How a piece of Bert Hinkler's glider survived NASA's Challenger disaster and shaped today's industry

  • 📰 abcnews
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 33 sec. here
  • 12 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 52%
  • Publisher: 83%

Bert Hinkler News

Nasa,Nasa Challenger,Challenger Explosion

The great-niece of Bert Hinkler offers a rare insight into how the fragment from a glider flown by the aviation pioneer came to be aboard the doomed space shuttle and its unlikely discovery in the Atlantic Ocean.

It's been nearly 40 years since this history-making glider fragment — not much bigger than your hand — headed into orbit only to end up in one of the world's worst space disasters.

"We just heard through Dad that he was pretty famous and he was flying and he crashed into a mountain." Lieutenant General Scobee was one of seven astronauts on NASA's space shuttle Challenger that lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida in January 1986. The recovered glider fragment was returned to Bundaberg a year later in 1987 when Lieutenant General Scobee's widow, June Scobee, visited Australia.He said the historical piece, on display in the Hinkler Hall of Aviation over the past four decades, symbolised the progress in aviation and space exploration."He was at the very cutting edge of aviation development.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 5. in MY

Malaysia Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Malaysia Headlines