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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1557.PDF
661FLIGHT, 26 October1961 "Hignc" pnotograph This new photograph of a B-70 model reveals the camber and curvature of the wing leading edge; in earlier illustrations the wing was a pure delta WEST COAST RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS OF THE RECENT US VICE-PRESIDENTIAL TOUR BY IAIN PIKE RIGHT on time on October 3, the Boeing VC-137A carryingVice-President Lyndon Johnson to California rolled to ahalt at Moffett Field. The military precision with which the tour was carried out called for a tribute to the organizers. TheVice-President's reasons for making this particular trip—after an exhausting pace of travel outside the US in the previous few weeks—can be best described in his own words. "At the request of President Kennedy, I have come here to visit withyou, to learn as much as I can of the actual operation of one of America's most vital programmes, and to help him prepare recommendation forstepping up the space programme to even greater heights. In Washington, it is all too easy a matter to conclude that the work is being done in thenation's capital. Actually, however, we know that a major share of it is being done right here by the dedicated scientists, technicians, andworkers of America. "This Administration has a very deep appreciation of the urgency ofour space programme. The road to future strength and future prosperity —and we hope to future peace—lies through outer space. As the leaderof the Free World, the United States must travel that road confidently and as rapidly as possible. To that end, the Congress which justadjourned stepped up our space programme and backed the President, who had ordered 'full steam ahead.' The money involved will be thebest investment America ever made—because of your efforts. "I am here to listen and to learn. As chairman of the National Aero-nautics and Space Council, I have the responsibility of making recom- mendations to the President. I learned many years ago that a man'sjudgment on any given subject is no better than his information. I am coming here because you are the source of that information, just as yourepresent the source of America's greatest strength—the scientific know-how that someday in the forseeable future will take us to theMoon and even beyond." It must be evident that a two-day tour of four major NASA spaceoperations in California could be no more than "once over lightly." It is equally evident that political considerations were of equal, ifnot greater, importance in keeping the Vice-President technically up to date. Ames Research Center From the Moffett ramp the Johnsonparty was ushered into the flight-simulation laboratory, where there was a short discussion on the problems of piloting manned spacevehicles. As with all briefings held on the tour, time was very short. Ten minutes was considered adequate for an excursion into themain areas discussed. The two motion simulators being used for initial research into pilot problems expected in the Apollo man-in-space vehicle were set into motion. They showed conclusively why such elaborate simulators are needed in such projects. Therefollowed a presentation of differences between aircraft and space- craft problems: the spacecraft has low damping, weak controls,different control inter-actions and guidance problems, and an entirely new environment posing many hazards. The discussion ofenvironment turned to the emergency systems required. Judging by the exhibit of a fighter-like escape seat, no man on his way tospace can expect to have much apparatus to save his life once beyond the initial launching boost phase. The flight envelope of the SST was turned to only briefly. Majorproblem areas were listed as: matching the propulsion system to the airframe; the transonic speed range; fuel problems; and low-speed characteristics, with reference to landing roll and attitude. In a chart showing the speed development of previous transports,there were question marks in lines devoted to the B-70. It was candidly announced that the speed range of the B-70 would providemuch data of interest, but that the aircraft itself had been designed with little consideration for noise problems, sonic boom included.The B-70 was going to accelerate at much lower altitudes than those considered reasonable for operating an SST. The military werelittle concerned with the high-speed landing characteristics of the B-70, compared with the desirable low-speed envelope for the SST. Charles Harper, chief of the full-scale and flight systems division,suggested that a motion simulator would be of great assistance in developing a supersonic transport. This simulator could be used in studying the pilot's control problem across the entire flightenvelope. Such a machine should be in design a year from now, to be operating by 1965 to help the designer face handling problemsafter models have passed through tunnel design stage. The audience was fascinated when a pilot went through the operating parametersof various configuration, weight, and speed modes in a transport simulator. A "what the pilot saw" readout displayed on a closed-circuit TV screen emphasized the problems of landing such an aircraft in simulated reduced visibility. The way the simulatedhigh-intensity lighting flashed on and off the screen after breakout in a low ceiling at high speed—off track—was ample demonstrationof the problem to an audience who were probably unaware of the physical difficulties facing the man up at the sharp end. A relief from the outpourings of facts and figures about simula-tion came with a flying demonstration of STOL and VTOL research. Ames Research Center is based on Moffett Field, an active NavyAir Station located some forty miles south of San Francisco. The Lockheed C-130D, with boundary-layer control over theflaps and control surfaces, gunned into the air, lightly laden, in about 600ft; and while it was going around in the landing pattern,the Bell X-14A danced a light fantastic over the grass. Up and down and around, at 30ft, two GE J85s (replacing BristolSiddeley Vipers) burned a sizeable patch in the grass. Any jet VTOL gives me the impression of being on the verge of tumblingout of control, but the X-14A demonstrated just about every manoeuvre known. It has demonstrated hover ability at altitudesas high as 5,000ft. And then the STOL C-130 approached at 70kt, touched at 60kt and braked hard in 500ft (that's what the mansaid). The rebuilt Ryan VZ-3RY Vertiplane, which uses the deflected-slipstream principle for its VTOL performance, wasparked as an exhibit next to the Army Bell XV-3 with its huge swivelling rotors. 5150,000 and several months of banging haverestored the ungainly Ryan to flying condition after a fatal acccident. Julian Allen, Assistant Director of Ames, told the Vice-Presidentthat the Apollo spacecraft would enter the Earth's atmosphere at 25,000 m.p.h., which is twice as fast as the Mercury capsule andcreates 30,000 BThUs per pound of vehicle weight. Dissipating this amount of energy is a major problem, but later in the tour thesolution at least seemed to be well on its way. Apollo will have to re-enter the atmosphere tangentially, and orbit the Earth oncebefore landing. The Atlas Mercury does not have to reach escape velocity, but a figure of 23,000 m.p.h. was quoted for the Apolloexit—a speed which was compared with meteor velocity, something covered later in the tour. Hypersonic wind-tunnel director ClarenceA. Syvertson defined the width of the Apollo re-entry corridor for deceleration without heat damage as being greater than the AtlasMercury eight-mile entry corridor, where the L/D ratio for the capsule is about 0.5. He suggested that a 40-mile width after anorbit was indicated by tunnel research conducted on the probable Apollo shape with an L/D ratio of 0.7. The blunt object shown asthe probable shape resembled a whale's head, with four flat speed brakes extending at 60° from its squared-off base. Then the roomshook for a full minute as the Mach 5 to 15 tunnel was brought up to speed; the model under test was the same Apollo capsule. Discussion of heating problems was continued when the groupmoved into the combined heating facility, to be confronted by a lethal-looking arc-type heat simulator. Here Mr Johnson learnedthat the Apollo capsule would be subjected to both convective and radiated heat on its way back into the atmosphere, whereas theMercury capsule, at its maximum 18,000 m.p.h., faces convective heat only. The heat simulator was being used to examine ablativeshields for Apollo. The lin-diameter phenolic-resin/glass-fibre speci- men, shaped roughly like the Mercury capsule with the parachuteend on a rod, was vaporized before our eyes. With this particular specimen the resin vaporized, allowing the glass-fibre filaments tostream back around the maximum diameter. Sample test speci- mens examined had been made from polyethylene, polycarbonate,
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