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    HL-10 First Rocket Flight

    Uploaded by

    Bob Andrepont
    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) HL-10 lifting body aircraft is scheduled to make its first rocket-powered flight on Tuesday. The HL-10 has previously conducted 11 unpowered glide flights to study aerodynamic handling at subsonic speeds. The upcoming flight will investigate behavior and controllability in the transonic speed range from Mach 0.8 to 1.2, with the goal of simulating maneuvers needed for spacecraft returning from space. Major Jerauld Gentry will pilot the HL-10 on this first rocket flight, launching from 40,000 feet and climbing to 45,000 feet before gliding back to land.

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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    HL-10 First Rocket Flight

    Uploaded by

    Bob Andrepont
    70 views4 pages
    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) HL-10 lifting body aircraft is scheduled to make its first rocket-powered flight on Tuesday. The HL-10 has previously conducted 11 unpowered glide flights to study aerodynamic handling at subsonic speeds. The upcoming flight will investigate behavior and controllability in the transonic speed range from Mach 0.8 to 1.2, with the goal of simulating maneuvers needed for spacecraft returning from space. Major Jerauld Gentry will pilot the HL-10 on this first rocket flight, launching from 40,000 feet and climbing to 45,000 feet before gliding back to land.

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    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) HL-10 lifting body aircraft is scheduled to make its first rocket-powered flight on Tuesday. The HL-10 has previously conducted 11 unpowered glide flights to study aerodynamic handling at subsonic speeds. The upcoming flight will investigate behavior and controllability in the transonic speed range from Mach 0.8 to 1.2, with the goal of simulating maneuvers needed for spacecraft returning from space. Major Jerauld Gentry will pilot the HL-10 on this first rocket flight, launching from 40,000 feet and climbing to 45,000 feet before gliding back to land.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    70 views4 pages

    HL-10 First Rocket Flight

    Uploaded by

    Bob Andrepont
    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) HL-10 lifting body aircraft is scheduled to make its first rocket-powered flight on Tuesday. The HL-10 has previously conducted 11 unpowered glide flights to study aerodynamic handling at subsonic speeds. The upcoming flight will investigate behavior and controllability in the transonic speed range from Mach 0.8 to 1.2, with the goal of simulating maneuvers needed for spacecraft returning from space. Major Jerauld Gentry will pilot the HL-10 on this first rocket flight, launching from 40,000 feet and climbing to 45,000 feet before gliding back to land.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 4

    P 6 -1U

    -8 9v
    NNATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION TEE WO 2-4155
    NW WASHINGTON,D .C. 20546 WO 3-6925

    FOR RELEASE: SUNDAY


    October 20, 1968
    RELEASE NO: 68-178

    HL-10 FIRST ROCKET FL1GHTII

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's


    HL-10 lifting body, a wingless experimental craft, is
    expected to make its first rocket-propelled flight
    Tuesday.

    The HL-10, .'ie of several research vehicles under


    study in the Jol-t. NASA-USAF programi for manned spacecraft
    of the future, is intended to land under full control of its
    pilot. The flight test program is investigating p:l oting
    problems and flight characteristics under conditions that
    represent the terminal portion of space flight from low
    supersonic speeds down to final approach and landing.

    Rocket propulsion will permit higher speeds and eventually


    will push the HL-10 to velocities above -he speed of sounds

    NASA's Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., has made 11


    glide flights of the HL-1Q to study the aerodynamic and handling
    qualities at subsonic speeds.

    -more- 1O/l'3/68
    - 2

    These flights, launched at 45,000 feet from a B-52 airplane,


    descended in a four-minute glide to landing on the Rogers dry
    lake at Edwards.

    The next series of flights will be rocket propelled to


    investigate the behavior of the vehicle and its controllability
    in the transonic speed range (Mach 0.8-1.2). For the first on
    rocket power, the pilot will be Maj. Jerauld R. Gentry, USAF.

    He will be air-launched at 4.0,000 feet over a point about eight


    miles northwest of Lancaster, Calif., then will descend to about
    36,000 as he ignites the rocket engine.

    From that altitude, Gentry will climb to the planned maxi-


    mum altitude of 45,000 feet. As the HL-10 is climbing through
    43,000 feet, 165 seconds after launch, the rocket engine will
    shut down from fuel exhaustion, reaching maximum speed of Mach
    0.8 (about 600 mph).,

    The pilot will then glide into the landing pattern. The
    landing pattern and approach will be almost identical to those
    of the previous glide flights. He has practiced the burnout-to-
    landing sequence on unpowered flights.

    The flight path is planned to remain near two dry Sake beds,
    for emergency land!ng in case the rocket engine malfunctions.

    -more-
    -3-

    Later flights will increase the speed and altitude of the


    HL-10 step by step, eventually reaching Lhe maximum design speed
    of nearly twice the speed of sound and altitude of about OOOO

    feet.

    An ultimate objective of the joint NASA-Air Force lifting

    body research flight program is to simulate the entire terminal


    and approach maneuvering task required of an actual lifting body
    returning from space.

    The HL-10 will use the 8,000-pound-thrust XLR-ll rocket


    engine, built by Reaction Motors Division of Thiokol Chemical
    Corp., Denville, N.J., which powered the X-1 research airplane
    past the speed of sound in 1947.

    The fcur-barrel engine burns ethyl alcohol-waer mixture


    and liquid oxygen propellants. For the initial powered flights,
    only two chambers will be used, producing half "thre available
    thrust.

    The basic design features of the HLE-10 were developed by


    NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. The craft was
    built by Norair Division of the Northrop Corp., Hawthorne,

    Calif.

    -more-
    NAS

    - ~
    \F-1t*-

    27

    CENTER A
    MOJA

    \Ti ER ROGERS|
    NIP DRY
    C, LAKE

    BUCKHORN
    .~J DRY LAKE

    - ROSAMOND
    ROSAMOND DRY LA

    FLIGHT
    ___--_POWERED

    °S\:::::- . GLIDE FLIGHT

    LANCASTER

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