Ainda ontem escrevi sobre a viagem que o vaivém Discovery fez até Washington DC, aqui.
Agora vejam esta fotografia espectacular, tirada por um anónimo, do avião a transportar o vaivém, a uma altura bastante baixa, sobre as ruas da capital americana.
Obviamente, os carros pararam todos e as pessoas saíram para saúdar o “herói”. Até os bombeiros pararam e colocaram-se em cima do seu camião para verem o avião mais de perto.
Sem dúvida, um momento único!
3 comentários
Excelente alinhamento eheh
É triste dizer adeus aos shuttles. Nasci praticamente com eles (sou de 81) e sempre cresci a acompanhar as missões, mesmo nos momentos em que o interesse do publico era menor.
E jamais pensei em ve-los desaparecer sem um “substituto” dentro do mesmo sistema, mas
enfim, vamos aguardar pelo próximo capítulo, onde o sector privado está a ter já um grande papel.
Um Boeing 747 – 400, o Discovery e um caça F-16 Lockeed Martin a fazer escolta, em voa baixo. a fotografia não podia ser mais perfeita. Adeus Velho Amigo Descansa em Paz.
A fotografia é muito bonita e ilustra bem como o programa do Shuttle ao fim de 30 anos, já estava profundamente enraizado na sociedade, o que explicará ter perdurado por tanto tempo, mesmo com custos tão elevados e sem nunca ter tido viabilidade económica.
E a fotografia é também talvez um símbolo desse sonho de se ir para o espaço como quem apanha um voo de avião a jacto… (Overall, the Space Shuttle Orbiter was roughly the same size as a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 airliner)
Um sonho adiado durante três décadas, pois o Shuttle embora tenha levado um “grande número” de astronautas – mais de 134 – (justamente) foi algo que nunca foi fabricado em série. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Space_Shuttle_crews
Para comparação:
Just under 800 million passengers were carried by air in 2010 in the EU-27. The United Kingdom reported the highest number of air passengers in 2010, with almost 193 million or 3.1 passengers per inhabitant (which was approximately double the EU-27 average)
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Passenger_transport_statistics#Air_passengers
Por isso, para mim, os carros nesta bela fotografia são muito importantes. Poderão servir para ilustrar o conceito de economia de escala… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_scale
Aliás, o “chase plane” da NASA que se vê na foto é um T-38 da Northrop.
ver: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_T-38_Talon
Em Português: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-38_Talon
a) Foram construídos 1187 aviões T-38 entre 1961 e 1972.
It was the world’s first supersonic trainer and is also the most produced. The T-38 remains in service as of 2012 in air forces throughout the world.
b) Foram construídos 1428 aviões Boeing 747 desde 1969.
Ver: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Carrier_Aircraft (existem 2)
c) Froram construídos apenas cinco “Space Shuttles”.
d) Quanto ao número total de carros construidos até hoje… só em 2008 foram construídos setenta milhões de carros a nível mundial.
1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_motor_vehicle_production
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car#Industry
E uma curiosidade:
University of Texas Shuttle System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Metropolitan_Transportation_Authority
A Capital Metro bus painted in University of Texas at Austin colors.The University of Texas’ shuttle system, operated by Capital Metro, is the largest university transit system in the United States.
The UT Shuttle System boasts 14 routes, 87 buses and carries approximately 7.5 million passengers a year.
Voltando ao T-38…
NASA operates a fleet of 32 T-38 aircraft and uses the aircraft as a jet trainer for its astronauts, as well as a chase plane.
Its fleet is housed primarily at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas. NASA’s internal projections show the number of operational jet trainers falling to 16 by 2015. The agency spends between $25 million and $30 million annually to fly and maintain the T-38s.
Accidents
NASA’s T-38s were involved in four separate fatal accidents in the 1960s and 1970s, and several non-fatal incidents.
1964 Oct 31: Astronaut Theodore Freeman was killed as a result of a bird strike.
1966 February 28: Astronauts Elliott See and Charles Bassett struck a building in fog, resulting in fatalities.
1967 October 5: Astronaut Clifton “C.C.” Williams was killed in a crash due to an aileron jam.
1972 Jan 20: NASA pilot Stewart M. Present and NASA pilot Mark C. Heath were killed when they crashed during an instrument approach in fog.
E já agora, também podemos rever o que é um “chase plane”…
(Re)ver: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_plane
A chase plane is an aircraft that “chases” another aircraft, a spacecraft or a rocket during flight. Safety can be one function of a chase plane; others are to photograph or video the target vehicle, or to collect engineering data from it.
Chase planes may be used during test flights, and for many years the best way to ensure the safety of an experimental aircraft was to fly alongside it and observe the flight.
This second airplane’s crew would keep a constant lookout for problems with the test aircraft, and if problems did arise they would provide warnings and critical information to the test aircraft’s crew and to the mission controllers on the ground.
They would also monitor the surrounding airspace for other aircraft that could pose a hazard to the flight, either by straying into their flightpath or threatening any kind of secrecy associated with that particular project.
Since the early days of USAF testing, the chase aircraft have been manned by test pilots just like the experimental planes they accompany, providing a common language and bond between test pilot and observer.
The experienced pilots in the chase aircraft could guide distressed test aircraft down to safe landings should experiments go wrong.