Range of STA (747) ?

"Matthew Sylvester" wrote in message
news:1hqovop.a25fvz1gskuriN%matthew.sylvester@gmai l.com...
Brian Lawrence wrote:

It stopped off at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire.

Is Fairford still a TAL site?

Its on the list, but its so far north I believe it can be reached only for
high-inclination launches.

If it ever happened, there would be the biggest invasion of plane spotters
the UK had ever seen

"John Doe" wrote in message
...
There has been mention in this newsgroup of the use of TAL or other
alternate landing sites.

Does an STA-747 have the range to cross the atlantic with some island
hopping ?

Say it lands in Morocco or Spain, what would the stopovers be ? I take it
they would choose military airfields in england. Would it have to end up
in a major commercial airport on its way to Florida ?

(think of a the STA pulling up to a gate at a commercial airport with the
shuttle on its top ! Would be quite the view from the gate area :-)

Someone also mentioned the effect of frost on the shuttle which might
damage seals etc.

Since the shuttle is built to survive constant deep freeze and oven-heat
changes, does it really hurt the shuttle to land in a cold weather
airport?

And if it does, wouldn't it rule out a TAL site since the STA would then
have to fly via iceland/greenland/newfoundland/new england before getting
south enough to no longer worry about frost ?

"John Doe" wrote in message
...
There has been mention in this newsgroup of the use of TAL or other
alternate landing sites.

Does an STA-747 have the range to cross the atlantic with some island
hopping ?


If I recall correctly, with some island hopping you can go from the USA to
Europe in a typical light airplane. I think the greatest range requirement
is less than 1000 miles. I think this is the hop from Greenland to Iceland.
Look at a globe.

Danny Deger

Danny Deger wrote:
If I recall correctly, with some island hopping you can go from the USA to
Europe in a typical light airplane. I think the greatest range requirement
is less than 1000 miles. I think this is the hop from Greenland to Iceland.
Look at a globe.

Yes, but that takes it to areas where cold weather may be an issue.

Some of the NASA TV comments described the problem: In an unpowered
shuttle, freezing temperatures may cause some of the water pipes to
freeze/burst. (Is this way the SCA normally flies at fairly low altitudes
? Or does the SCA provide the shuttle with some heat and/or power to run
some heaters ?)

In sci.space.shuttle message ,
Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:07:54, MichaelJP wrote:

"Matthew Sylvester" wrote in message
news:1hqovop.a25fvz1gskuriN%matthew.sylvester@gma il.com...
Brian Lawrence wrote:

It stopped off at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire.

Is Fairford still a TAL site?

Its on the list, but its so far north I believe it can be reached only for
high-inclination launches.

If it ever happened, there would be the biggest invasion of plane spotters
the UK had ever seen

ISS passes to the North of me on some orbits; on Boxing Day it will
culminate at 82 degrees altitude, to the NNE; that's around 1/7 radian
past straight up. ISS is about 350 km high, so it must pass, at
maximum, about 50 km north of here. Fairford itself is 32 km north of
here, and also some distance west. The runway cannot be all that far
from the village/town.

Globe and string indicate that a north-easterly launch into the ISS
plane will be furthest north soon before reaching Ireland, so little
cross-range would be needed to get into Fairford (or Shannon) for any
planned launch, except to Hubble; or to get there after reaching ISS
orbit.


--
(c) John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v6.05 MIME.
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:25:09 -0600, "Danny Deger"
wrote:


"John Doe" wrote in message
. ..
There has been mention in this newsgroup of the use of TAL or other
alternate landing sites.

Does an STA-747 have the range to cross the atlantic with some island
hopping ?


If I recall correctly, with some island hopping you can go from the USA to
Europe in a typical light airplane. I think the greatest range requirement
is less than 1000 miles. I think this is the hop from Greenland to Iceland.
Look at a globe.

Danny Deger

IIRC, back in the 70's, I read that Cessna had figured out a route
where the longest hop was 500 miles for delivering light planes to
Europe.

-- David

David Ball wrote:
On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:25:09 -0600, "Danny Deger"
wrote:


"John Doe" wrote in message
. ..
There has been mention in this newsgroup of the use of TAL or other
alternate landing sites.

Does an STA-747 have the range to cross the atlantic with some island
hopping ?


If I recall correctly, with some island hopping you can go from the USA to
Europe in a typical light airplane. I think the greatest range requirement
is less than 1000 miles. I think this is the hop from Greenland to Iceland.
Look at a globe.

Danny Deger

IIRC, back in the 70's, I read that Cessna had figured out a route
where the longest hop was 500 miles for delivering light planes to
Europe.

Cessna 150´s and other light airplanes are regularily ferried across
the Atlantic, you have to be careful with weather and other conditions
but the range is not the greatest worry.

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:20:26 +0100, nmp wrote:

Op Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:07:09 +1100, schreef Chris Bennetts:


By the way, the acronym is SCA (Shuttle Carrier Aircraft), not STA.

I'm intensily satisfied that NASA people seem to have a sense of humour:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Shuttle_mounting_point.JPG


For Brian: the picture shows one of the attach points on the carrier
airplane. It looks a bit like ball of a tow bar, but a large one of
course, on top of a steel tower.

It has the following instruction printed on it:

ATTACH ORBITER HERE
NOTE: BLACK SIDE DOWN

It will probably help preventing those annoying little mistakes that can
really ruin someone's otherwise perfect day!


The other side has a similar sign that says:

Lefty loosey, righty tighty.

I can't find a photo of it right now.

The Other James