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Uploaded: Monday, January 14, 2008, 1:08 PM
Huge observatory plane startles residents
World's largest 'airborne observatory' lands at Moffett Field about 12:30 p.m. today
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 | The world's largest airborne observatory plane, trailed by a fighter jet, startled residents and motorists in south Palo Alto and parts of Mountain View early this afternoon as it approached Moffett Field for a landing.
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne observatory briefly visited NASA Ames Research Center, where it will someday be based after flight tests are completed.
Ames families and media representatives were invited to tour the plane during its brief non-public visit.
One witness said the big "747-type" plane flew in extremely low over south Palo Alto with the jet behind it, and people were stopping to stare up at them.
SOFIA is currently undergoing flight tests at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
SOFIA features a 98.4-inch diameter infrared telescope mounted in a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft. Flying at 41,000 to 45,000 feet, it will enable scientific observations that Earth-based telescopes cannot accomplish.
After flight tests are completed in about two years, SOFIA's science and mission operations will be managed by Ames, according to Michael Mewhinney of Ames public affairs office. — Jay Thorwaldson
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Posted by not funny, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Jan 14, 2008 at 5:54 pm COOL real science! Maybe will find out just how full of hot air Al Gore is really. And too bad in 2 years the boys at Google will have to give up their hanger.
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Posted by Trol-e, a resident of the Palo Alto Hills neighborhood, on Jan 14, 2008 at 6:43 pm I saw it and, sadly, thought for sure there was going to be an Earth-shattering kaboom in minutes. Either shot down by the fighter or crashed into something. Happy to see it was for good.
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Posted by Resident, a resident of the South of Midtown neighborhood, on Jan 15, 2008 at 8:30 am You mean that huge noisy thing may be permanently based at Moffett; flying in and out at all times of the day and night. It's bad enough that low flying helicopters fly over my house many times a day.
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Posted by k, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Jan 15, 2008 at 5:47 pm I think I saw it at Moffett when I was driving by on 101 today - an odd large plane parked there certainly caught my eye...is it really loud?
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Posted by Resident, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Jan 16, 2008 at 9:13 am This plane was really loud, I was inside with noise and thought that there was a plane ready to crash.
What I don't understand is why it had to fly so low, why it needed a fighter escort and whether every time it flies will it have to be low and with an escort?
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Posted by JLS student, a member of the JLS Middle School community, on Jan 16, 2008 at 4:59 pm I was outside having lunch at the time, and the plane scared the crap out of me. It was soooooooooooooooooooo awesome though...
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Posted by Jim McClennahan, a resident of Mountain View, on Jan 17, 2008 at 5:02 pm The residential areas and the predominant dislike for aircraft noise is another reason for the plane being operated in aircraft friendly Antelope Valley, Ca.
Not a fighter escort, It is a safety chase plane. The SOFIA is an experimental plane.
It is never coming to stay at Ames research Center. It has a permanent hangar in Palmdale.
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