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Wed, Nov 14, 2007

NASA's DC-8 Airborne Laboratory Returns To Dryden FRC

Joyous Return Dampened By Tragedy

NASA's venerable DC-8 airborne science laboratory returned to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center recently, after an absence of more than two years.

The flying science lab's missions had been managed by the University of North Dakota since late 2005, although Dryden flight crews continued to operate the aircraft on worldwide data gathering missions.

The converted jetliner is the first science aircraft to be based at Dryden's new Aircraft Operations Facility adjacent to Air Force Plant 42 in nearby Palmdale, CA. Four other NASA science aircraft are due to be based there in coming months.

The joyous return of the DC-8 to Dryden was later shadowed by dark clouds, however.

NASA tells ANN pilot-in-command for the DC-8's return to Dryden on November 8 was veteran NASA research pilot Edwin Lewis... who died in an unrelated plane crash that evening. As ANN reported, the Cessna 182 transporting Lewis and fellow Civil Air Patrol colonel Dion E. DeCamp impacted mountainous terrain near Las Vegas, NV.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden

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