[1]. R.M. Stanley and R.J. Sandstrom, “Development of the XS-1 Airplane,” HQ Air Materiel Command, Air Force Supersonic Research Airplane XS-1, Report No. 1 (Wright Field: Air Materiel Command, Jan. 9, 1948), p. 7.
[2]. Walter C. Williams, “Instrumentation, Airspeed Calibration, Tests, Results and Conclusions,” HQ AMC, Air Force Supersonic Research Airplane XS-1, p. 24.
[3]. W.C. Williams and A.S. Crossfield, “Handling Qualities of High-Speed Airplanes,” RM L52A08 (Jan. 28, 1952).
[4]. It should be noted, of course, that the all-moving tail was essentially a “rediscovery” of earlier design practice. All-moving tails, for very different reasons, had been a feature of early airplanes, typified by the Wright Flyer and numerous European examples such as the Blériot and the Fokker Eindecker.
[5]. For cases, see Edwin J. Saltzman and Theodore G. Ayers, Selected Examples of NACA/NASA Supersonic Flight Research, SP-513 (Edwards, CA: NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, 1995).
[6]. Robert. G. Hoey and Capt. Iven C. Kincheloe, “F-104A Stability and Control,” AFFTC TR-56-14, April 1958.
[7]. See Joseph R. Chambers, Partners in Freedom: Contributions of the Langley Research Center to U.S. Military Aircraft of the 1990s, SP-2000-4519 (Washington, DC: NASA, 2000), passim; Robert K. Geiger, et al., The AGARD History, 1952–1987 (Neuilly sur Seine: NATO Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development, 1988 ed.), pp. ix–xxv; and Thomas C. Lassman, Sources of Weapon Systems Innovation in the Department of Defense: The Role of In-House Research and Development, 1945–2000 (Washington, DC: Center for Military History, 2008), pp. 93–97.
[8]. Personal Experience as an Air Force Flight Planner during the X-15 envelope expansion flight-testing.
[9]. Robert A. Tremant, “Operational Experience and Characteristics of the X-15 Flight Control System,” NASA Technical Note D-1402 (Dec. 1962), and Wendell H. Stillwell, X-15 Research Results, SP-60 (Washington, DC: NASA, 1965), pp. 51–52.
[10]. L.W. Taylor, Jr., and J.W. Smith, “An Analysis of the Limit-Cycle and Structural-Resonance Characteristics of the X-15 Stability Augmentation System,” NASA TN-D-4287 (Dec. 1967).
[11]. Weneth D. Painter and George J. Sitterle, “Ground and Flight Test Methods for Determining Limit Cycle and Structural Resonance Characteristics of Aircraft Stability Augmentation Systems,” NASA TN-D-6867 (1972).
[12]. R.W. Kempel and J.A. Manke, “Flight Evaluation of HL-10 Lifting Body Handling Qualities at Mach Numbers from 0.30 to 1.86”, NASA TN-D-7537, (Jan. 1974).
[13]. Milton O. Thompson with J.D. Hunley, Flight Research: Problems Encountered and What They Should Teach Us, SP-2000-4522 (Washington, DC: NASA, 2000), pp. 19–20; see also R. Dale Reed with Darlene Lister, Wingless Flight: The Lifting Body Story, SP-4220 (Washington, DC: NASA, 1997), pp. 96–102.
[14]. Personal recollections from serving as a member of the YF-16 Taxi Test Incident review team.
[15]. Robert G. Hoey, et al., “Flight Test Results from the Entry and Landing of the Space Shuttle Orbiter for the First Twelve Orbital Flights,” AFFTC TR-85-11 (1985), p. 104. Robert G. Hoey, et al., “AFFTC Evaluation of the Space Shuttle Orbiter and Carrier Aircraft—NASA Approach and Landing Test,” AFFTC TR-78-14, May 1978, pp. 104, 114, 117. See also Richard P. Hallion, On the Frontier: Flight Research at Dryden, 1946–1981, SP-4303 (Washington, DC: NASA, 1984), pp. 249–250.
[16]. Dennis R. Jenkins, X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight, SP-2007-562 (Washington, DC: NASA, 2007), p. 402.
[17]. Donald R. Bellman, et al., Investigation of the Crash of the X-15-3 Aircraft on November 15, 1967 (Edwards: NASA Flight Research Center, Jan. 1968), pp. 8–15.
[18]. For more on its strengths and weaknesses, see L.W. Taylor, Jr., and E.J. Adkins, “Adaptive Flight Control Systems—Pro and Con,” NASA TM-X-56008 (1964).
