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I attended the open house and dedication of the new Dryden Aircraft
Operation Facility (DAOF), NASA Dryden's expansion to a facility in Palmdale.
The huge hangar was originally built by Northrup Grumman for B-2 bomber
assembly. It was also used as the movie set for "Pirates of the Caribbean:
At World's End". Then NASA Dryden began converting the hangar into DAOF.
The hangar now contains SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared
Astronomy), the airborne telescope built on a Boeing 747SP.
The hangar also contained a NASA DC-8,
one of the two Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA)
and several other smaller NASA aircraft.
Thanks to SOFIA Senior Scientist Sean Casey for a tour of the aircraft.
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