FLYING LAB GONE FROM LOCAL BASE NASA CRAFT IN NORTH DAKOTA.Byline: - Daily News EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory tipped its wings in farewell as it left the Dryden Flight Research Center The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC), located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. On March 26, 1976 it was named in honor of the late Hugh L. for its new home in North Dakota North Dakota, state in the N central United States. It is bordered by Minnesota, across the Red River of the North (E), South Dakota (S), Montana (W), and the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba (N). . A converted former jetliner, the science research aircraft left last week for the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks Grand Forks, city (1990 pop. 49,425), seat of Grand Forks co., E N.Dak., at the confluence of the Red and the Red Lake rivers; inc. 1881. In a spring wheat, livestock, and farm area, the city has grain elevators, state-operated flour mills, and plants that process , where NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. will pay the university $25 million over a five-year period to maintain and operate the aircraft. The plan is for the DC-8 to be the centerpiece of a new National Suborbital suborbital /sub·or·bi·tal/ (sub-or´bi-t'l) infraorbital. sub·or·bit·al adj. Situated on or below the floor of the orbit of the eye. n. Education and Research Center at the university. The agreement is intended to use the DC-8 to expand science research capabilities and enhance hands-on educational opportunities for students. Built as an extended-range jetliner in 1966, the DC-8 was acquired by NASA from Alitalia Airlines in 1985 and modified. It was operated by NASA's Ames Research Center in the San Francisco Bay Area “Bay Area” redirects here. For other uses, see Bay Area (disambiguation). The San Francisco Bay Area, colloquially known as the Bay Area or The Bay from 1986 to 1997, then transferred to Dryden. The transfer will cost Dryden a handful of jobs, Dryden officials said. NASA Dryden pilots will continue to fly the airplane as they train new flight crews. Other NASA employees will transfer to other assignments at Dryden. Three Lockheed Martin maintenance workers are moving to North Dakota with the jet, Dryden officials said. Two ER-2 scientific research jets, which are civilian versions of the U-2 spy plane, remain based at Dryden. One is undergoing a major overhaul. The DC-8 has supported satellite validation, earth science studies and the development of remote sensing techniques for space-based observing systems. It has been deployed worldwide to support research, including measuring ozone and other gases. Two of the winter deployments have been to Sweden. The aircraft has also carried scientists and their instruments into the eyes of several hurricanes with the goal of improving predictions of the storms' movements and increasing warning time to the affected areas. Although based in North Dakota, the aircraft will continue to be owned by NASA and will be flown by NASA crews for the foreseeable future. Operational management will be transferred from NASA Dryden to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. |
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