Shopsmith Forums

This morning, we got to see a very close flyover of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, mounted on the back of a 747. We drove a couple of miles South and parked the car on Avenue "M", just at the north edge of what is called Plant 42.

The 747 did a loop over plant 42 - the place where all space shuttles were born - and flew down the main runway as if it was going to land. So we got a first hand view at a horizontal distance of 800 feet and an altitude of about 250 ft. What a sight!!!!

From our vantage, we spot spot the 747 and shuttle shortly after takeoff from Edwards AFB - distance of 15 miles. At that time it was not more than a white spot in the sky. Followed it through the clear skies and it made a B-line for plant 42 for it's first flyover.

Plant 42 is also the home of the Skunk Works!

The shuttle will eventually be displayed at the Los Angeles Science Center.

Wow, did you get a photo?

fredsheldon wrote:Wow, did you get a photo?

No, Sorry! Didn't even take a camera. Just enveloped ourselves in the moment!
Knew there would be hundreds of photos and videos available via computer. Here is a photo taken by A.P. that closely resembles what we saw.
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Great photo Chuck.

Is that one of those camouflaged unmanned drones in sinister black following low?

Before I retired they were shuttling the craft back to Florida, and did a drop in at Boeing because the 747 was having landing gear trouble. We got a real close look at it while it was here for about 5 hours. Of course we could not take any pictures, but at least we got to get close to it.

I got a phone call yesterday about it flying over Tucson. I was on my way to a good vantage point when it showed up 15 minutes earlier than expected. I just pulled way over off of the freeway and watched. No camera:(
While it was very exciting to see it was also kinda of sad. The final page in a chapter of our history. I just hope they can start a new chapter within my life time.

In 1978, our daughter was about 3 years old. For some reason, they decided to land at Hurlburt Field near Mary Esther, FL. We drove there, showed it to our daughter who no longer remembers it. But, we have slides of it sitting on the tarmac. The posted AP pic is very much what I remember from those days.

I was stationed at Eglin in the early 80's as a heavy equipment operator, one of the times it stopped for the night, I was on flightline sweeper duty and got very close. At the time it was VERY well guarded.