[El Gato]

I forget... was Enterprise ever "flown" to a landing after being carried aloft, or did it only ride on the Shuttle Transport aircraft?

They flew it to a landing, several times, IIRC... let's see what we can find...

OV-101 from NASA says that there were 5 captive flights with Enterprise unmanned and inert, 3 manned captive flights, and 5 free flight "drops". The last two of them were flown without the "tail cone" and the last one landed on the concrete runway rather than the dry lake.

[El Gato]

Here's pic of Enterprise flying free of the 747 on it's first free flight, with the NASA caption below:

NASA Photo ID: S77-27945 File Name: 10076590.jpg Film Type: 35mm Date Taken: 08/12/77 Title: Orbiter "Enterprise" soars above the NASA 747 carrier Description: The Shuttle Orbiter 101 "Enterprise" soars above the NASA 747 carrier aircraft after separating during the first free flight of the Shuttle Apporach and Landing Tests (ALTs) conducted on August 12, 1977 at Dryden Flight Research Center in Southern California. Astronauts Fred W. Haise Jr., and C. Gordon Fullerton were the crew of the "Enterprise." The ALT free flights are designed to verify Orbiter subsonic airworthiness, integrated systems operations and pilot-guided approach and landing capability and satisfying prerequisites to automatic flight control and navigation mode.