SOFIA Airborne Observatory Debuts at NASA-Dryden

  Grandson of Charles Lindbergh Rededicates the
Boeing 747SP Aircraft as Clipper Lindbergh

June 27, 2007

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, was officially welcomed on June 27, 2007 to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Facility adjacent to Edwards Air Force Base in southern California's Mojave Desert.

For SOFIA's "debut" celebration, the main doors of the central hangar at Dryden were opened, with SOFIA on the apron. Invited guests included current and former SOFIA program personnel, staff from Dryden plus Edwards AFB, and some VIPs.

Erik Lindbergh, grandson of aviator Charles Lindbergh, was there to re-dedicate the SOFIA aircraft as the Clipper Lindbergh. Anne Morrow Lindbergh originally dedicated the same aircraft into commercial service with that name, which in turn was on the 50th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh's first solo crossing of the Atlantic.

Read the Dryden X-Press article. (pdf)

Read Dana Backman's Space.com article. (pdf)