Strange STOL Research Aircraft For Sale

An oddball piece of aerospace research history is up for auction by the General Services Administration. NASA's Quiet Short-Haul Research Aircraft is being sold as is from the ramp at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California. The high bid is currently $10,001, but the plane was also built on a shoestring using a donated De Havilland Buffalo and engines left over from another research project, according to FLYING Magazine. The GSA says the plane, which has been sitting outside for decades, "has not been maintained to FAA standards" but says it might be made airworthy again.

Back in the 1970s when STOL was seen as an answer to efficient interurban mobility, NASA decided to see just how slow it could get an airplane capable of carrying a commercially viable load of passengers without making a lot of noise. The Buffalo came out of the factory with some pretty impressive STOL characteristics, but NASA leveraged that with four wing-mounted jet engines that blew bleed air across the top of the wing and delayed the boundary layer separating. That reduced the stall speed to about 50 knots. NASA had to use a Harrier as a chase plane for the flight testing. The plane was also tested for potential carrier operations by the Navy.