17 April 2012: Orbital Vehicle 103, the Space Shuttle Discovery, mounted to NASA 905, a Boeing 747-100 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, arrived at Dulles International Airport.
On 19 April, Discovery was placed on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum.
© 2016, Bryan R. Swopes
Hello Bryan,
Where do I start – I love aircraft and history and I cherish this, your site. And even better my wife loves this as well, and, she asked me a question that I can not answer so, I ask you: what is the plane in the background of the title image?
Respectively yours,
David Zeitlin
Thank you very much David, I really appreciate it. The airplane in the title photo is the North American Aviation NA-73X, NX19998, the Allison-powered prototype of the Royal Air Force Mustang Mk.I, and which would be developed into the XP-51 Mustang. The pilot is Robert Creed Chilton, the North American Aviation engineering test pilot who would conduct most of the P-51’s flight testing during World War II.
I remember seeing Discovery being flown in, I great of her and the escort plane out of the driver window of my truck.
I had the pleasure of seeing this in the museum at Dulles last May. My first encounter with the Shuttle was flying the simulator at Houston in 1996. I didn’t do very well, there was a lot of control lag and my anticipation wasn’t up to it!
My wife, son, and I saw the shuttle prototype Enterprise in a hangar at Edwards AFB in the late ’70s.