What is to happen to the STAs?

[willpittenger]

Will they be retired with the Shuttle? Or does NASA plan to reuse them in the Constellation program? I figure things like the Orion capsules will get tickets on a C-5 or C-17 -- and in bunches. Other components like the Ares V components will need barge rides. So where does that leave the specialist STAs?

 

[MeteorWayne]

What are STA's?
It's a good idea to decode acronyms the fist time they are used in a thread.

 

[Zipi]

Probably SCA not STA? Shuttle Carrier Aircraft comes to my mind after reading the first post.

 

[MeteorWayne]

That's why I asked.

 

[willpittenger]

Sorry. I was thinking Shuttle Transport Aircraft.

 

[newsartist]

Will they be retired with the Shuttle? Or does NASA plan to reuse them in the Constellation program?

In the real hard world of budgets, there is no guarantee that anything is solid fact.

What SHOULD happen can be guessed at:

The two SCA, (Shuttle Carrier Aircraft/747s,) will probably spend some time in ready storage and be used for other NASA research programs into heavy airplanes. (One participated in a wake turbulence study, as an example.)

The STA, (Shuttle Training Aircraft,) are still useful as NASA bizjets.

The T-38s, (which have been upgraded to better-than-new,) are vital to keep the crews of anything current in high performance flying, as well as letting them move around on a realistic, non-airline, schedule.

 

[willpittenger]

You know, that gets me wondering if anyone ever developed a supersonic trainer to replace the T-38. That was developed way back in the 50s and 60s. Wikipedia doesn't even bring that up.

 

[scottb50]

You know, that gets me wondering if anyone ever developed a supersonic trainer to replace the T-38. That was developed way back in the 50s and 60s. Wikipedia doesn't even bring that up.

Not really. There are a number of subsonic trainers, either available or in the works. I remember reading a T-38 could go from Denver to anywhere in the Continental U.S. non-stop, or it could fly supersonic, Mach 1.4 or so, for about 10 minutes.

 

[newsartist]

The rest of the world figured out, (rightly,) that a pilot graduating from a demanding subsonic trainer was just as safe to transition into his operational fighter as one who had a few supersonic flights in a T-38.

NASA's T-38Ns have recently gotten a lot of upgrades, including a modern glass cockpit and bigger intakes to improve hot, high altitude takeoff performance.

 

[scottb50]

The rest of the world figured out, (rightly,) that a pilot graduating from a demanding subsonic trainer was just as safe to transition into his operational fighter as one who had a few supersonic flights in a T-38.

NASA's T-38Ns have recently gotten a lot of upgrades, including a modern glass cockpit and bigger intakes to improve hot, high altitude takeoff performance.

Bigger intakes probably mean no more supersonic. I see the Boeing planes at Williams Gateway departing all the time, that's where they are getting the mods. Too bad they didn't do something simple like the Russians did and add a couple of doors to the intakes, open for takeoff and closed for highspeeds.