Space Shuttle Discovery

[ScottP]

I was supposed to meet my wife at her office, right on a Dulles Airport glide path to watch DIscovery make it's final touchdown, but got stuck in a horrendous traffic jam. Luckily, I was in a decent spot as it made it's final approach and got this pic:





Ironically, if I had stayed home, I could have seen it go over our house twice.

[Big Bad Wulff]

As long as Dulles's runways are it could have landed there itself!

[lastchance]

cool photo. thanks

[Dave E]

Very cool Scott.

[ScottP]

As long as Dulles's runways are it could have landed there itself!

If it had, and overshot, I'd have had a picture of it in my back yard.

Regards,
Scott

btw, this continues a trend of just missing cool stuff around the airport. I was home in 1996 when an SR-71 Blackbird made a circuit of the neighborhood before landing at Dulles. I think I was painting the kitchen and missed it; embarrassing I didn't know it was coming in considering I worked for Defense Dept.

[saltydancindave]

Remember back in the '70's when those supersonic European jets with the dropping nose first landed at Dulles. used to take 50 minutes to get to Dulles, but then you could park right out front of the terminal for about an hour for a nickel. Those big 747's always looked like they were just going to drop out of the sky, but never did. That was long before they tripled the size of the original Dulles building & there weren't nearly so many traffic lights from Leesburg to Tysons Corner. Seems from about 3 to now over 30 last time back in the area.

[ScottP]

Remember back in the '70's when those supersonic European jets with the dropping nose first landed at Dulles. used to take 50 minutes to get to Dulles, but then you could park right out front of the terminal for about an hour for a nickel. Those big 747's always looked like they were just going to drop out of the sky, but never did. That was long before they tripled the size of the original Dulles building & there weren't nearly so many traffic lights from Leesburg to Tysons Corner. Seems from about 3 to now over 30 last time back in the area.

I was very sad when the Concorde's were shut down; you felt them before you heard them on takeoff. Speaking of planes falling out of the sky, I remember fishing in Delaware Bay and watching C5A Galaxy's flying into Dover; couldn't understand how something that big flying that slow could remain aloft. You're pretty close on that 30 traffic light guess; off the top of my head, I can name 26 of them (I'm a little shaky closer in towards Tysons and I'd guess there's more).

Regards,
Scott

[Uncle Jesse]

I don't have a lot of regrets in my life but one of them is I never got down to see a shuttle launch. I really wanted to see one at night. NASA was an expensive operation for the country but we sure did get some neat stuff out of it. I was told recently they were still running the flights using a 386 computer chip because it was smart enough and tough enough to complete the mission.

[saltydancindave]

I was very sad when the Concorde's were shut down; you felt them before you heard them on takeoff. Speaking of planes falling out of the sky, I remember fishing in Delaware Bay and watching C5A Galaxy's flying into Dover; couldn't understand how something that big flying that slow could remain aloft. You're pretty close on that 30 traffic light guess; off the top of my head, I can name 26 of them (I'm a little shaky closer in towards Tysons and I'd guess there's more). Regards,
Scott

The Concorde's used to circle the next valley over every once & a while where the Air National Guard flew big cargo planes in practice. An old next door neighbor was one of the pilots. Don't think they were the C5A's, but big prop planes anyway. Before the new Dulles Toll Road thru the farmlands; there was the stoplight on Route 7 at Route 128 (?) & not much else until going further towards Tysons. Never did see any shuttle launch, except on TV. Guess I out grew the fascination of flying things, probably far too many flying cow pies.