Page 13 - Aerotech News and Review, Feb 1, 2019 - Mission Update Edition

Space Port board considers honor for Rutan
by Stuart Ibberson
editor
The recent board of directors meet- ing at the Mojave Air and Space Port featured discussion on ways to honor aviation pioneer Burt Rutan.
Employees of Scaled Composites, one of the companies Rutan founded at Mojave, and members of the airport com- munity suggested adding Rutan Field to the air and spaceport’s name, to honor the man who some feel has been instrumen- tal in the facility’s success.
And while the proposal was not vot- ed on as it had not been included in the official agenda, the board did say the suggestion would be discussed further.
“The Rutan’s have been honored all over the world, therefore, I believe it only fitting that we honor them here at their home base, and add the name Rutan Field to Mojave Air and Space Port, so the legacy and history of the achievements of the Rutan Brothers will be honored and preserved right
MOJAVE, from 11
cept has been developed in partnership with NASA’s Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (CATALYST) program over the last five years. XL-1 is a spacecraft featuring two payload bays and has the capability to deliver 100kg of payload mass to the lunar surface. XL-1 will be put on a translunar injec- tion by a larger launch vehicle and once in lunar orbit will fire its four main engines to autonomously descend into a soft touchdown at a predetermined location on the lunar surface.
National Test Pilot School
The National Test Pilot School is the only civilian test pilot school in the Unites States and is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port.
It is organized as a not-for-profit education institute, and is one of the seven test pilot schools worldwide recognized by the inter- national Society of Experimental Test Pilots, giving pilot gradu- ates instant initial acceptance into the SETP. The other six schools are all military or military-sponsored schools.
Burt Rutan
here in Mojave, for future genera- tions,” said Cathy Hansen in support of the honor.
The Rutan Aircraft Factory began business at Mojave Airport in 1974, developing the VariEze aircraft.
Later, Burt Rutan designs made first flights at Mojave Airport, including: the Quickie, Defiant and Long-eze pro- totypes and the one and only Voyager aircraft.
Burt Rutan broke ground for the Scaled Composites building in 1982. The company is best known for the first privately-funded manned space flight, with Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, winning the Ansari $10-million X- Prize on Oct. 4, 2004, with Paul G. Al- len’s SpaceShipOne.
Virgin Galatic’s SpaceShipTwo continues test flights. The space flight expectations, created by Rutan, also continues with StratoLaunch, financed by the late Microsoft founder Paul G. Allen.
“The growth of this airport can
be directly attributed to the mag- netic personality of Burt Rutan,” said Cathy Hansen, one of those making the suggestion. “I don’t think anyone else would have had the response of persuading the brightest and best en- gineers in our country to come to this little town. They just wanted to be close to the genius of this man, even if they had to come to a place that didn’t have much to offer, except the greatest airport and airspace in the world.
“It is amazing to me how engineers, pilots and composites technicians flocked to this airport just to be close to Burt Rutan and work with him,” said Hansen. “I have heard stories from young engineers who said they were inspired by Rutan when they were in junior high and made it their goal to get an engineering degree, just to come and work for him. Some were from Texas, others from Maryland and some from Kansas and Nebraska — all over the United States.”
The National Test Pilot School was initially conceived to ser- vice the needs of aerospace manufacturers for qualified flight test pilots and flight test engineers. Prior to the formation of NTPS, aerospace manufacturers had only two options: to either hire ex- military personnel who had formal flight test training, or to use on-the-job training programs to develop in-house test pilots and engineers.
The National Test Pilot School offers the total flight test training and uses the finest flight test area in the United States, the R-2508 Complex that is also used by Edwards and China Lake.
NTPS has modern facilities employing the latest technolo- gies including specialized laboratories, simulators, ranges, and telemetry systems. Many of the more than thirty aircraft operated by NTPS are instrumented for flight test training, and no other school utilizes the variety of specially acquired aircraft to sup- port flight test training. Flight simulators are used to bridge the gap between the classroom and the cockpit to allow students to explore, practice, and ask questions about flight test techniques
before flying in the aircraft. NTPS has a diverse and extremely experienced staff of instructors. NTPS instructors come from the top test organizations in the United States and around the globe averaging more than 15 years of flight test experience and more than 10 years of flight test instructional experience.
NTPS is the leader in innovative and customized total flight test training in the world.
Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman that is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port.
Founded in 1982 to develop experimental aircraft, the com- pany now focuses on designing and developing concept craft and prototype fabrication processes for aircraft and other vehicles. It is known for unconventional designs, for its use of non-metal, composite materials, and for winning the Ansari X Prize with its experimental spacecraft, SpaceShipOne.
High Desert Hangar Stories
The first plane to define Edwards Air Force Base
by Bob Alvis
special to Aerotech News
was at ground zero of aviation development and combat opera- tions that still carry on today.
When you think of “experimental” aircraft and the early days In the long history of Edwards Air Force Base and Muroc of Muroc, the Bell P-59 is the plane most people would feel was Army Air Field, many amazing aircraft have called the base the first to have its legs stretched on the lake bed — but the reality home. is there was another aircraft that had come off the design table Many aviation “firsts” have taken place in the skies above that and was fast-tracked into production to meet the needs of the prehistoric lake bed that Gen. Hap Arnold said was “as level as war effort. Initally known as the Model 22, the Lockheed P-38
a billiard table.” In the 1930s, the early aircraft that would make their way up to the High Desert from March Field in Riverside county were not much more than advanced designs of World War I-era aircraft. On occasion, private aircraft owned by thrill- seekers and industry leaders would make their way to the lake beds of the High Desert to set some records, or just see how a new design would shake out. With war on the horizon in the late 1930s, Mother Nature’s runways started to get a real serious look from Uncle Sam, and aircraft that were not really earthshaking began the slow process of developing into something that would fill the military’s requirements if and when the United States entered the war.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Muroc Army Air Field would change forever as, before the sun set that night, two air groups would be landing on that lake bed. The coming together of combat air operations and the need for aircraft contractors to have a facility that could serve the test requirements needed for advanced aircraft design
Lightning would be the first and most active airframe to be pushed to the limit over the dry lake beds in the war years. Amazing to think that, at the same time the brave young airmen answering the call to train for war were taking to the air in the P-38, they were sharing the same lake bed with test pilots flying the same aircraft, trying to work the bugs out. Needless to say, planes were going to crash and pilots were going to die — but the simultaneous flight test/training process at Muroc pressed on, for we were now at war and time was a precious commodity we didn’t have.
The plane that first defined what Edwards would become, in all its manifestations, was the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. When looking at footage of the first Jan. 27 flight in 1939 of the XP-38, which was an airframe that lasted for less than a month, Muroc was already destined to be the home of flight testing of the first XP-38s and hundreds of P38s that would call the base home dur-
See P-38, Page 11
Courtesy photograph
The P-38 deployed at Muroc Army Air Field.
February 1, 2019
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