Hi, you have NASA905 listed as a T-38. However, N905NA is the original Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The second SCA is N911NA (NASA911), which is shown correctly.
Please advise if I am mistaken. Thanks for a fantastic site.
I posted a similar topic a couple of months ago in “Notable Activity” about NASA928. It’s one of the two WB-57Fs, but on a flight to Honduras, it was shown as a Global Express. I’m pretty sure that the flight was actually made by the WB, but the A/C type got entered wrong somewhere along the line.
WRT 905, I think that number has been reassigned to a T-38. SCA 905 is no longer active, IIRC. I will try to help you verify that.
Thanks for the follow-up. According to: oim.hq.nasa.gov/oia/amd/na.html, 905 and 911 are active. I have a friend at JSC; let me check.
I’m going to recant my previous post. I now believe that 905 is still assigned to SCA #1. The flight you saw on FA might have actually been 955 or 965, and just entered wrong somewhere along the line. It’s not 950 - that’s a GII.
Civilian Registered NASA Aircraft
As a good number of NASA T-38’s are based at Ellington, I’d just assume it was a misfiled flight number. N905NA has been photograped at Ellington on occasion so I suppose anything is possilbe, however as there was no other flight history - I’d say clearly a T-38.
So NASA is still flying the T-38 after USAF grounded them?
flightaware.com/live/airport/KEFD
Lots of them up flying, good point though!!!
There are a couple of points to consider, here. First, most USAF T-38 flights are flown by 2LTs with an O3/O4 IP. They are training missions in which the objective is to familiarize the student pilot with high-performance jet aircraft. In NASA’s case, the jets are being flown by pilots with thousands of hours in multiple types of aircraft. Most of the flights are either simply to get from one place to another, or proficiency flights.
USAF’s stand-down of the T-38 fleet is to look more about training mission profiles than any mechanical aspect of the jets.
What Philbert said, it’s the operator, not the aircraft.
OK I can see that. However, I haven’t seen any info regarding the cause of those crashes, whether it be student error or mechanical. That’s why I was wondering.
The investigation boards just formed last week and the flight suspension was lifted by the AETC this past Wednesday. That normally points to an early assumption of pilot error.
RRRRRogah…thanks for that.