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Author
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Topic: Photo of the week 501 (May 31, 2014)
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heng44
Member Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 05-30-2014 02:58 PM
   
 Astronaut candidate Kathryn D. Sullivan set an unofficial sustained American aviation altitude record for women on July 1, 1979, in a NASA WB-57F reconnaissance aircraft. The record altitude of 63,300 feet was reached during a four-hour flight. Sullivan, in a high altitude pressure suit, operated color infrared cameras and multispectral scanning equipment as the WB-57F spent one and a half hours in the Big Bend area of West Texas. Piloting the aircraft was Jim Korkowski, one of the NASA Airborne Instrumentation Research Program Pilots. The flight was out of Ellington AFB near Houston. |
OV-105
Member Posts: 816
From: Ridgecrest, CA
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted 05-31-2014 01:23 AM
Looks almost like the same suit she would wear in a little over 10 years later on STS-31. |
gliderpilotuk
Member Posts: 3398
From: London, UK
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 05-31-2014 04:54 AM
Interestingly NASA put a third WB-57 into the air last year. It was rebuilt after 40 years on Celebrity Row at AMARG. The B-57 is a licence-built English Electric Canberra, manufactured and modified extensively by the Glenn L. Martin Company. The Canberra first flew in 1949! |
garymilgrom
Member Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 05-31-2014 08:32 AM
That nose cone looks almost as large as a Mercury capsule. Thanks Ed. |
onesmallstep
Member Posts: 1310
From: Staten Island, New York USA
Registered: Nov 2007
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posted 06-02-2014 11:58 AM
Nose looks like a Discoverer/Corona KH-4 recon satellite from the 60s. |
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