Page 3 - Aerotech News and Review, March 5, 2021

Exploring Aerospace Valley’s hidden histories

by Larry Grooms Muroc Airfield to centralize and stan- triumph, heartbreak, and disaster. She
special to Aerotech News dardize the foundational process of launched her show with a photo of a
flight testing created by the bicycle test pilot wearing a new MC-2 pres-
An online seminar on aerospace builders from Dayton. sure suit. The garment, she pointed
history in the region where the his- Along with the legendary test pi- out, was designed and assembled by
tory was made, explained how two lots, scientists, and senior command- a girdle manufacturer, thereby be-
decades passed between the time re- ers whose names became household coming “the foundation of American
searchers found a way to dial-down words over the years, Murphy re- aerospace.”
volume of sonic booms and the fed- called others whose missions were Delving into the bureaucratic side
eral government funded a project equally critical. One of those was of the X-15 program, Evans reported
intended to move the demonstrated Col. John Stapp, a medical doctor and how Forrest Peterson, the Navy’s only
theory into practice. scientific researcher into the effects active-duty X-15 test pilot, was able
The preview glimpse into a fast- of rapid acceleration and G-forces on
approaching future came about when human beings. When Chuck Yeager to meet his “sea duty requirement” for
local units of two professional as- flew faster than the speed of sound promotion in rank without leaving the
sociations, the American Institute in 1947, the doctor’s examination X-15 slot. The brass cut new orders,
of Aeronautics and the Society for room became the Rocket Sled Test officially transferring Peterson’s duty
the Advancement of Material and Track on the South Base at Edwards. station to the Naval Air Station on
Process Engineering invited retired Not content with just examining and “China Lake.” A little dry humor?
test pilot Marvin L. “Roy” Martin to caring for the rocket-propelled sled Evans may also have cleared up the
recall a research project that began riders, Stapp strapped himself in on question of how the X-15 test program
20 years ago, was found to be valid multiple occasions, surviving 38-Gs, lasted from 1961 to 1968 when the
in 2003, and although declared to be also expressed as 38 times the force limited number of airframes seemed
politically D.O.A. in 2005, was po- of gravity. to so frequently suffer crashlandings,
litically resurrected in 2016. Perhaps not as widely remembered rocket engine explosions and having
Martin remembers that when as acclaimed test pilots Pete Knight, to be trucked back to Edwards after
Northrop Grumman submitted the Neil Armstrong and Scott Crossfield emergency landings at Mud Lake,
design proposal to NASA in 2005, was Al Boyd, a man characterized by Nev.
NASA said unless the project was Murphy as “The father of American On the third X-15 flight, the X-15
about going to the Moon or Mars Test Pilots.” According to Murphy’s broke its back on landing. That would
it wouldn’t be approved. When the records, Boyd had the distinction of usually consign an airframe to the
design proposal was reinstated in being the only test pilot to fly in his scrapyard. Not this model. Turns out
2016, Lockheed won with the X-59 career 700 aircraft types, including the X-15s, unlike nearly all experi-
QueSST for NASA. By that time, every aircraft type in the Air Force mental aircraft used by the Air Force
Northrop Grumman was loaded up NASA photograph by Carla Thomas inventory. And Murphy explained and NASA, was not constructed from
with work on the B-2, Global Hawk it was a Lt. Gustav Lundquist who
and other projects. NASA’s F-15B research testbed jet from NASA’s Dryden (now Armstrong) oversaw the opening of an institution aluminum. The X-15 was built of a
Flight Research Center flew in the supersonic shockwave of a Northrop
The tale of two airplanes, as shared Grumman modified U.S. Navy F-5E jet in support of the Shaped Sonic Boom that sealed the deal for aeronautical tough nickel alloy.
by Martin, begins with a Defense Ad- Demonstration SSBD project, which is part of the DARPA’s Quiet Supersonic research at Edwards — the Air Force One of the big disappointments to
vanced Research Projects Agency of- Platform QSP program.The project is an effort to lessen sonic booms.During Test Pilot School. come out of the program came from
fer of $4.5 million to any aerospace the recent demonstration, the F-15B flew behind the modified F-5E sonic Hollywood, which in a request for
company willing to gamble on cre- boom demonstrator aircraft in order to measure the aircraft’s sonic boom Flying wings in space government access and cooperation,
ating a proof of concept design ca- characteristics. Flying behind and below the F-5E, and using its specially- For a contemporary historical promised the movie X-15 a big bud-
pable of making sonic booms less instrumented nose boom, the F-15B recorded many shockwave patterns from retrospective on one of the longest get, and a big name cast, including
offensive. Northrop Grumman en- the F-5E at various distances and orientations from the aircraft. Aug. 25, 2003. running, most glamorous and widely newcomer Mary Tyler Moore. But
gineers and scientists had a theory publicized aerospace research pro- the moon went down along with the
that changing the aircraft fuselage oning arrived on Aug. 27, 2003. craft until combined with the larger grams, the Antelope Valley Chapter movie budget. After the movie’s re-