[19]. Personal experience as an X-15 flight planner and X-20 stability and control flight test engineer.
[20]. G.B. Merrick and L.W. Taylor, Jr., “X-15 Stability Augmentation System,” NASA Report H-271 (Jan. 1961); L.W. Taylor, Jr., and J.W. Smith, “An Analysis of the Limit Cycle and Structural Resonance Characteristics of the X-15 Stability Augmentation System,” NASA TN-D-4287 (Dec. 1967).
[21]. John P. Smith, Lawrence J. Schilling, and Charles A. Wagner, “Simulation at Dryden Flight Research Facility from 1957 to 1982,” NASA TM-101695 (1989), p. 4; Stillwell, X-15 Research Results, pp. 61–69.
[22]. Weneth D. Painter and George J. Sitterle, “Ground and Flight Test Methods for Determining Limit Cycle and Structural Resonance Characteristics of Aircraft Stability Augmentation Systems,”
NASA TN-D-6867 (June 1972).
[23]. Ibid.
[24]. Personal experience as a member of the B-1 Flight Readiness Review Team.
[25]. Personal experience as a member of the Light Weight Fighter Joint Test Force.
[26]. Interview with John Manke, HL-10 test pilot.
[27]. Maj. Robert Ettinger, Capt. Robert Majoros, and Lt. Col. Cecil W. Powell, “Air Force Evaluation of the Fly-By-Wire Portion of the Surviveable Flight Control System Advanced Development Program,” AFFTC TR-73-32 (Aug. 1973).
[28]. Maj. James A. Eggers and Maj. William Bryant, Jr., “Flying Qualities Evaluation of the YF-16 Prototype Light Weight Fighter,” AFFTC TR-75-15 (1975).
[29]. The early advent of digital fly-by-wire is the subject of another case study in this volume (Piccirillo) and so is not examined in great detail here.
[30]. Dwain A. Deets and Kenneth J. Szalai, “Design and Flight Experience with a Digital Fly-By-Wire Control System in an F-8 Airplane,” NATO Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development Conference Paper AGARD-CP-137 (1974); see also James E. Tomayko, Computers Take Flight: A History of NASA’s Pioneering Digital Fly-By-Wire Project, SP-2000-4224 (Washington, DC: NASA, 2000).
[31]. Interview with Manke; see also Tomayko, Computers Take Flight, pp. 111–114.
[32]. Capt. Lawrence Damman, Capt. Ronald Grabe, Robert Kennington, and Paul W. Kirsten, “Flight Test Development of a Multimode Digital Flight Control System Implemented in an A-7D (DIGITAC),” AFFTC TR-76-15 (June 1976).
[33]. Personal experience as a member of the X-29 Flight Readiness Review Team.
[34]. Paul Pellicano, Joseph Krumenacker, and David Van Hoy, “X-29 High Angle-of-Attack Flight Test Procedures, Results, and Lessons Learned,” Society of Flight Test Engineers 21st Annual Symposium, Aug. 1990.
[35]. Eddie Zavala, “Fiber Optic Experience with the Smart Actuation System on the F-18 Systems Research Aircraft,” NASA TM-97-206223, Oct. 1997.
[36]. Robert Navarro, “Performance of an Electro-Hydrostatic Actuator on the F-18 Systems Research Aircraft,” NASA TM-97-206224, Oct. 1997.
[37]. Joel R. Sitz, “F-18 Systems Research Aircraft,” NASA TM-4433 (1992); Lane E. Wallace, Flights of Discovery: 50 Years at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, SP-4309 (Washington, DC: NASA, 1996), pp. 124–125.
[38]. Eggers and Bryant, “Flying Qualities Evaluation of the YF-16,” AFFTC TR-75-15 (1975).
[39]. Theodore G. Ayers and James B. Hallissy, “Historical Background and Design Evolution of the Transonic Aircraft Technology Supercritical Wing,” NASA TM-81356 (1981); Paul W. Phillips and Stephen B. Smith, “AFTI/F-111 Mission Adaptive Wing (MAW) Automatic Flight Control System Modes Lift and Drag Characteristics,” AFFTC TR-89-03 (1989).
[40]. Andrew M. Lizotte and Michael J. Allen, “Twist Model Development and Results From the Active Aeroelastic Wing F/A-18 Aircraft,” NASA TM-2005-212861 (2005); see also Chambers, Partners in Freedom, pp. 78–81.
[41]. E. Nissim, “Design of Control Laws for Flutter Suppression Based on the Aerodynamic Energy Concept and Comparisons With Other Design Methods,” Technical Report TP-3056, Research Engineering, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (1990) [given also as American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Conference Paper 89-1212 (1989)].
[42]. J.T. Foughner, Jr., and C.T. Bensinger, “F-16 Flutter Model Studies With External Wing Stores,” NASA TM-74078 (1977); C. Hwang, E. Jonson, G. Mills, T. Noll, and M. Farmer, “Wind Tunnel Test of a Fighter Aircraft Wing/Store Flutter Suppression System: An International Effort,” AGARD R-689 (1980); R.P. Peloubet, Jr., and R.L. Haller, “Wind-Tunnel Demonstration of Actrive Flutter Suppression Using F-16 Model with Stores,” AFWAL TR-83-3046, vol. 1 (1983); Joseph R. Chambers, Innovation in Flight: Research of the NASA Langley Research Center on Revolutionary Advanced Concepts for Aeronautics, SP-2005-4539 (Washington, DC: NASA, 2005), pp. 196–203, 212–215.
[43]. For perspectives on the various members of the Blackbird family, see Peter W. Merlin, From Archangel to Senior Crown: Design and Development of the Blackbird, (Reston, VA: American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2008); and also his Mach 3+: NASA/USAF YF-12 Flight Research, 1969–1979, SP-2001-4525 (Washington, DC: NASA, 2001).
[44]. Personal experience during SR-71 accident investigation; Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos, Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1994), pp. 192–237.
[45]. Merlin, Mach 3+, pp. 39–42.
[46]. Marcelle Size Knaack, Post-World War II Fighters, vol. 1 of Encyclopedia of U.S. Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1978), pp. 114–116; Bill Gunston, Early Supersonic Fighters of the West (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975), pp. 153–157; HSFS, “Flight Experience With Two High-Speed Airplanes Having Violent Lateral-Longitudinal Coupling in Aileron Rolls,” RM H55A13 (1955); Hubert M. Drake and Wendell H. Stillwell, “Behavior of the Bell X-1A Research Airplane During Exploratory Flights at Mach Numbers Near 2.0 and at Extreme Altitudes,” RM H55G25 (1955); Hubert M. Drake, Thomas W. Finch, and James R. Peele, “Flight Measurements of Directional Stability to a Mach Number of 1.48 for an Airplane Tested with Three Different Vertical Tail Configurations,” RM H55G26 (1955).
[47]. Hubert M. Drake and Wendell H. Stillwell, “Behavior of the Bell X-1A Research Airplane During Exploratory Flights at Mach Numbers Near 2.0 and at Extreme Altitudes,” RM H55G25 (1955);
Capt. Iven C. Kincheloe, USAF, “Flight Research at High Altitude, Part II,” in Proceedings of the Seventh AGARD General Assembly, Nov. 18–26, 1957 (Washington, DC: NATO Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development, 1958).
[48]. Bell X-2 No. 1 Accident Report, copy in History Office archives, Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, CA.
[49]. Ronald Bel Stiffler, The Bell X-2 Rocket Research Aircraft: The Flight Test Program (Edwards AFB: Air Force Flight Test Center, Aug. 12, 1957), p. 87; Richard E. Day, “Coupling Dynamics in Aircraft: A Historical Perspective,” SP-532 (1997).
[50]. Smith, Schilling, and Wagner, “Simulation at Dryden,” p. 1.
[51]. Ibid., p. 3.
[52]. Capt. John Retelle, “Measured Weight, Balance, and Moments of Inertia of the X-24A Lifting Body,” AFFTC TD-71-6 (1971).
[53]. K.W. Iliff, B.G. Powers, and L.W. Taylor, Jr., “A Comparison of Newton-Raphson and Other Methods for Determining Stability Derivatives from Flight Data,” NASA Report H-544 (Mar. 1969).
[54]. K.W. Iliff and L.W. Taylor, Jr., “Determination of Stability Derivatives from Flight Data Using a Newton-Raphson Minimization Technique,” NASA TN-D-6579 (Mar. 1972).
[55]. Kenneth W. Iliff, “Aircraft Parameter Estimation,” AIAA Meeting Paper 1987-0623 (1987).
[56]. David L Kohlman, William G. Schweikhard, and Donald R.L Renz, “Advances in Flight Test Instrumentation and Analysis” SAE Doc. No. 871802, Oct. 1987.
[57]. C.C. Clark and C.H. Woodling, “Centrifuge Simulation of the X-15 Research Aircraft,” NADC MA-5916 (1959).
[58]. Personal recollections as a flight planning engineer participating in the X-15 centrifuge program. Also see Dennis Jenkins, X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight.
[59]. Robert G. Hoey, Lt. Col. Harry R. Bratt, and Maj. Russell L. Rogers, “A Dynamic Simulation of Pilot Controlled Boost for the X-20A Air Vehicle,” AFFTC TDR-63-21 (1964).
[60]. Edwin P. Hartman, Adventures in Research: A History of Ames Research Center, 1940–1965, SP-4302 (Washington, DC: NASA, 1970), pp. 164–166; 257–258; Paul F. Borchers, James A. Franklin, Jay W. Fletcher, Flight Research at Ames: Fifty-Seven Years of Development and Validation of Aeronautical Technology, SP-3300 (Washington, DC: NASA, 1998), passim; William M. Kauffman, Charles J. Liddell, Jr., G. Allan Smith, and Rudolph D. Van Dyke, Jr., “An Apparatus for Varying Effective Dihedral in Flight with Application to a Study of Tolerable Dihedral on a Conventional Fighter Airplane,” NACA Report 948 (1949); Walter E. McNeill and Brent Y. Creer, “A Summary of Results Obtained during Flight Simulation of Several Aircraft Prototypes with Variable Stability Airplanes,” NACA RM-A56C08 (1956); Richard F. Vomaske, Melvin Sadoff, and Fred J. Drinkwater, III, “The Effect of Lateral-Directional Control Coupling on Pilot Control of an Airplane as Determined in Flight and a Fixed-Base Flight Simulator,” NASA TN-D-1141 (1961); William M. Kauffman and Fred J. Drinkwater, III, “Variable Stability Airplanes in Lateral Stability Research,” Aeronautical Engineering Review, vol. 14, No. 8 (Aug. 1955), pp. 29–30.
[61]. G. Warren Hall, “Research and Development History of USAF Stability T-33,” Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, vol. 19, No. 4 (winter 1974).
[62]. Mostly notably of these were a North American JF-100C Super Sabre (another Ames project), a Martin-Air Force v-stab Convair F-106 Delta Dart; the NASA FRC General Purpose Airborne Simulator (a modified Lockheed Jetstar executive jet transport); the CALSPAN–Air Force Convair NC-131H Total In-Flight Simulator (TIFS), retired in late 2008; the CALSPAN variable stability Douglas B-26 Invader; its successor, the CALSPAN v-stab Learjet; and the most recent, the CALSPAN VISTA Lockheed Martin NF-16.
[63]. Shafer, “In-Flight Simulation Studies at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility.”
[64]. Gene J. Matranga and Neil A. Armstrong, “Approach and Landing Investigation at Lift-Drag Ratios of 2 to 4 Utilizing a Straight-Wing Fighter Airplane,” NASA TM-X-31 (1959); Gene J. Matranga and Neil A. Armstrong, “Approach and Landing Investigation at Lift-Drag Ratios of 2 to 4 Utilizing a Delta-Wing Fighter Airplane,” NASA TM-X-125 (1959); Stillwell, X-15 Research Results, pp. 38–39; Milton O. Thompson, At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992).
[65]. B.L. Schofield, D.F. Richardson, and P.C. Hoag, “Terminal Area Energy Management, Approach, and Landing Investigation for Maneuvering Reentry Vehicles using F-111A and NB-52B Aircraft,” AFFTC TD-70-2 (1970).
[66]. Capt. Austin J. Lyons, “AFFTC Experiences with Hybrid Computation in a Real-Time Simulation of the X-15A-2,” AFFTC TR-66-44 (1967).
[67]. Richard E. Day, “Coupling Dynamics in Aircraft: A Historical Perspective,” SP-532 (1997), p. 1.
[68]. William H. Phillips, “Effect of Steady Rolling on Longitudinal and Directional Stability, NACA TN-627 (1948).
[69]. Joseph Weil, Ordway B. Gates, Jr., Richard D. Banner, and Albert E. Kuhl, “Flight Experience of Inertia Coupling in Rolling Maneuvers,” RM H55WEIL (1955); HSFS, “Flight Experience With Two High-Speed Airplanes Having Violent Lateral-Longitudinal Coupling in Aileron Rolls,” RM H55A13 (1955); Hubert M. Drake and Wendell H. Stillwell, “Behavior of the Bell X-1A Research Airplane During Exploratory Flights at Mach Numbers Near 2.0 and at Extreme Altitudes,” RM H55G25 (1955); Hubert M. Drake, Thomas W. Finch, and James R. Peele, “Flight Measurements of Directional Stability to a Mach Number of 1.48 for an Airplane Tested with Three Different Vertical Tail Configurations,” RM H55G26 (1955); Walter C. Williams and William H. