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| Keywords: HL-10 Landing with F-104 Chase Aircraft DVIDS854889.jpg en ECN-2367 HL-10 touches down on its main landing gear while the pilot was holding the nose up to slow the vehicle The F-104 in the background was used as a chase plane Its pilot would give the HL-10's pilot calls on his altitude above the lakebed as well as warnings about any problems The NASA F-104s were also used for lifting-body training With the landing gear extended and flaps lowered the F-104 could simulate the steep high-speed descent and landing of a lifting body 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 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 September 15 1966 NASA Photo NASA Identifier 401767main_ECN-2367 2010-11-16 Glenn Research Center https //www dvidshub net/image/854889 854889 2013-02-08 17 47 WASHINGTON D C US PD-USGov Northrop HL-10 Images from DoD uploaded by Fæ | ||||
