It was acquired in 1974 and initially used for trailing wake vortex research as part of a broader study by NASA Dryden, as well as Shuttle tests involving an F-104 flying in close formation and simulating a release from the 747.

Since there was no urgent need to provide an aerial refueling capacity, the tests were suspended.By 1983, SCA N905NA no longer carried the distinct American Airlines tricolor cheatline.

[10] That year, after secretly being fitted with an infrared countermeasures system to protect it from heat-seeking missiles,[11] it was also used to fly Enterprise on a tour in Europe, with refueling stops in Goose Bay, Canada; Keflavik, Iceland; England; and West Germany.

[14] Boeing transported its Phantom Ray unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator from St. Louis, Missouri, to Edwards on a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on December 11, 2010.

[15] The Approach and Landing Tests were a series of taxi and flight trials of the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise, conducted at Edwards Air Force Base in 1977.

Discovery was flown to the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum at the Dulles International Airport on April 17, 2012, making low-level passes over Washington, D.C. landmarks before landing.

The last ferry flight took Endeavour from Kennedy Space Center to Los Angeles between September 19 and 21, 2012 with refueling stops at Ellington Field and Edwards Air Force Base.

After leaving Edwards the SCA with Endeavour performed low level flyovers above various landmarks across California, from Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay Area, before finally being delivered to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

From there the orbiter was transported through the streets of Los Angeles and Inglewood to its final destination, the California Science Center in Exposition Park.

Shuttle Carrier N911NA was retired on February 8, 2012, after its final mission to the Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base in Palmdale, California, and was used as a source of parts for NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) aircraft, another modified Boeing 747.

[18] N911NA is now preserved and on display at the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark in Palmdale, California as part of a long-term loan to the city from NASA.

[22] N905NA was flown to Ellington Field where it was carefully dismantled, ferried to the Johnson Space Center in seven major pieces (a process called The Big Move), reassembled, and finally mated with the replica shuttle in August 2014.