NASA research jet belly lands…

[Quantum12]

A NASA research jet made a dramatic belly landing at Ellington Airport in Houston after its landing gear apparently failed to deploy, bursting into flames as it hit the runway. No injuries reported.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Technology/wi...-129615995

[Sky727]

They used to call that aircraft back in my day a B-57 instead of a NASA WB-57. It has been flying for what seems like forever but with it's high altitude capabilities and time on station it is hard to park or retire. It is my understanding NASA has been using it for high altitude research which is a nice catch all for a mission.

[Sky727]

[Blackfingers]

Instrument pod took brunt of the landing.Hope no major damage throughout the airframe center section.

[Sky727]

Instrument pod took brunt of the landing.Hope no major damage throughout the airframe center section.

Last I heard NASA had the last three or 4 still flying. Kinda like going to an airshow and watching a WW2 irreplaceable aircraft get destroyed; time can be unkind and even cruel .

[Zaphod58]

They used to call that aircraft back in my day a B-57 instead of a NASA WB-57. It has been flying for what seems like forever but with it's high altitude capabilities and time on station it is hard to park or retire. It is my understanding NASA has been using it for high altitude research which is a nice catch all for a mission.

There were multiple B-57 variants. Both the RB-57 and WB-57 were long wing variants, while the B-57 and EB-57 were short wing. That’s before you get into the test variants, and all the sub variants.