Attached beneath a modified L-1011 carrier plane, NASA's experimental rocket plane, the X-34, completed its last captive-carry flight for 1999 to proceed with the upgrade of this first airframe.
Originally designed as a structural test article, the A-1 will be equipped with both avionics and hydraulics systems and redesignated as A-1A. The A-1A will conduct unpowered flights.
The purpose of the eight-hour flight on September 14, 1999, at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., was to collect data on the performance of the mated configuration and validate the flight condition that will be used to release the X-34 from the L-1011 airplane.
Additional flights will continue to examine the entire captive-carry flight profile for X-34 and its carrier before subsequent air-launched and unpowered approach and landing flights.
The remainder of the captive-carry flights will resume in late January 2000 following tow tests at Dryden. Tow tests are designed to reduce the risk of the first flight by evaluating the functionality of many systems such as landing gear, brakes, hydraulics, navigation and software programs. A freightliner tractor will tow the X-34 at least 16 times over a couple of months gradually aiming for 80 miles per hour.
While A-1A wraps up the tow tests, NASA's contractor for X-34, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va., will complete assembly of the second X-34, designated A-2, which will have a functional main propulsion system.
The A-2 will be the first fully functional X-34 vehicle. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Calif., manages the X-34 project.
The unpiloted, reusable X-34 is designed to demonstrate technologies and operations necessary to cut the cost of putting payloads into orbit from $10,000 per pound to $1,000 per pound. The winged, single-engine X-34 is 58.3 feet long, 27.7-foot wingspan and stands 11.5 feet tall.
Marshall developed a 60,000-pound-thrust engine that will be used for the first powered flight of the X-34. The engine is less expensive than similar engines because of an innovative design approach that uses commercial off-the-shelf parts and fewer of them. The Fastrac engine is also not as labor-intensive as manufacturing typical rocket engines.
After installation of the Fastrac rocket engine on A-2 next year, the engine will be test fired at Holloman Air Force Base, NM. Pending Environmental Impact Assessments (EIS) in California, New Mexico and Florida, decisions will be made for future powered flights.
