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DC-8 Airborne Laboratory in flight over Palmdale, CA DC-8 Airborne Laboratory in flight over Palmdale, CA

Photo Number: EC98-44428-005
Photo Date: February 20, 1998

Formats: 515x480 JPEG Image (89 KBytes)
1099x1024 JPEG Image (418 KBytes)
3000x2793 JPEG Image (4,048 KBytes)

Photo
Description:
The DC-8 Airborne Laboratory in a left banking turn above the airport at Palmdale, California. The right wing is silhouetted against the blue sky, while the left wing contrasts with the desert terrain. The former airliner is a "dash-72" model and has a range of 5,400 miles. The craft can stay airborne for 12 hours and has an operational speed range between 300 and 500 knots. The research flights are made at between 500 and 41,000 feet. The aircraft can carry up to 30,000 lbs of research/science payload equipment installed in 15 mission-definable spaces.

Project
Description:
NASA used a DC-8 aircraft as a flying science laboratory. The platform aircraft, was based at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., collected data for many experiments in support of scientific projects serving the world scientific community. Included in this community were NASA, federal, state, academic and foreign investigators. Data gathered by the DC-8 at flight altitude and by remote sensing has been used for scientific studies in archeology, ecology, geography, hydrology, meteorology, oceanography, volcanology, atmospheric chemistry, soil science and biology.

NASA Photo by: Carla Thomas

Keywords: DC-8; science platform; oceanography; meteorology; soil science; archeology; ecology; geography; hydrology; volcanology; atmospheric chemistry; and biology



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