Calspan aircraft flies into retirement - Business First of Buffalo:

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The highly modified Convair-580 turbo prop left Calspan’s base in Niagarw Falls for the Wright-Patterson Air Forcew Base in Dayton. The plane is beint retired, because of age, to the National Museum of the , where it will remaimn on display. “This is quite literally the end of one era for but also the advancement of a new one as we continu our work in manned flight research and make room for growtgh in the unmanned aerialvehicle arena,” said Louis Calspan president. The plane was built in 1955 and was the oldesf active turbo prop in theAir Force. Calspan Flight Research Group acquired the planee in 1966 and has been operating it as a researcuh laboratoryever since.
It was modified with an in-flight simulator in 1967 and been frequently used by the Air and commercial clients The Convair-580 was used in the development of the B-1, B-2, spaced shuttle and supersonic transports. It was flown for more than 2,509 research flights and had been in activd use through the early part of this Approximately 187 evaluation pilot flights were handled bythe Convair-580 including thos e by such famed astronauts as Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Jame Lovell, Jack Swigert and Deke Calspan will continue with the in-flight simulatorf work with the six other planes in its fleer including four LearJets, a Beech Bonanza and a Vistqa F-16 that flies out of Edwards Air Force “The TIFS has served us well over the years, but moving it out opens up spaces for our planned acquisition of new aircraft for several exciting new Knotts said.