Here is this week's unique picture from the Flight International spaceflight archive. Guess the make of the craft in the picture and the mission, or add an amusing caption, and find yourself to be the king(or queen) of all thing space. Be careful with this one as nothing is what it seems:
AirSpace - more than just hot air
Scale model of Shuttle Orbiter mounted inside the 40- by 80- foot test section of a wind tunnel at NASA's Ames Research Center.
The wing/fusleage joint doesn't look right. This is either a very early configuration, or maybe one of the losing entries: Boeing and MacDoug, IIRC.
JUST A CLARIFICATION
The Book : SPACE SHUTTLE - The History of the National Space Transportation System - The First 100 Missions
The Author : Dennis R. Jenkins
The Image : the same as above (page 203)
The Caption : A 36-percent-scale model of the Orbiter in the Ames 40 by 80-foot wind tunnel. This January 1976 test was gathering data for the Approach and Landing Tests (NASA).
January 1976.....the year of the roll-out of OV-101.....(September 17)
Not "a very early configuration".......I think......
Some very quick answers this week, and both correct meaning that Rapier once again takes the plaudits (with Weight and Balance offering some keen observations).
Here is an explanation of the photo:
This picture dated 14 January 1976 shows a one-third-scale model of the Space Shuttle orbiter, installed in the 40 by 80-foot test section of one of the largest wind tunnels in the World, located at NASA's Ames Research Center. The model, more than 13m (43.9ft) long, is being tested to gather low speed flight data in support of approach and landing tests of the first full-scale Shuttle oribter at NASA's Flight Research Center in 1977. Note: Space Shuttle programme veterans have informed Flightglobal that this NASA information referring to a one-third scale model may be wrong and in fact the orbiter model may be one-quarter scale.