posted 04-29-2011 04:36 AM               

Super Guppy:

KC-135 Vomit Comet:

My favorite, the Gulfstream GII:

posted 12-29-2016 05:30 PM               

Space shuttle solid rocket booster arrives for display at Arizona museum

Visitors to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona now only need to walk a short distance in order to get up close with a very large piece of space shuttle history.

In fact, they only need to go from the museum's parking lot to the walkway leading to the main entrance to encounter the 149-foot-long (45 meter) solid rocket booster that was delivered on Thursday (Dec. 29).

posted 06-07-2022 10:16 AM               

When I was a boy my family and I drove from our home in Palo Alto to Disneyland. Along the way we stopped to stretch our legs just outside an Air Force base. On the other side of a chainlink fence was parked a Super Guppy in NASA livery. I had never seen anything like it before. To my young eyes it looked impossible. I asked my dad if it was a real airplane, if it really flew.

posted 12-08-2022 03:16 PM               

NASA's Retired SOFIA Aircraft Finds New Home at Arizona Museum

NASA's now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) aircraft will find a permanent home in the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. The airplane is expected to make its final flight from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California, to Tucson on Tuesday, Dec. 13.

"The SOFIA mission has a powerful potential to inspire, from its discoveries about the unknown in our universe, to the engineering achievements that broke new ground, to the international cooperation that made it all possible," said Paul Hertz, senior advisor for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We are excited SOFIA will continue to engage a diverse new generation of scientists, engineers, and explorers."

The SOFIA aircraft is a Boeing 747SP jetliner modified to carry a reflecting telescope. Engineering innovations enabled a large door in the fuselage to remain open while the aircraft was in flight, allowing the telescope to observe infrared light from the Moon, planets, stars, star-forming regions, and nearby galaxies. After a successful eight years of science, SOFIA completed its science program and ended operations Sept. 29, 2022.

To determine a new home for the plane after the end of the mission, NASA followed regulations for the disposition of excess government equipment. Pima, one of the world's largest aerospace museums, is developing plans for when and how the SOFIA aircraft will eventually be on display to the public. Along with six hangars, 80 acres of outdoor display grounds, and more than 425 aircraft from around the world, Pima also has its own restoration facility where incoming aircraft like SOFIA are prepared for museum immortalization after their arrival.

At Pima, the plane will join other notable NASA aircraft, like the first Super Guppy that transported Saturn V rocket parts for the Apollo missions, and the KC-135 "Weightless Wonder V" that created low-gravity conditions by flying parabolic arcs – steep climbs and dives – to conduct science experiments and train astronauts. NASA plans to support the exhibition of the SOFIA aircraft with additional mission artifacts that speak to SOFIA's legacy.

SOFIA was a joint project of NASA and the German Space Agency at DLR. DLR provided the telescope, scheduled aircraft maintenance, and other support for the mission. NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley managed the SOFIA program, science, and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and the German SOFIA Institute at the University of Stuttgart. The aircraft was maintained and operated by NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California. SOFIA achieved full operational capability in 2014 and concluded its final science flight on Sept. 29, 2022.

posted 06-21-2024 11:04 AM               

It's always a pleasure to announce a new aircraft or exhibit on display but today's introduction is a whole new room!

The Aerospace Gallery has always been a family favorite with the STEM playroom and Moon rock, etc., but now in the back room there's a NASA scheme Northrop T-38 Talon trainer cockpit to climb aboard where a future pilot's imagination soars and photo ops take flight. There are artifacts from the SOFIA program making their debut that deserve a deeper look in time, as well as the Lockheed Martin X-33 model and the Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System.

Hope you enjoy all the new artifacts on space exploration!

posted 03-27-2025 03:15 PM               

NEW ARRIVAL! Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) conducted research flights from 1975 to 1995. It famously discovered the rings of Uranus and much more.

The platform for KAO was the only Lockheed L-300 ever built, essentially a C-141 Starlifter used to try to sell them in the civilian market.

The cockpit of KAO joins its successor in airborne infrared astronomy, the 747SP SOFIA, at the Pima Air & Space Museum. This historic artifact is going to need some TLC before we put in on display but it's an honor to expand the story of airborne astronomy told through our collection.