It would be very cool to land the Space Shuttle on an airplane. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> It would also be extremely dangerous. It's not even something hot-shot stunt pilots usually consider, and they fly very light airplanes. The Shuttle is over a hundred tons, and travelling very fast without any power. That gives it an extremely narrow operational envelope as it is; I think it would get very dicey even trying to fly in formation with a 747, much less dock with it midair, especially since 747s are notorious for their huge wakes. (There was a plane crash in New York not long after 9/11 that was basically caused by a 747's wake. And the downed plane was much easier to fly than the Shuttle.)<br /><br />Probably the best place to look for information would be the ALT program: Approach and Landing Tests. The non-spaceworthy orbiter Enterprise was carried aloft by a 747. It then separated at altitude and glided to a landing. You'd probably want to look into how they did this, and whether there were any difficulties while flying near the 747.<br /><br />In the end, though, I don't think there would be much point. The Shuttle has to get to the ground anyway in order to be serviced; what goes up must come down. It might as well do it on its own gear. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em> -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>