A NASA WB-57B on the ramp at Ellington Field near Houston ready to chase totality next month during the historic August 21st total solar eclipse. Credit: NASA/JSC
Posted on 07/14/2017 3:29:27 PM PDT by BenLurkin
“We are going to be observing the total solar eclipse with two aircraft, each carrying infrared and visible light cameras taking high definition video,” Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Principal Investigator on the project Amir Caspi told Universe Today. “These will be the highest quality observations of their kind to date, looking for fast dynamic motion in the solar corona.”
Total solar eclipses provide researchers with a unique opportunity to study the solar corona – the ghostly glow of the Sun’s outer atmosphere seen only during totality. NASA plans a battery of experiments during the eclipse, including plans to intercept the Moon’s shadow using two aircraft near the point of greatest totality over Carbondale, Illinois. Flying out of Ellington Field near Houston Texas and operated by NASA’s Johnson Spaceflight Center, NASA is the only remaining operator of the WB-57 aircraft.
Flying at an altitude of 50,000 feet, the aircraft will intercept the 70 mile wide shadow of the Moon. The shadow will be moving at 1,400 miles per hour – twice the speed of sound – versus the WB-57 aircraft’s max speed of 470 miles per hour. The flight will extend the length of totality from the 2 minutes 40 seconds seen on the ground, to a total of about 8 minutes between the two aircraft.
The two converted WB-57 Canberra tactical bombers will track the eclipse using DyNAMITE (Day Night Airbourne Motion Imagery for Terrestrial Environments), two tandem gimbal-mounted 8.7-inch imagers, one for visible light and one for infrared. These are located in the nose of the aircraft and will shoot 30 frames per second.
A NASA WB-57B on the ramp at Ellington Field near Houston ready to chase totality next month during the historic August 21st total solar eclipse. Credit: NASA/JSC
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
"For many years two WB-57F Canberras (NASA 926 and NASA 928) were flown and maintained by NASA for high altitude atmospheric research. These same two aircraft have also been deployed alternately to Afghanistan for use as communications platforms that fly high over an area linking various communications devices on the battlefield and to other airborne assets, they were known as the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node system (BACN).[21] In 2011 it was determined that a third aircraft was needed to satisfy mission requirements and an additional WB-57 was removed from the 309th AMARG after over 40 years at Davis-Monthan AFB and returned to flight status in August 2013 as NASA 927.[22]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-57_Canberra#Reconnaissance_and_electronic_warfare_B-57s
Only plane I ever worked on that had Buick jet engines.
Is that the one which used a shotgun shell to start the engines?
The original B57 had a wingspan (tip to tip) of 66 feet. The ‘F’ variant has almost double that span at 122 feet.
I like your tagline
Great graphics. Thanks!
Great link.
August 21st?
Cool. I just took those days off for vacation.
Gonna drive my family up there to see it.
If there was still an operational SR-71, it could track the shadow until it had to be refueled.
It’s going to pass almost directly over my house. It’ll probably be cloudy that day:(
a giant gopro! nice plane, too.
NASA still flies U-2s.
Don't let a cloudy day ruin this once in a lifetime opportunity!
Here's one possible fix...
Just requires a simple lawn chair and a few helium balloons.
In no time you'll be *above* the clouds!
Coming back down is another thing.
Rain or shine, cloudy or clear, enjoy the eclipse!
Don't forget to take a camera and a few snacks to munch on.
Also a sweater. Might get a bit chilly at that altitude.
Yea, but they are subsonic.
I’ll pass.
Times shown are correct for the location.
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