Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA)

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is a modified Jumbo B747-100 that ferries the Orbiter from a remote landing location back to the launch site. Early in the Shuttle program it was used for the Approach and Landing Test (ALT) Flights that carried the test vehicle "Enterprise" in 1977. In its beginning, the SCA worn the original "American Airlines" colors. Later through the years the SCA was painted completely white with a blue strip and the NASA insignia on its tail.

NASA has 2 SCA's: N905 and N911

The N911 was delivered to NASA on Nov 20, 1990 from Japan Airlines (JAL). The difference between these two is the number of windows on the upper deck of the plane: 2 windows on N905 and 5 windows on N911.

Approach and Landing Tests (ALT)

SCA Papermodel (1:144 scale)

The SCA B747-100 papermodel was made by Richard De Vries from Amsterdam, who kindly modified it specially to match the AXM Space Shuttle in 1:144 scale from this site. Richard is very well known and was the designer of the Wing Supports for my AXM Orbiter as well. This airplane model is based from the original British Airways Jumbo B747-400 version made by K. Kiyonaga from P.Models for the Canon Creativepark website. The modifications to convert it to a B747-100 version included the size of the wings, the turbo engines, the Orbiter support struts and tail stabilizers.

All copyright and credits belong to both designers De Vries and Kiyonaga. This papemodel cannot be commercialized, therefore is a FREE model.

The designer Richard De Vries allowed this site to make the SCA page and to host the SCA files as well.

SCA papermodel designed by Richard De Vries

SCA with current NASA paint scheme
SCA with AXM Orbiter and Tailcone (1:144 scale)
SCA escorted by T-38 Talons
T-38 Talon (1:144 scale)

All photos are property of designer Richard De Vries

Download Files

In order to build this model is important to download the "Original B747-400 files" (see below) to obtain the original parts of the plane from the Canon Creativepark website. When building the SCA either the original AA or current versions, just replace the parts from the Original file. Do not use the original wings nor the original engines, because these belong to the B747-400 version. The SCA is a modified Jumbo B747-100 with smaller wings and different engines.

Matching T-38 talons

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