Space Shuttle Carrier Aircraft Projects

Hi,

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A couple of questions for Space Shuttle experts. Is anyone familiar with the emergency procedures for the 747 SCAs? I've always wondered if it was anticipated that some situations would require the crew to jettison the shuttle in order to keep the 747 flyable. Even if the combination were flyable, I'd think that there'd be some emergency landing situations where the prospect of a 75 ton payload above and behind the cockpit would be intimidating. In that case, was there a means for the jettisoned orbiter to glide under autopilot control or would it just be a big lawn dart? Did NASA avoid flying the combination over densely populated areas for this reason? (in routine operation I mean, I know that photo/airshow laps were done over Paris, Washington DC, Sacramento and San Francisco at least)
Also, could the shuttle, as a payload of the SCA, be trimmed in flight? I'd think that that would be useful to improve the combination's flying characteristics and to reduce loads on the airframes.
 
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My understanding is that outside the actual Approach and Landing tests, the SCA usually did not fly with the explosive bolts necessary to jettison the Shuttle installed. So the issue is rather moot.

Also, for most of its life, the Shuttle could not drop the landing gear automatically, so it could not have landed from the back of the SCA without crew on board.
 
I thought the SCA had some kind of escape system, so the answer might have been "let the 747 and orbiter crash after crew escaped via parachute".
 
In regards to SCA crews having parachutes.... I don't believe they did. To quote an old friend, who was an F-16 pilot that was asked how tanker crew egress in an emergency.... "They don't." So, I think the simple answer is they would have rode it in one way or the other. Also, so far as jettisoning the orbiter without crew.... well, that's problematic at best. As mentioned above, they rarely carried the explosive bolts. But lets play Devil's advocate and say they did, as soon as the thing is jettisoned, you're going to have to make a nose dive to avoid having the vertical stabilizer smash into the orbiter. Assuming the SCA is at a point where this would be considered, good luck on it being able to do such a maneuver.
 
TomS said:
Also, for most of its life, the Shuttle could not drop the landing gear automatically, so it could not have landed from the back of the SCA without crew on board.
Click to expand...


By "controlled glide" I didn't mean to suggest that the orbiter might be able to land itself, only that it would glide (until it crashed) in a controlled manner rather than follow an unpredictable trajectory. Releasing a glider that will keep going in the direction that you point it would be a different decision than jettisoning an unpredictable 75t brick with wings.
 

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