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COSMIC HARVESTER


Harvesting normally takes place in the month of September but the county of Suffolk in England saw some unusual harvesting, just a month later, in October. Two of Fighter Control's Photographic Editors, Mick and Stuart Freer visited RAF Mildenhall, to witness a unique event.

If the original design team of the English Electric Canberra had been at Royal Air Force [RAF] Mildenhall to witness the arrival of the General Dynamics WB-57F, serial number N928NA on 11 October 2005, they would have stared in utter disbelief as this huge aircraft with a wingspan of 122 feet, glided in to land over the runway 11 threshold, at the Suffolk airfield. The aircraft arrived at 18:13 hours, having stopped overnight at the airfield at Goose Bay in Newfoundland, Canada, after departing its home base of Ellington, Texas, United States of America [USA], for the first leg of the journey to the UK on 10 October.

This aircraft, along with one other [serial number N926NA], is operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA] Johnson Space Centre and was flown to the United Kingdom [UK] from it's home base at Ellington, Texas, United States of America [USA] to conduct cosmic dust particle sampling trials. The two WB-57 aircraft are flown by a group of five NASA pilots.
On completion of the trials the dust samples will be flown back to the NASA laboratories in Houston, Texas, USA, for analysis. There are several flights planned during their stay, on Friday 14 October, Sunday 16 October, Tuesday 18 October and Thursday 20 October. The duration of each flight was expected to be approximately five hours.

RAF Mildenhall was chosen as an operating base for the aircraft because of the size of the airfield and also that it has hangars which are large enough to house such a huge aircraft. The facilities which Mildenhall can also provide include JP-8 fuel facilities and supply of Liquid Oxygen [LOX]. Preparations for each mission are long, with four hours to pre-flight check the aircraft, two hours to fuel and one hour for the pilots to have their flight suits fitted. The aircraft was flown up to 48,500 feet within UK airspace and the time taken to climb altitude was 45 minutes.

The pilots are very pleased with the performance of the two WB-57F used by NASA. With its massive power range from the two Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-11 engines, the aircraft can operate up to 65,000 feet.
There is some talk of fitting even more powerful engines in the future but no doubt, cost will be a governing factor. A payload of 6,000 pounds can be carried and both aircraft have just been upgraded to a glass cockpit configuration.

NASA 928 [serial number N928NA and ex United States Air Force (USAF) serial number 63-13298] was originally built as a Martin B-57B [serial number 52-1536] but was later completely rebuilt by General Dynamics at Fort Worth, Texas, USA, as an RB-57F. Whilst in USAF service, this aircraft operated with the 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron [WRS], as part of the Air Weather Service [AWS] out of Kirtland Air Force Base [AFB] in New Mexico, USA. During 1968 the AWS RB-57F's were re-designated to WB-57F.

Whilst operating with the 58th WRS, the aircraft's primary mission was that of atmospheric sampling on behalf of the US Atomic Energy Commission. Most of the flights were carried out collecting samples, following nuclear test explosions in China.

Due to poor material selection, the long wings of the WB-57Fs operated by the 58th WRS started showing stress corrosion cracks after only a few years in service. It was decided to replace the wing spar and ribs with those using a different grade of aluminium. Due to the cost of these major modifications only a small number of airframes were converted and nine aircraft were placed in storage at Davis Monthan AFB in Arizona, USA. Shortly after the modifications by General Dynamics to the remaining aircraft, the 58th WRS was deactivated on 1 July 1974, thus ending a long association for the USAF, with the Canberra airframe.

NASA 928 is one of three WB-57s which have been operated by NASA. The original aircraft, NASA 925 [serial number N925NA and ex USAF serial number 63-13501] has since been retired and is now on display at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona, USA. The sister aircraft to NASA 928 is NASA 926 [serial number N926NA and ex USAF serial 63-13503] which arrived with NASA during 1972 and was used as an Earth Remote Sensing Platform for calibration of satellite data. It was placed in storage at El Paso, Texas, USA during 1991 and was held there until quite recently. NASA 928 arrived with NASA during 1974 for use as an air sampler for the Department of Energy [DoE].

NASA intends to operate its pair of WB-57Fs for many years to come. There was a huge interest among the UK aviation enthusiast fraternity, with many travelling hundreds of miles to Mildenhall, to view this magnificent machine. For those lucky enough to witness a take off, the sight of this aircraft soaring into the sky, like a huge Condor, will never be forgotten.

NASA 928 is expected to leave Mildenhall on its journey home to Texas on Saturday 22 October.


We would like to thank Lt Jamie Humphries, RAF Mildenhall Public Affairs Officer and the NASA pilots and support crew of '928' for their kind hospitality and assistance with this report.