The Proteus is a unique aircraft designed as a high-altitude, long-duration telecommunications relay platform, with potential for use on atmospheric sampling and Earth monitoring science missions as well.
It was designed by Burt Rutan, president of Scaled Composites, and built during 1997-98 at the firm’s development facility in Mojave, CA. Normally flown by two pilots in a pressurized cabin, the Proteus also has potential to perform its missions semi-autonomously.
ER-2 tail number 709, is an Airborne Science ER-2s used as science platforms.
Test pilots Bruce Peterson, Milt Thompson, Don Mallick and Chuck Yeager in the cockpit of the M2-F1.
NASA’s DC-8 airborne science laboratory banks low over the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.
The X-36 technology demonstrator shows off its distinctive shape as the remotely piloted aircraft flies a research mission over the Southern California desert on October 30, 1997.