  The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, is the
largest flying observatory ever built,consisting of a 2.7-meter diameter
telescope embedded in a modified Boeing 747-SP aircraft. SOFIA is a joint
project between NASA and the German Aerospace Center Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft
und-Raumfahrt (DLR). By flying at altitudes up to 45000 feet, the observatory
gets above 99.9 percent of the infrared-absorbing water vapor in the Earth's
atmosphere. This opens up an almost uninterrupted wavelength range from
0.3-1600 microns that is in large part obscured from ground based
observatories. Since its 'Initial Science Flight' in December 2010, SOFIA has
flown several dozen science flights, and has observed a wide array of objects
from Solar System bodies, to stellar nurseries, to distant galaxies. This paper
reviews a few of the exciting new science results from these first flights
which were made by three instruments: the mid-infrared camera FORCAST, the
far-infrared heterodyne spectrometer GREAT, and the optical occultation
photometer HIPO.

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics