation from my home. Shot RAW, processed through Bibble Pro and extreme cropping.
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boBBrennan

E-3 w/70-300ZD AP f/5.6 .0010sec ISO 100 300mm
http://bobbrennan.smugmug.com/photos...41_sYpZL-L.jpg

http://bobbrennan.smugmug.com/photos...34_SgV8W-L.jpg

http://bobbrennan.smugmug.com/photos...08_qAvT2-L.jpg

Hi Bob,

Must have been the sight to see!! A few years back, my wife and I had the pleasure of touring the Space Center in Florida. One of the most popular exhibits was the space shuttle. I was amazed as to how small it was.

Great catch! and your photos show just how big (or small) the shuttle actually is.

Thanks for sharing.

Zig

Hi Bob

Really like the 1st shot - that must be an awesome sight seeing the shuttle piggy backed on the 747. The Shuttle is something that I have always wanted to see and hopefully while its still operational. I think its go to have the same feeling as when Concorde was still flying - just awe inspiring.

Cheers

Harj

:? :O

That is a nice shot, Bob.

Harj - if you ever fly in to Dulles airport in Washington, DC, nearby there is one you can walk right up to. The Smithsonian Museum (founded courtesy of a Brit - thank you) had way too many historical aircraft to display in a normal building so they built the Udvar-Hazy Center at the edge of Dulles airport (of course - how else do you deliver a large aircraft to a museum). In that huge building they have a Shuttle - it was the test mule for checking the aerodynamics of the design so it never flew in space but otherwise it is a real shuttle. They also have an SR-71 Blackbird and a Concorde.

And Zig - it's funny how perceptions differ. The cargo bay will hold a full-size city bus (not a double-decker, Harj) and I was surprised at how large it is for an aircraft that can repeatedly take off and land from outer space.

Ted

tkurkowski wrote: Hi Ted,

I remember walking thru the shuttle and thinking to myself that I wanted a lot more metal between outerspace and me than what the shuttle has. At the time they had a shuttle on the launch pad being prepared to launch later in the week. It was strapped to the booster stage rockets. I gotta tell you it looked tiny compared to the saturn5 used to put a man on the moon.



Zig

I saw on the news last night that was in here!

I've only seen the shuttle in person once. Way back when that program first started there was a mission where they had to land in California. On their way transporting it back to Florida, they made a stop in Wichita Falls, Texas (where I grew up)at Shephard Air Force Base. I was playing golf at a local course when the plane flew low, directly overhead with the shuttle attached...I'll never forget that as it was the biggest lump of anything I've seen in the sky, at it wasn't that far up.

zig-123 wrote:
True, but as I recall the Saturn 5's payload (command module plus lunar module) was still smaller than the Shuttle's cargo bay. Even if not,I remember thinking that the Shuttle's volume capacity was pretty impressive (we're ignoring weight here) even though it is only delivering to a low-earth orbit. As I said, perceptions between people do differ (grin).

Ted

Edit: What I mean to say is that I was surprised at how large the Shuttle's cargo bay is, compared to what it took to launch the Saturn 5's payload, notwithstanding the huge differences between earth-orbit escape velocity, weight, etc.

Shuttling the shuttle on the 747 is exciting to see and today when it came into sight I actually just gazed at it for a few seconds B4 remembering the camera. I now wish I had gone over to JRB to see it closer.

I remember seeing (on my way to work in Los Angeles '60s) the North American building rolling out to expose the 'big' rocket of the time. Then laying the rocket to its side and stuffing it into the belly of a pregnant guppy. Quite a number of times I saw the guppy loafing away from SoCal.

Anyone who never saw a guppy fly missed seeing a miracle of flight. It was BIG, and flew low and slow carrying those rockets to Florida.

The guppy was a site, but seeing the building separate to get the rocket out was too.

Here is a page of guppy photos I found interesting, you may too http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Pho...ium/index.html
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boBBrennan

tkurkowski wrote: On that I totally agree. Walking through the building that housed the Saturn 5 in Florida, the Saturn 5 was resting on it's side It was the full length of a football field. Then you saw the space capsule at the tip it was so small that allI could think of was how brave (or foolhardy) these astronauts were to be sitting on top of, at the time, the worlds biggest bomb. The Space Shuttle could probably put 3 or 4 of the capsules in it'scargo bay.

Zig

pgmCoder wrote:
Hiya Bob, Nice capture, a real sight to behold. Interesting when everyone was talkin 'size' (and it does matter..:-)) I was thinking Guppy.

I'mmmmm Baaa aaack...!!!

Did I ever mention that the Guppy was the reason that I came to the US of A. One day when I'm not thread jacking I'll tell you how.

Just come home from a month or so of galavanting around Mexico, I'll sort our some shots soon.

Ken