Some pictures from the AASE II mission

Here is a video clip of an ER-2 takeoff during AASE II. (This clip is about 42 seconds long, and its MPEG file occupies 3,028,228 bytes.) The protrusion under the fuselage just behind the cockpit is the intake for several of the instruments, and it is known as "the football." You can also see two instrument probes sticking out of the starboard wing pod. The ground is covered with ice and snow because this is Bangor, Maine, in December 1991. This footage was shot from the ground crew van. When the ER-2 taxis, its long wings are held up by special wheels, called "pogos," to keep them from dragging on the ground. When it takes off, the pogos drop off onto the runway. The van is at the runway so that the crew can do last-minute checks of the aircraft, and so they can quickly collect the pogos so that commercial air traffic can resume at the airport.