Martin/General Dynamics WB-57F
The Stratosphere Lab
“A 1960s wing, still working at 60,000 feet for NASA.”
Martin / General Dynamics · military
General Dynamics took the B-57 Canberra bomber and stretched its wing to over 122 feet, creating an aircraft that cruises above 60,000 feet. Only 21 were converted, and NASA flies the survivors from Houston on science missions — chasing total eclipses, sampling the stratosphere, and filming rocket launches from above the weather.
NASA's WB-57Fs filmed the 2024 total solar eclipse and SpaceX Starship launches from above 60,000 feet — where the sky overhead starts to go dark.
You will rarely see one — it works above 60,000 feet. On climb-out from Houston: an impossibly long, straight wing, two fat engine pods, and a dark sensor nose.
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Stratosphere Lab from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook.