shape would minimize soundwaves Moving at a precise speed and al- and adjacent Wright Field, named to of AIAA called on Michelle Evans, lease, the Pentagon brass applauded it.
created when a plane transitions to titude required to produce a sonic honor the two bicycle builder broth- who wrote the book on it: The X-15 Does the acronym CYA apply there?
supersonic speed. boom at exactly the correct point, the ers from Dayton who went down to Rocket Plane — Flying the First On a happier note, author Evans
What was titled the F-5 Shaped aircraft overflew a lengthy array of Kitty Hawk, N.C., to learn how to fly Wings Into Space. gave a shout-out to the women of NA-
Sonic Boom Demo was considered microphones positioned on the desert an airplane they built from scratch. Faced with a program measured in SA’s Dryden Flight Research Center
a non-profitable but low risk, cost- floor. The data was solid. The recon- They were, Murphy said, the original (now the Armstrong FRC) who made
effective and affordable project with figured F-5 reduced the sonic boom test pilots. minutes, Evans adroitly offered a be- up the center’s core of human “com-
hind the scenes montage of rarely seen
a possibility for future business if noise by one-third. With the growth of the aviation puters,” at Edwards doing what wom-
successful. “Everybody was stoked,” Martin industry in California in the period X-15 photos, graphics, drawings and en in the early space program were
Overland supersonic flight, except said. “We had engineers dancing in test pilot portraits. And she narrated
in designated areas for military and the desert.” just before the U.S. entered World the show with a rapid-fire monologue celebrated for in the award-winning
research operations, has been illegal On a personal note, test pilot Mar- War II, the Army Air Corps selected blending humor, suspense, humanity, film, Hidden Figures.
for years in the U.S. and most other tin, who logged 10,800 hours in more
nations. Russian TU-144 and the than 70 aircraft types, mentioned that PROSPECTS, from 2
British-French Concorde airliners he flew all 21 test flights in the sonic vorable trade with neighboring and easily accessible Despite the partisan divide brought on in the 2020 elec-
were restricted to supersonic speeds boom project. “For a test pilot, it just trading partners with a growing younger population in a tions, Zeihan said President Biden hasn’t moved to undo
only over water. doesn’t get any better than that.” consumption led system. The combination, he explained, foreign trade deals negotiated by former President Trump,
Since restrictions were driven benefits places where young, upwardly mobile people are
by public complaints about sonic Historian remembers flight earning more money to buy more things by adding value and distanced diplomatic dealings with China. Zeihan
booms, it was thought that reducing test lore to trading partner nations. He said those most favorable questioned whether Biden could have improved U.S.
the shock to tolerable levels would John T. Murphy, director of his- American trading partners now and in the foreseeable trade agreements in even a year or an entire term in office.
create greater business opportunities. tory for the Air Force Test Center at future are Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Korea and the Militarily, Zeihan said the U.S. has greatly reduced for-
Aerospace contractors volunteered Edwards, traced the family tree of ‘Brexited’ United Kingdom. eign troop deployments, while upgrading defense capa-
to help Northrop Grumman, Martin pioneers in flight research, beginning Charting comparative population age distribution bilities and requiring NATO nations to share more of the
said. Lockheed Martin, for instance, with the Wright Brothers and their among industrialized nations, Zeihan said “China is one of costs for their defense. China, he pointed out, is hemmed
provided wind tunnel testing, and the contemporaries, and following the the world’s fastest aging countries,” meaning the govern- in on its Pacific shores by a string of neighbors united by
Navy provided an aging F-5E bound trail of leadership into current times. ment’s one-child per family edict finds that nation short a history of violent and non-productive relationships with
for the Boneyard. Boeing loaned the Recapping the story of how Ed- of a rising consumer market for imports and a declining China. And Zeihan’s views on Wall Street? The subject
project a chase plane. NASA oversaw wards AFB came into being, Mur- workforce. He said Korea had its baby bust 40 years ago. did not come up.
the data handling for DARPA. The phy went as far back as what he He pointed out how American Baby Boomers, by contrast,
modified F-5 was flight-tested over called “the golden age of flying” in had lots of children to sustain trade prosperity. Editor’s note: Peter Zeihan is an expert in geopolitics:
the Atlantic just offshore in Florida, the years after the end of the First On three topics, politics, potential military con- the study of how place impacts financial, economic, cul-
where its new composite nose section World War. In 1920, McCook Field, flicts, and Wall Street, Zeihan offered a voice of tural, political and military developments. Learn more at
was created. a small airport near Dayton, Ohio, calming moderation. www.zeihan.com.
Back at Edwards, the day of reck- was a location for testing Army air-

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