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Out of this world public domain images from NASA. All original images and many more can be found from the NASA Image Library
Curated higher resolutions with digital enhancement without attribution required can be downloaded: www.rawpixel.com/board/418580/nasa
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Because all the cool kids are building microspace fleets. (word up to Yoder and Dunechaser)
The VS-4 Musashi is the Anchorage Fleet's latest V-class dreadnaught, loaded with the best and brightest crew and the most advanced tech possible. It's also the testbed for the new Synchrotron-Actuated Slipstream Engine, a torus-shaped spacetime drive using the high-speed interactions of exotic particles to travel through space and/or time.
United States Air Force - McDonnell NF-101A Voodoo - USAF 53-2418 (N9250Z) (c/n 1)
Note the construction number ("c/n") above, this is the first F-101A Voodoo delivered to the US Air Force.
As per information posted at the Fighter-Interceptor Squadron Reunion Group (FISRG):
The first F-101A (53-2418) was delivered in August of 1954, right on schedule. After completing some ground trials in St. Louis, it was shipped out to Edwards AFB. It took off on its maiden flight on September 29, 1954, McDonnell test pilot Robert C. Little being at the controls. He reached Mach 0.9 at 35,000 feet. Less than a month later, maximum speed had progressively been pushed to Mach 1.4. . . .
. . .
The first F-101A was bailed to General Electric in 1958 as a testbed for the J79-GE-1 turbojet. The designation NF-101A was assigned to this modification, the N prefix indicating a permanent change in configuration for test purposes. This aircraft was test flown with two J79s in 1958-59 before being retired to Amarillo AFB in Texas as a ground maintenance trainer.
Further, as described at the This Day In Aviation website:
General Electric returned the Voodoo to the Air Force in 1959. Now obsolete, it was used as a maintenance trainer at Shepard Air Force Base, Texas. It was next turned over to a civilian aviation maintenance school and assigned a civil registration number by the Federal Aviation Administration, N9250Z. The airplane was sold as scrap, but was purchased by Mr. Dennis Kelsey.
In 2009, Mrs. Kelsey had the airplane placed in the care of the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon. After being partially restored by the Evergreen Air Center, Marana, Arizona, 53-2418 was placed on display at the Evergreen Museum.
Airbus A380-861
MSN 004 [Engine Alliance testbed]
F-WWDD 'VNO'
Airbus S.A.S.
Copyright © 2010 A380spotter. All rights reserved.
Cindy Heer checks on the Hyperion testbed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
LLNL has teamed with 10 computing industry leaders to accelerate the development of powerful next-generation Linux cluster in a project dubbed Hyperion. Hyperion brings together Dell, Intel, Supermicro, QLogic, Cisco, Mellanox, DDN, Sun, LSI, and RedHat to create a large-scale testbed for high-performance computing technologies critical to maintaining the again U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile without underground nuclear testing, and industry's ability to make petaFLOP/s (quadrillion floating operations per second) computing and storage more accessible for commerce, industry and research and development.
For more information or additional images, please contact 202-586-5251.
Airbus A380-861
MSN 004 [Engine Alliance testbed]
F-WWDD 'VNO'
Airbus S.A.S.
Copyright © 2010 A380spotter. All rights reserved.
Pure luck I heard this gem coming, even more so that I was able to videotape it as it flew past my home Later, numerous searches to find out whose aircraft it is... especially since there are no legible markings. This beautiful CV-580 was first delivered to United Airlines in 1952. It has been a flying testbed for Honeywell, and previously Allied Signal, since 1992.
"Honeywell Aviation Services Convair CV-580... This aircraft was originally acquired by Allied Signal and flew as N580AS. Delivered as a 340-41 and converted to the 580 series, it is one of the oldest Convair 243/340/440/580 series aircraft flying -- it has the serial number of two (2). "
Honeywell’s Convair 580: Testing Tomorrow’s Tech in Yesterday’s Plane | Airchive
airchive.com/blog/2014/05/23/honeywells-convair-580-testi...
RAF COSFORD JUNE 1989
Built as a research testbed aircraft in response to the proposed building of a prototype for the eventual English Electric Lightning.It has a detachable rear fuselage with an alternative version having a T-tail.The only one built is still here in Shropshire.
(Slide scan-3200)
Airbus A380-861
MSN 004 [Engine Alliance testbed]
F-WWDD 'VNO'
Airbus S.A.S.
