Space Shuttle piggyback

[Silvercloud]

Just talking to my 8 year old about the US space shuttle & how they'd transport it on the back of a plane.
I have a memory, as a kid, of seeing this fly overhead sometime in the 80's.
Is this a real memory or am I making it up after seeing it in the TV?
I can't think of a reason why the space shuttle would be flying piggyback over Tameside.

 

[MCFCTrick]

Dunno, but after seeing that, they can fuck right off with that 'baggage allowence' shite from now on....

 

[goon]

The 'piggyback' went on a world tour in the eighties. It was due to land at Manchester Airport but Thatcher intervened and demanded it landed at Stanstead (Stanstead had just been granted government funding for expansion as the third London airport and Thatcher was no fan of the provincies). As a means of pacification the 'piggyback' overflew Manchester Airport the next day. I was a pupil at Poundswick High School right near the airport and we had an extended break in the morning so we could look out for it. It was a typical Manchester day and the plane was only visible for a few seconds as it popped out of the clouds.

 

[mcfcnorthstand]

I remember seeing that as a kid flying over North Manchester

 

[danebanksheik]

I remember seeing it from the Scottish Widows building on Portland Street flying really low over the city centre.

 

[Silvercloud]

Thank God for that. Thought I was going mad & my kids were taking the piss out of me. Cheers fella's.

 

[Dalian Blue]

The 'piggyback' went on a world tour in the eighties. It was due to land at Manchester Airport but Thatcher intervened and demanded it landed at Stanstead (Stanstead had just been granted government funding for expansion as the third London airport and Thatcher was no fan of the provincies). As a means of pacification the 'piggyback' overflew Manchester Airport the next day. I was a pupil at Poundswick High School right near the airport and we had an extended break in the morning so we could look out for it. It was a typical Manchester day and the plane was only visible for a few seconds as it popped out of the clouds.

It was around June/July 1983, I'd just started a new job and had a good view of it for quite a while from near the BT tower at Heaton Park

 

[ancoats]

back in the 80s i was on the miners estate in moston and it did a loop around the british aerospace great site

 

[LongsightM13]

I was just talking about this with someone last week!
1983 sounds about right, our whole school was let out into the yard to see it. The shuttle was on the back of a 747 jumbo jet.
They did a similar thing at school when Concorde made one if its rare visits to Manchester. That was also always big news back then.
Sad that neither of these amazing feats of human ingenuity and resourcefulness are still flying.

 

[m7mcfc]

Brought back memories we were all on the yard at my primary school as well.