MAKE A MEME View Large Image X-15A-2 and HL-10 parked on NASA ramp DVIDS715373.jpg en Both the HL-10 and X-15A2 shown here parked beside one another on the NASA ramp in 1966 underwent modifications The X-15 No 2 had been damaged in a crash landing in November 1962 ...
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Keywords: X-15A-2 and HL-10 parked on NASA ramp DVIDS715373.jpg en Both the HL-10 and X-15A2 shown here parked beside one another on the NASA ramp in 1966 underwent modifications The X-15 No 2 had been damaged in a crash landing in November 1962 Subsequently the fuselage was lengthened and it was outfitted with two large drop tanks These modifications allowed the X-15A-2 to reach the speed of Mach 6 7 On the HL-10 the stability problems that appeared on the first flight at the end of 1966 required a reshaping of the fins' leading edges to eliminate the separated airflow that was causing the unstable flight By cambering the leading edges of the fins the HL-10 team achieved attached flow and stable flight The HL-10 was one of five heavyweight lifting-body designs flown at NASA's Flight Research Center FRC--later Dryden Flight Research Center Edwards California from July 1966 to November 1975 to study and validate the concept of safely maneuvering and landing a low lift-over-drag vehicle designed for reentry from space Northrop Corporation built the HL-10 and M2-F2 the first two of the fleet of heavy lifting bodies flown by the NASA Flight Research Center The contract for construction of the HL-10 and the M2-F2 was 1 8 million HL stands for horizontal landing and 10 refers to the tenth design studied by engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center Hampton Va After delivery to NASA in January 1966 the HL-10 made its first flight on Dec 22 1966 with research pilot Bruce Peterson in the cockpit Although an XLR-11 rocket engine was installed in the vehicle the first 11 drop flights from the B-52 launch aircraft were powerless glide flights to assess handling qualities stability and control In the end the HL-10 was judged to be the best handling of the three original heavy-weight lifting bodies M2-F2/F3 HL-10 X-24A The HL-10 was flown 37 times during the lifting body research program and logged the highest altitude and fastest speed in the Lifting Body program On Feb 18 1970 Air Force test pilot Peter Hoag piloted the HL-10 to Mach 1 86 1 228 mph Nine days later NASA pilot Bill Dana flew the vehicle to 90 030 feet which became the highest altitude reached in the program Some new and different lessons were learned through the successful flight testing of the HL-10 These lessons when combined with information from it's sister ship the M2-F2/F3 provided an excellent starting point for designers of future entry vehicles including the Space Shuttle The X-15 was a rocket-powered aircraft roughly 50 feet long with a wingspan of 22 feet in its original configuration The no 2 aircraft was later modified to become the X-15A-2 First flown in 1959 the three X-15 aircraft made a total of 199 flights Flight maximums of 354 200 feet in altitude and a speed of 4 520 miles per hour were obtained The final flight occurred on Oct 24 1968 The X-15 was manufactured by North American Aviation NAA now a division of Boeing after that firm acquired the Rockwell International Corporation into which NAA had evolved It was a missile-shaped vehicle with an unusual wedge-shaped vertical tail thin stubby wings and unique side fairings that extended along the side of the fuselage The X-15 weighed about 12 295 pounds empty and approximately 31 275 pounds at launch The rocket engine the XLR-99 was pilot-controlled and was capable of developing 57 000 pound of rated thrust and about 60 000 pounds of actual thrust It was manufactured by the Reaction Motors Division of Thiokol Chemical Corp Before that engine was installed the aircraft was powered by two XLR-11 rocket engines The X-15 research aircraft was developed to provide in-flight information and data on aerodynamics structures flight controls and the physiological aspects of high-speed high-altitude flight A follow on program used the aircraft as a testbed to carry various scientific experiments beyond the Earth's atmosphere on a repeated basis For flight in the dense air of the lower atmosphere the X-15 used conventional aerodynamic controls such as vertical stabilizers to control yaw and horizontal stabilizers to control pitch when moving in synchronization or roll when moved differentially For flight in the thin air outside of the appreciable Earth's atmosphere the X-15 used a reaction control system Eight hydrogen-peroxide thrust rockets located on the nose of the aircraft provided pitch and yaw control Four of them on the wings two on each wing furnished roll control Because the X-15 consumed a large amount of fuel it was air launched from a B-52 aircraft at 45 000 feet and a speed of about 500 miles per hour Depending on the mission the rocket engine provided thrust for the first 80 to 120 seconds of flight The remainder of the normal 10- to 11-minute flight was without power and ended with a 200-mile-per-hour glide landing Generally one of two types of X-15 flight profiles was used--a high-altitude flight plan that called for the pilot to maintain a steep rate of climb or a speed profile that called for the pilot to push over and maintain a level altitude NASA Identifier NIX-E-14970 2009-09-23 Glenn Research Center https //www dvidshub net/image/715373 715373 2012-10-10 17 52 WASHINGTON DC US PD-USGov North American X-15 Northrop HL-10 Images from DoD uploaded by Fæ
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