Jun 10 1976
From The Space Library
Johnson Space Center announced delivery of the first of 2 training aircraft to Ellington AFB, Tex., for JSC's use in training Space Shuttle crews. The aircraft (STA) was a modified Grumman twin-engine Gulfstream II jet designed to simulate flight characteristics of the Space Shuttle orbiter, using thrust-reverser engines and direct lift control to vary the jet plane's dynamics to resemble those of the orbiter. After JSC personnel conducted a receiving inspection on the plane, it would be returned to Grumman at Bethpage, N.Y., for installation of an electric aileron-trim system; this modification should take about a week. The second STA, scheduled for delivery in late July, would remain at Bethpage to ensure that the plane could duplicate the various landing flight modes of the orbiter during the flight tests. Remaining tests would verify STA's ability to match orbiter trajectory during the period from 10-11 km altitude through. touchdown and would check out recent engineering changes. (NASA Release 76-108; JSC Release 76-38)
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