Copyright © 2010 A380spotter. All rights reserved.
The XK120 was launched in open two-seater or (US) roadster form at the 1948 London Motor Show as a testbed and show car for the new Jaguar XK engine. The display car was the first prototype, chassis number 670001. It looked almost identical to the production cars except that the straight outer pillars of its windscreen would be curved on the production version. The roadster caused a sensation, which persuaded Jaguar founder and design boss William Lyons to put it into production.
Beginning in 1948, the first 242 cars wore wood-framed open 2-seater bodies with aluminium panels. Production switched to the 1cwt or 112 lb (51 kg) heavier all-steel in early 1950. The "120" in the name referred to the aluminium car's 120 mph (193 km/h) top speed (faster with the windscreen removed), which made it the world's fastest production car at the time of its launch. In 1949 the first production roadster, chassis number 670003, was delivered to Clark Gable.
The XK120 was ultimately available in two open versions, first as an open 2-seater described in the US market as the roadster (and designated OTS, for open two-seater, in America), then also as a drophead coupé (DHC) from 1953; and also as a closed, or fixed head coupé (FHC) from 1951.
A smaller-engined version 2-litres, 4 cylinders, intended for the UK market was cancelled prior to production.
On 30 May 1949, on the empty Ostend-Jabbeke motorway in Belgium, a prototype XK120 timed by the officials of the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium achieved an average of runs in opposing directions of 132.6 mph with the windscreen replaced by just one small aeroscreen and a catalogued alternative top gear ratio, and 135 mph with a passenger-side tonneau cover in place. In 1950 and 1951, at a banked oval track in France, XK120 roadsters averaged over 100 mph for 24 hours and over 130 mph for an hour, and in 1952 a fixed-head coupé took numerous world records for speed and distance when it averaged 100 mph for a week.
The Motor magazine road-tested an XK120 roadster in November 1949. This pre-production car, chassis number 670001, road-registered as HKV 455, was the first prototype built. It was also the 1948 London Motor Show display model, and had been driven by Prince Bira in the 1949 Silverstone Production Car Race. When tested, it had the 8:1 compression ratio, was fitted with an undertray, and ran with hood and sidescreens in place. The magazine reported a top speed of 124.6 mph (200.5 km/h), acceleration from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 10.0 seconds and fuel consumption of 19.8 miles per imperial gallon (14.3 L/100 km; 16.5 mpg-US). The car as tested cost £1263 including taxes.
This is the weather research Hercules "Snoopy", now in use as the TP400-D6 turbo-prop engine testbed for the A-400M military transport aircraft by Marshalls of Cambridge.
Airbus A380-861
MSN 004 [Engine Alliance testbed]
F-WWDD 'VNO'
Airbus S.A.S.
Copyright © 2012 A380spotter. All rights reserved.
Kinda did this on a whim really. If anything it was a nice testbed for end-result recordings as I exported this from vegas in near enough the same quality as it was originally encoded. Yippee!
Anyway. Seen leaving Norwich at 14:03, we pass an EMT Class 156 405, which is, from what I gather, a rarity to see around here because the routes EMT run from Norwich are to Nottingham, Manchester and Liverpool, which are usually served by 158's. If I'm not mistaken, that particular train would have formed the 14:53 service to Ely. Maybe it being a Sunday played a part.
After the 156 we have a DRS Class 37 305 stabled in a siding. Not sure what it's there for.
Passing Crown Point Depot where DVT's and Mk3 carriages can be seen, before going over the ever-loud rail bridge across the River Wensum, before passing under the A146.
2nd clip is the 170 I was on departing Thetford. Feel sorry for the guy who missed it by seconds!
This video goes out to @365LANCE (assuming the tags work idk)
Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems - North American NA-265-40A Sabreliner - N160W (c/n 282-101)
This Northrop Grumman (NG) Sabreliner landed approximately 20 minutes before NG's Sabreliner testbed (N168W), equipped with an F-16 nose and radome equipped with the Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) (an AESA upgrade for AN/APG-66 and AN/APG-68 radar equipped F-16s), landed at BWI. Of particular interest with N160W in this case is the pod (possibly a Lüneburg lens?) mounted below the aircraft centerline. Earlier photos on the web as recent as 2007 do not show N160W with the pod. Presumably this pod, and flight, is related to tests of SABR. Though not certain, this pod also seemingly prohibits the use of N160W's belly mounted speed brake, as it appears the Sabreliner speed brake's cutout would not clear the pod if deployed.
