A new flight plan has been filed for a NASA winged orbiter and its jumbo jet transport, four decades after the iconic combination departed on its one and only international goodwill tour.
The Lego Icons Shuttle Carrier Aircraft set recreates the prototype Enterprise and the modified Boeing 747 jetliner as they uniquely appeared when touching down at the Paris Air Show in May 1983, as well as at post-show stops in Italy, England, Iceland and Canada. The $229.99 (€229.99 or £199.99) building kit is scheduled to land on Lego's website for the company's "Insiders" loyalty club members on May 15, followed three days later by an arrival in Lego Stores in the United States and Europe.
The release comes 42 years (and a day) after the 747 and test spacecraft took off from southern California to begin the tour.
"This is a must-have for aerospace enthusiasts and Lego fans alike!" read the Denmark-based toymaker's announcement of the new model on Tuesday (May 6). "Savor every moment, as you bring this iconic tribute to innovation and exploration to life, piece by piece."
NASA first used the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to carry Enterprise on a series of piggyback trials to confirm that an orbiter that would be launched like a rocket could return to Earth as an unpowered glider. For the 1977 Approach and Landing Test (ALT) program, the jetliner retained its chrome livery from its previous years flying for American Airlines.
Two crews of two NASA astronauts each boarded Enterprise atop NASA 905 (the first SCA's tail number) at Dryden Flight Research Center (today, Armstrong Flight Research Center), where they proceeded through 1 tests, including five flights where the orbiter was released from the jumbo jet at altitude and then flown to a landing on a dry lakebed below.
Four years later, the shuttle Columbia lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the first of 135 missions that it and five other orbiters would fly. NASA 905 (and later, another SCA, NASA 911) was used to ferry the orbiters cross country when either they returned from space to the west coast or returned to their assembly facility for recertification and upgrades.
Before leaving for Europe, NASA gave both Enterprise and NASA 905 new looks. Enterprise was altered to resemble the space-worthy orbiters, more closely mimicking the black and white pattern of their thermal protection system and better matching the placement of their identification markings.
The SCA was repainted white with a gray underbelly and a blue cheatline running the length of its fuselage along its row of windows. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean and touching down in Cologne, Germany, the 747 gained another new marking behind its cabin door — the number "376" — its ID for its next stop, the Paris Air Show in France.
The same "376" appears on Lego's new model of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. (It is not yet clear if the number is a decal, such that builders can pick how they want to configure the SCA's markings.)
By the time Enterprise was back in the United States and NASA 905 reentered service ferrying Challenger and then the new orbiter, Discovery, in the fall of 1983, the "376" was removed. The rest of the livery remained unchanged until 1995, when NASA 911 (and then NASA 905 in 1996) had the NASA logo on its vertical stabilizer changed from the red "worm" to a simplified version of the "meatball."
The carriers flew with that appearance until the end of the space shuttle program in 2011, when the only addition to NASA 905 was mission markings noting its history ferrying space shuttles, including its flights to deliver the retired orbiters to their museum homes. (Enterprise is now displayed with its tail cone still attached at the Intrepid Museum in New York City, while NASA 905 is on exhibit at Space Center Houston in Texas.)
When assembled from its 2,417 pieces, the Lego Icons Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is just over two feet long (24.8 inches or 63 centimeters) and has a wingspan almost as long (21 inches or 53.5 centimeters). It stands 10.6 inches tall (27 centimeters).
In addition to reproducing the look of both vehicles, the Lego Icons Shuttle Carrier Aircraft features landing gear that can be raised or lowered and the mounting system needed to attach the orbiter atop its back. The Lego model of Enterprise includes an attachable tail cone (used to improve aerodynamics with flying atop the 747), detachable main engines and landing gear that can be tucked inside its payload bay.
The kit also has the pieces to build a sturdy display stand and information plaques, the latter displaying facts about the craft.
The Lego Icons Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (set 10360) is not the first Lego model of the 747 and orbiter combo to be released. Thirty years ago in 1995, the company offered the Shuttle Transcon 2 (6544) as part of its Town theme of building kits. It was a much less detailed model, built from just 342 pieces.
The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is also the second set themed around NASA's winged vehicles be part of the intended for adults Lego Icons line. In 2021, the company introduced its new Space Shuttle Discovery, a 2,354-piece set that built the orbiter and its Hubble Space Telescope payload at 1/70th scale (Enterprise in the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft set is smaller, at roughly 1/112th scale).
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