This is without a doubt one of my favorite catches of all time! Yes, it is N747NA, the Boeing 747SP from the NASA which is affectionally called SOFIA. This very special one of a kind 747 is a flying telescope that NASA developed together with the German Aerospace Center for infrared astronomy. It houses a huge telescope in the back of the plane, and has special door which can open inflight to let the telescope do its magic. N747NA is close to 44 years old, but certainly does not look that old! She's equipped with the absolutely brilliant sounding Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines which are the original classic Boeing 747 powerplants. She started out in 1977 with PanAm as the Clipper Lindbergh. She also flew with United Airlines before NASA converted the aircraft into the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. Cool fact, She still wears the Clipper Lindbergh name on the left side of the plane! Watch out for that when you watch this video! It has been an exciting journey to catch SOFIA. She arrived in Hamburg in early October last year for some months of heavy maintenance by Lufthansa Technik. Early February this year maintenance was completed and she flew to Cologne where I caught her arriving. She was based these for a series of missions. During that time I tried to catch her again but I only got some shots of her on the ground. The flight was cancelled that day due to an technical issue. She completed her missions though and last tuesday she departed Cologne again going home to Palmdale in the USA. I really wanted to catch her take off so I went to Cologne again experienced one of the best moments of my life. A beautiful, very powerfull take off! An awesome roar by the engines and rotation at the perfect spot! Incredible! I have to admit I kinda fell in love with this plane and I hope to see it again one day! This is my second 747SP catch by the way. I also caught one from the Oman Government at London Stansted in 2019. So here is the video with all the footage I took of SOFIA; the arrival in early February, some static shots later that month and the departure last tuesday.

This video is dedicated to all my friends who joined me in the chase to catch SOFIA and also to the very kind people who provided information which helped us to catch this beautiful 747SP! Enjoy!

#sofia​ #nasa​ #747sp