Would like to know more about this bird.
Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems - North American NA-265-40 Sabreliner - N168W (c/n 282-33)
It was a bonus catching this rare aircraft coming in to BWI. This is a Sabreliner specially modified to act as a radar testbed for the F-16 for Northrop Grumman. The "W" at the end of the registration denotes the aircraft's Westinghouse heritage (Northrop Grumman acquired Westinghouse's radar business in 1996).
More than likely N168W is carrying the newest Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) fighter sensor, the Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) an upgrade for AN/APG-66 and AN/APG-88 radars currently used by American and export F-16s . Someone at Northrop Grumman must have recognized the humor in a Sabreliner equipped with SABR radar.
It is worth nothing, that N168W's Sabreliner stablemate, Northrop Grumman's N160W, landed at BWI approximately 20 minutes earlier sporting an unusual small pod (possibly a Lüneburg lens?) mounted underneath the aircraft's centerline presumably related to the testing of SABR. Photos of N160W are also in this set.
NASA's Super Guppy performing touch and go's at Ellington Field in the background of the Morpheus Hot Fire.
Location:
Vertical Testbed Flight Complex
Johnson Space Center
Photographer: Kris Kehe
Also known as the Flying Pulpit, this, one of three proof-of-concept machines, first flew around 1980. Power was from one modified Williams F107 turbofan called the WR-19-A7D, rated at 600 lb thrust. It could hover or fly in any direction at speeds of up to 60 mph. Endurance was 45 minutes.
Jeremy Hart setting up the Flight Termination System
Location: NASA Johnson Space Center Vertical Testbed Flight Complex Photographer: Kris Kehe
Airbus A380-841
MSN 001
F-WWOW '001 GD' [Prototype/Rolls-Royce Trent testbed]
Airbus S.A.S.
Copyright © 2014 A380spotter. All rights reserved.
At AMARC in 1987 but broken up some years later, this aircraft had been used as a testbed for the P&W JT-9A engine fitted to the first Boeing 747s.
Since it first entered the NASA inventory in 1974, NASA 515 has been a testbed for research into a multitude of issues affecting aircraft safety, efficiency and capacity. Called an "airborne trailblazer,"it goes beyond the typical research facility in that it demonstrates new concepts in real-world situations. For example, government and industry decision makers could observe - first-hand - research pilots using innovations in computer-generated display formats content while interacting with air traffic control it in a busy terminal area. Other observers experienced flying through potentially hazardous windshells to prove that advance-warning devices really can give pilots precious extra seconds to avoid hazardous weather.
As a result, this flying laboratory and its supporting facilities have been responsible for rapid adoption of new aviation technology by U.S. industry.
NASA 515 is the first B-737 built. First used by Boeing to qualify the 737 for airline service, the prototype 737 has since been heavily modified by NASA. It has two separate cockpits - a conventional B-737 forward cockpit providing operational support and safety backup, and an operational research flight deck positioned behind in what was the aircraft's first-class cabin section.
This national facility is maintained and flown by NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., as part of the center's Terminal Area Productivity (TAP) program.
Gulfstream's G800 prototype/testbed diverted into MSP today on account of poor weather at CID; sadly the large probe up front has been removed, but was interesting to see a couple of window plugs with some sort of equipment installed.
N800G (SAV-MSP) Feb 12, 2025
A testbed shot for the Lime branded example seven minutes behind, I had to slightly adjust where I was stood as I hadn't realised it was a parking space for the vets!! It turned out quite well even if the Sun decided to go in, so thought it'd get a mention too...
430 heads down Coppice Road with the first afternoon 58X to Nottingham via Arnold, Daybrook and Sherwood.
SANDIA COMPUTER SCIENTIST RON MINNICH IS SEEN WITH A SANDIA TESTBED CLUSTER KNOWN AS TALON, CONSISTING OF THE SAME SERVERS THAT COMPRISE THE 4,480-NODE THUNDERBIRD CLUSTER IN ALBUQUERQUE.
In running more than a million Linux kernels as virtual machines, Minnich and his colleagues ran one kernel in each of 250 virtual machines and coupled those with the 4,480 physical machines on Thunderbird.
For more information or additional images, please contact 202-586-5251.