NASA's Flying Laboratory
Airborne science laboratory — forty years of flying to the data
Tail number N817NA
Retired. This one lives in the history books now.
The story
An airliner that carried instruments instead of passengers. For nearly forty years NASA flew her low over ice sheets, hurricanes and wildfire smoke to measure the things satellites cannot see from orbit, then landed and let the scientists walk to the data. She made her last flight in May 2024 and now teaches mechanics at Idaho State University.
For the IceBridge surveys she flew the polar ice at around 1,500 feet, mapping the same sheets year after year as they thinned.
Quick answers
What is the tail number of NASA's Flying Laboratory?
N817NA (Douglas DC-8-72, retired).
What kind of aircraft is NASA's Flying Laboratory?
Douglas DC-8-72.
Is it still flying?
No. It no longer flies.
More aviation history
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