The primary focus of this paper is to describe the challenges involved in creating this highly modified aircraft that carries a twenty ton telescope to the Stratosphere and then loiters at this desired altitude to act as the observatory "dome" or platform. When the aircraft has reached its nominal cruise condition in the stratosphere of Mach 0.84, a large cavity door opens (the dome opens), exposing a large portion of the interior of the fuselage containing the telescope optics, directly to the Universe. The breadth of topics covered in this paper includes; the relevant criteria and the evaluation process that resulted in the selection of a Boeing 747-SP, the evolution of the design concept, a description of the structural modification including the analysis methods and tools, the aerodynamic issues associated with an open port cavity and how they were addressed, the aero-loads/disturbances imparted to the telescope and how they were measured in the wind tunnel and extrapolated to full size. For completeness, this paper also provides a brief overview of the SOFIA project including the joint project arrangement between NASA and DLR, a top level overview of the science objectives and the resulting requirements, and finally the current project status.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    The SOFIA Aircraft and its Modification


    Contributors:
    Kunz, Nans (author)

    Conference:

    International Society for Optical Engineering Conference ; 2002 ; Waikoloa, HI, United States


    Publication date :

    2002-05-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    The SOFIA aircraft and its modification

    Kunz, N. | Tema Archive | 2003


    SOFIA Aircraft Design

    Spoth, K. A. / SAE / AIAA | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1997


    SOFIA aircraft design

    Spoth, Kevin | AIAA | 1997


    SOFIA Aircraft Design

    Spoth, Kevin A. | SAE Technical Papers | 1997


    SOFIA aircraft operations

    Garcia, Linda / Blundell, Ann | AIAA | 1997