Astro-Nut 👨🏽‍🚀

Now, we all agree on the 7 wonders of ancient civilization. Quite a few were done by our true first Engineers and I’m sure were called something different then that term. But they had the vision, the imagination and the gonads to go against what they said couldn’t be done.

1. The Colosseum, Rome, Italy, 2. The Great Wall of China, 3. The Taj Mahal, India, 4. Christ the Redeemer, Brazil, 5. The Pyramids, Egypt 6. Chichén Itzá, Mexico, 7. Petra, Jordan.

In my eyes one of the greatest Engineering marvels has to be the NASA 747 structurally altered to piggy-back the Space Shuttle Fleet return back to Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL. Graduating from college with an Aerospace Engineering degree, landing my first job working for NASA was a dream come true. I was a young Engineer working in the Structural/ Thermal protection System group with direct support of all the Space Shuttle Orbiter Fleet.

I can recall saying to myself; “They are really going to pay me to do this?” My love affair with anything outer space lended my desire to work for free if I had to, in order to be around these amazing Airfoil-Aircraft. During this time we were launching about 7 missions a year, which took place various mission time frames over a 6 year duration.

My team was present at every launch/landing and a special team that due to weather conditions or other mission issues traveled to California to wait on the landing of the Space Shuttle at Edwards Air Force Base. This team was designed to prepare the space shuttle after its mission, to be mounted on top of the reinforced 747. The joy of the dual sonic boom was always an indication that the Space Shuttle was close. I can remember a level of excitement coming over me, knowing that something that once was roaming in space was about to land back on earth. This blew my mind that this monstrosity was about to be mounted on a freaking plane!

Looking at the structural dynamics that went into reinforcing this structure in order to withstand the wind loads and Yaw-Forces placed on this craft are enough to make your head spin. As a young pup, I must say I looked up to the Senior Engineers as the Rock Stars that they were…..

NASA had to make modifications to both aircraft before they could piggyback the space shuttles. In a nutshell, those modifications were;

• Three struts with associated interior structural strengthening attached to the top of the fuselage (two aft, one forward) on which the orbiter is attached; 
• Two additional vertical stabilizers, one on each end of the standard horizontal stabilizer, to enhance directional stability; 
• Removal of all interior furnishings and equipment aft of the forward No. 1 doors; and 
• Instrumentation used by SCA flight crews and engineers to monitor orbiter electrical loads during the ferry flights and also during pre and post-ferry flight operations was added.

This return trip, was not simply flying the Space Shuttle back as the orbiters don’t have a propulsion system base to fly, but more like a giant Air-glider designed to float back to earth as re-entry takes place back into earths atmosphere.

To this day I marvel at this reinforced 747 that was gutted and reinforced with structural beams in order to handle the shear tangental forces that take place, in order to fly this massive aircraft.

Take into consideration that a fully assembled shuttle is 184 feet tall and weighs 4,500,000 pounds. The bay is 15 feet in diameter and 60 feet long; large enough to fit a school bus or 50,000 pounds of payload. The shuttle’s velocity on orbit is about 17,500 mph. THIS IS AN ENGINEERING MARVLE OF THE 8TH KIND AND SPEAKS TO THE ENGINEERING THINK TANK THAT DESIGNED THIS WONDER.

If flying a humongous plane wasn’t trying enough, adding a huge aircraft on top has to be a little crazy. I’m sure when the engineering team came forward with the plan, they were looked at, as pure LOCO.

But another nightmare would have been trying to transport this huge monstrosity on normal highways which was not feasible. So this challenged the Engineers to think outside the box and create the 8th Marvel of the World 🧠

Astro-Nut 👨🏽‍🚀