I'm lucky enough to belong to a group that flies quads & aircraft at a naval base that was shut down a few years back. The catch is the base was turned over to the county with the understanding NASA (and other Gov agencies) keeps the right to use it on occasion for whatever they decide to fly in there. So far all they have done is to ask use to move to part of the runway they don't need while they test aircraft. Kinda cool.
Last week was one of those days where we had to yield to NASA and move off our spot. They were testing some kind of UAV/drone. After landing to re-fuel, they asked if we were interested in taking a look.
As I understand it this aircraft was used in up north in the arctic testing weather and atmosphere conditions where its wings froze up and crashed into the ocean. It washed up on shore where somebody found it and returned it in to NASA. Now rebuilt, they were making tests to put it back in service. The links are video of the pre-flight check and takeoff.
NASA DRONE LAUNCH
PRE FLIGHT
Last week was one of those days where we had to yield to NASA and move off our spot. They were testing some kind of UAV/drone. After landing to re-fuel, they asked if we were interested in taking a look.
As I understand it this aircraft was used in up north in the arctic testing weather and atmosphere conditions where its wings froze up and crashed into the ocean. It washed up on shore where somebody found it and returned it in to NASA. Now rebuilt, they were making tests to put it back in service. The links are video of the pre-flight check and takeoff.
