NASA's Flying Observatory

The SOFIA project has been in the making for more than 13 years — but the airplane has an even longer history. Originally owned by Pan Am, the 747SP (Special Performance) was named the Clipper Lindbergh and christened by Anne Morrow Lindbergh in 1977 on the 50th anniversary of Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic.

The Boeing 747SP differs from a modern 747 in a few ways. Most notably, it's 45 feet shorter and, thus, lighter — which allowed it to make long transoceanic flights without stopping to refuel. (Modern 747s have much more efficient engines.)

The plane already had two Cornell connections long before astronomy professor and principal investigator Terry Herter and his team installed FORCAST onto the telescope in February.

When Boeing was designing the plane in the 1970s, they hired a young Cornell mechanical engineering graduate to design its horizontal stabilizer (which allows the pilot to raise or lower the nose of the plane in flight). That engineer, Bill Nye '77, eventually went on to become "Bill Nye the Science Guy" — the Emmy Award-winning science educator and Cornell Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of 1956 Professor from 2001 to 2006.…

See Universe Today for links to further info.

Also see Science Magazine.