NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Paul Dolkas
Date: 2016 May 7, 13:42 -0700
It proved so useful, that later generations have been built. The current version is called SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) https://www.sofia.usra.edu/ and is based out of what was Dryden/Edwards AFB (now called NASA Armstrong).
The aforementioned C-141 is still parked out by the runway at NASA Ames, a victim of scavenging for engine/airframe parts. The story was that before the Navy left the airfield, they relieved the airplane of several important items. Nobody knows what they took, and there’s no money to do a complete disassembly to find out. So it sits there, a relic of the early age of high altitude astronomy.
golden Paul Dolkas
From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of John D. Howard
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2016 9:09 AM
To: paul@dolkas.net
Subject: [NavList] Re: The moons of Jupiter for Time or Position?
Francis,
In the early 1970's a C-141 was modified to carry a gyro-stablized 36 in. cassegrain telescope. Before Hubble and other space telescopes the C-141 could fly above 40,000 ft. for up to 9 hours. It was owned by NASA and called the Kuiper Airborne Observatory.
John H.
