The experiment's goal was to provide in-flight data to help Lockheed Martin validate the computational predictive tools they developed to design the craft. LASRE was a NASA experiment in cooperation with Lockheed Martin to study a reusable launch vehicle design based on a linear aerospike rocket engine. Main article: Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment
Also, instrumented crash test dummies were in the airplane for the impact, and provided valuable research into other aspects of crash survivability for the occupants.Ī modern Skunk Works project leverages an older: LASRE atop an SR-71 Blackbird. The additive still prevented the combustion of some fuel which flowed over the fuselage of the aircraft, and served to cool it, similar to how a conventional rocket engine cools its nozzle. Despite the new fuel additive, the resulting fire ball was huge the fire still took an hour to fully extinguish.Įven though the fuel additive did not prevent a fire, the research was not a complete failure. On December 1, 1984, a remotely piloted Boeing 720 aircraft was flown into specially built wing openers which tore the wings open, fuel spraying everywhere. The Controlled Impact Demonstration was a joint project with the Federal Aviation Administration to research a new jet fuel that would decrease the damage due to fire in the crash of a large airliner. Unlike the X-1, the Skyrocket could also takeoff from a runway with the help of JATO units.Ĭontrolled Impact Demonstration Main article: Controlled Impact DemonstrationĪ remotely piloted Boeing 720 is destroyed in the Controlled Impact Demonstration. Like the X-1, the D-558-II could be air-launched using a B-29 Superfortress. On November 20, 1953, the Douglas Skyrocket became the first aircraft to fly at over twice the speed of sound when it attained a speed of Mach 2.005. It conducted extensive tests into aircraft stability in the transsonic range, optimal supersonic wing configurations, rocket plume effects, and high-speed flight dynamics. A successor to the Air Force's Bell X-1, the D-558-II could operate under rocket or jet power. NASA's predecessor, NACA, operated the Douglas Skyrocket. NACA's Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket being dropped from a B-29 Superfortress ĭouglas Skyrocket Main article: Douglas Skyrocket
The aircraft was retired and is currently on display near the North Gate of Edwards. Until 2004, Armstrong Flight Research Center operated the oldest B-52 Stratofortress bomber, a B-52B model (tail number 008) which had been converted to drop test aircraft, dubbed ' Balls 8.' It dropped a large number of supersonic test vehicles, ranging from the X-15 to its last research program, the hypersonic X-43A, powered by a Pegasus rocket. He succeeded Kevin Petersen, who retired in April 2008. David McBride is currently the center's director. It was also the home of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to Kennedy Space Center if one landed at Edwards. The facility is NASA's premier site for aeronautical research and operates some of the most advanced aircraft in the world. Similarly the Western Aeronautical Test Range at the facility was renamed the NASA Hugh L. The facility was renamed, effective March 1, 2014, the Armstrong Flight Research Center in honor of Neil Armstrong, the first human being to walk on the surface of the moon. First known as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Muroc Flight Test Unit, the DFRC has also been known as the High-Speed Flight Research Station (1949) and the High-Speed Flight Station (1954). Dryden, a prominent aeronautical engineer who at the time of his death in 1965 was NASA's deputy administrator, and it is still variously known as Dryden or the Dryden Flight Research Center ( DFRC) while the details of the name change are decided (the name change to AFRC went into effect on March 1, 2014). It was originally named in honor of Hugh L. The Armstrong Flight Research Center, located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA.
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