@ Mojave, CA
October 2022
One of the gate guards at Mojave Air & Space Port is this retired NASA Convair 990. NASA 810, a former medium-altitude atmospheric research aircraft, was modified at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center where it became a landing systems research aircraft (LSRA) to test and evaluate brakes and landing gear systems on Space Shuttles and conventional aircraft. Testing of Space Shuttle components with this modified Convair 990 began in early 1993. First flown in 1961 with American Airlines as the launch customer, only 37 of these airliners would be produced. NASA 810 became a gate guard here in 2008.
