That time a Concorde raced a solar eclipse accross the Sahara

Its a fantastic read. Using the then in testing Concord, astronomers would exploit its top speed to allow for over 70 minutes of viewing as opposed to the 7 if they were on the ground. Coupled with the high altitude it promised to be quite a view. The UK apparently behind in their testing declined but the French answered the call offering prototype 001. Cruising at Mach 2.05 and FL56. They conducted 5 experiments and observations for those 74 minutes and easily had more viewing time than any other scientist prior

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What an incredible story, I'd never heard it before. As an astronomer, I'm jealous.

For a while people were looking at putting telescopes in aircraft as a compromise between ground-based and space-based observing. SOFIA is the main example but pretty much a boondoggle:

en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: wirehead

It's predecessor was one of the few C-141A models that didn't get upgraded to a B. There were four I think. One went to NASA for a telescope mount.

East to west maybe? Cool history there

Do you guys agree that's a cramped one, I guess I'm a weeny, but I couldn't go on a long flight in it

Nice find, very interesting, I'd agree, stuff like this probably wouldnt be possible today.

Chasing the sun reminded me about this small bit from a very known story:

Osirak Revisited

Ze’ev Raz was the leader of the IDF attack force that bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in June 1981. Today he works at Elta Systems LTD, one of Israel’s leading defense electronics companies and a subdivision of Israel Aerospace Industries

[...] It takes an hour and a half to get back from Iraq to Israel and we were flying 40,000 feet above the ground. The General Staff originally wanted us to carry out the bombing after sunset so it would be harder for the Iraqis to attack us on the way back. But I was opposed to that. I thought if we did the bombing after sunset there wouldn’t be enough light and our planes would miss their target – so I insisted that the bombing take place before sunset.

As a result, we flew back as the sun was setting. But since the planes were traveling at such a fast speed, the sun was out all the time and never set. It was as though it remained standing in the middle of the horizon.

At that time we pilots all radioed each other reciting the same exact biblical verse – Joshua 10:12: "Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and moon, over the Valley of Ayalon."

You know, as I am recalling this now I am getting goose bumps.

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