In the 1970s, NASA awarded Boeing Aerospace a contract to convert a de Havilland of Canada C-8A Buffalo into a research aircraft to develop quiet short range STOL transport technologies that could be applied in close-in metropolitan air terminals. Boeing built the QSRA at its Developmental Center at Boeing Field. The aircraft's design goals included developing quietier operating noise levels, steep and short landing approaches and low-speed flight. The QSRA demonstrated low-speed flights of 58 mph.