Bucks County Could See Low-Flying NASA Research Aircraft

A NASA P-3 Orion aircraft at Wallops Flight Facility. Credit: Andrian Liem/NASA

Philadelphia-area residents may see low-flying aircraft over the next several days as NASA conducts a series of atmospheric research flights.

Starting Sunday and running through Thursday, two research planes will fly at low altitudes over the region.

The flights are part of NASA’s Student Airborne Research Program (SARP), an eight-week summer internship that gives undergraduate students hands-on experience in scientific research.

The flights will be conducted by a NASA P-3 Orion aircraft and a King Air B200, both equipped with scientific instruments to collect atmospheric data.

The P-3 is a four-engine turboprop aircraft outfitted with a six-instrument science payload, while the King Air B200, which is contracted by NASA, will fly an independent profile simultaneously.

According to NASA officials, the planes will operate at altitudes lower than typical commercial flights, with pilots performing specialized maneuvers, including vertical spirals between 1,000 and 10,000 feet and circling above power plants, landfills, and urban areas.

The pilots will also conduct occasional missed approaches and low-altitude flybys along runways at local airports to collect air samples near the surface.

In addition to Philadelphia, the flights will take place over Baltimore. There will be later flights over Virginia cities and the Los Angeles Basin, Salton Sea, and Central Valley in California.

“The SARP flights have become mainstays of NASA’s Airborne Science Program, as they expose highly competitive STEM students to real-world data gathering within a dynamic flight environment,” said Brian Bernth, chief of flight operations at NASA Wallops.

Students participating in the program will assist in operating the instruments on the aircraft to collect the data, according to NASA.

Bernth said the flight require the need for careful coordination.

“Our P-3 is being flown and performing maneuvers in some of most complex and restricted airspace in the country,” said Bernth. “Tight coordination and crew resource management is needed to ensure that these flights are executed with precision but also safely.”

The flights are part of a broader effort to provide students with a scientific campaign experience.

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