Planespotting: Shuttle Carrier Aircraft N911NA

Here is a picture I took yesterday at the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.

Shuttle Carrier Aircraft N911NA. © Reinhard Kargl 2012. Click to enlarge.

This is one of the two existing Shuttle Carrier Aircaft (SCA). This one is aircraft N911NA. The other SCA (N905NA) was spotted by a friend at Washington Dulles Airport the next morning, with Space Shuttle Discovery mounted on top. (Discovery is being delivered to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. N911NA is now officially retired at Dryden. It will be used as a “donor” for spare parts for SOFIA).