Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
E837368
The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft were modified Boeing 747 airliners used by NASA to transport Space Shuttle orbiters on their backs between landing sites, test locations, and launch facilities.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Shuttle Carrier Aircraft canonical | 4 |
| Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft | 1 |
| NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10037838 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Shuttle Carrier Aircraft Context triple: [Enterprise, carriedBy, Shuttle Carrier Aircraft]
-
A.
C-141 Starlifter
The C-141 Starlifter is a retired U.S. Air Force strategic airlifter designed to rapidly transport troops, cargo, and equipment over long distances.
-
B.
KC-10 Extender
The KC-10 Extender is a U.S. Air Force aerial refueling and cargo aircraft derived from the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 airliner, used for long-range tanker and transport missions.
-
C.
Northrop Grumman C-2 Greyhound
The Northrop Grumman C-2 Greyhound is a twin‑engine, high‑wing cargo aircraft used by the U.S. Navy primarily for carrier onboard delivery (COD) missions, transporting personnel, mail, and supplies to and from aircraft carriers.
-
D.
Albemarle transport aircraft
The Albemarle transport aircraft was a British World War II twin-engine aircraft used primarily for airborne operations such as paratroop drops and glider towing.
-
E.
Douglas C-133 Cargomaster
The Douglas C-133 Cargomaster was a large, turboprop-powered U.S. military transport aircraft used primarily by the Air Force for heavy and outsized cargo airlift during the Cold War era.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Shuttle Carrier Aircraft Target entity description: The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft were modified Boeing 747 airliners used by NASA to transport Space Shuttle orbiters on their backs between landing sites, test locations, and launch facilities.
-
A.
C-141 Starlifter
The C-141 Starlifter is a retired U.S. Air Force strategic airlifter designed to rapidly transport troops, cargo, and equipment over long distances.
-
B.
KC-10 Extender
The KC-10 Extender is a U.S. Air Force aerial refueling and cargo aircraft derived from the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 airliner, used for long-range tanker and transport missions.
-
C.
Northrop Grumman C-2 Greyhound
The Northrop Grumman C-2 Greyhound is a twin‑engine, high‑wing cargo aircraft used by the U.S. Navy primarily for carrier onboard delivery (COD) missions, transporting personnel, mail, and supplies to and from aircraft carriers.
-
D.
Albemarle transport aircraft
The Albemarle transport aircraft was a British World War II twin-engine aircraft used primarily for airborne operations such as paratroop drops and glider towing.
-
E.
Douglas C-133 Cargomaster
The Douglas C-133 Cargomaster was a large, turboprop-powered U.S. military transport aircraft used primarily by the Air Force for heavy and outsized cargo airlift during the Cold War era.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
NASA transport aircraft
ⓘ
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft ⓘ Shuttle Carrier Aircraft ⓘ aircraft type ⓘ |
| acquiredByNASA |
1974
ⓘ
1989 ⓘ |
| basedOn |
Boeing 747 airliner
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Boeing 747-100 NERFINISHED ⓘ Boeing 747-100SR NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| designedFor | carrying Space Shuttle orbiter on fuselage top ⓘ |
| developedBy | Boeing in cooperation with NASA NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| displayLocationExample | Space Center Houston NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| enteredServiceWithNASA | 1974 ⓘ |
| feature |
additional instrumentation
ⓘ
attachment struts for orbiter ⓘ reduced passenger interior ⓘ strengthened fuselage ⓘ vertical stabilizer endplate fins ⓘ |
| finalRole | display at Space Center Houston NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasVariant |
NASA 905
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
NASA 911 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| launchAbortSupport | relocation of orbiters after transatlantic or alternate landing ⓘ |
| manufacturer |
Boeing
ⓘ
Boeing ⓘ |
| maxFerrySpeedWithOrbiter | approximately Mach 0.6 ⓘ |
| notableMission |
ferry of Atlantis to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
ⓘ
ferry of Columbia between Kennedy Space Center and Edwards Air Force Base ⓘ ferry of Discovery to Washington Dulles International Airport for museum display ⓘ ferry of Endeavour to Los Angeles for museum display ⓘ transport of Enterprise for Approach and Landing Tests ⓘ |
| numberBuilt | 2 ⓘ |
| operator | NASA ⓘ |
| primaryUser | NASA NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| registrationExample |
N905NA
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
N911NA NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| retired |
2012
ⓘ
2012 ⓘ |
| servicePeriod |
2012
ⓘ
late 1970s ⓘ |
| status | retired ⓘ |
| subclassOf | Boeing 747 variant NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| successorInRole | overland transport by road for retired orbiters ⓘ |
| typicalFerryAltitudeWithOrbiter |
15000 feet
GENERATED
ⓘ
20000 feet GENERATED ⓘ |
| usedFor |
approach and landing tests support
ⓘ
ferry flights between landing sites and launch facilities ⓘ transporting Space Shuttle orbiters ⓘ |
| usedInProgram | Space Shuttle program NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Shuttle Carrier Aircraft Description of subject: The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft were modified Boeing 747 airliners used by NASA to transport Space Shuttle orbiters on their backs between landing sites, test locations, and launch facilities.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
this entity surface form:
Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft