Bell Aircraft began studying the tilt rotor concept in the 1940s. The XV-3 was the first hardware to come out of the design work and led to the V-22 Osprey (via the Bell XV-15 tilt rotor). Two XV-3s were built between 1952 -55, with the first (54-147) crashing in 1956 during testing. The cause was in-flight instability and the remaining aircraft continued extensive flight and wind tunnel testing. This aircraft was retired in 1966 after being damaged during the last wind tunnel test. It was transferred to the National Museum of the US Air Force in 2007 after a two year restoration by Bell.

This really was USMC 159381 and never served with NASA.

'Vomit Comet' on approach to Pt Mugu's runway 21. Ex USAF 59-1481.

NASA had two C-121Gs operating into and out Australia in the late 60s and early 70s in support of the Apollo moon missions. They were originally leased to NASA in 1963 as NASA 420 and NASA 421. In June 1969 they were re-registered N420NA and N421NA respectively. I didn't keep records in those days but as near as I can work out from records of NASA flights and a time I recall being in Sydney, this had to be late November 1972. The record showed it to have arrived in Sydney November 25th and departed December 1st.

Constructed using major sections of B377 Stratocruiser N1038V, ex Pan Am, and retaining its original Boeing c/n.

Built for USAF as B-57B 52-1576. Later transferred to NASA and modified for research programmes including into gusting.

Later reregistered N428NA when NASA gave up using its own serials.

Built as a 377 and delivered to Pan American World Airways in September 1949 as N1038V. Initially it was named Clipper Constitution, later renamed Clipper Hotspur. Withdrawn from use and stored at New York in 1960. To Boeing, (August 1960), Lee Mansdorf & Co. (October 1960) and Aero Spacelines (1963), where it was converted to a 377SGT. By August 1965 it was registered N1038V again. In September 1965, the aircraft was involved in an incident at/near Mojave (CA); the airframe failed in-flight (while cruising). The factors included separation in flight and damage was substantial. The aircraft was able to make an emergency landing and there were no fatalities. NASA have had 2 377's registered as N940NS, the other one being c/n 16724.

This unique DHC-5 Quiet Short-Haul Research Aircraft (QSRA) variant was a NASA research aircraft modified to study and develop Short Take Off and Landing (STOL) technology. The QSRA was among other things modified with 4 Lycoming F102 turbofan engines. It first flew in this configuration in 1978. This aircraft even performed a landing and takeoff on the US aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, (of course) requiring neither arresting gear nor catapult launch. The techniques learned from this Buffalo stood model for the Boeing YC-14/C-17 programme and is now preserved at Moffett Museum's airpark (CA)

Ex USAF 66-13628 and Germany 2809.

Scanned from negative.

NASA 28 departing on a grey day - taken at some distance. This was deployed to Mildenhall on only a few occasions. [Close inspection only reveals 28 on the fuselage and some sources give the identity as NASA 928 or even 63-13298. The registration N928NA was issued about ten years after this image in June 2015.]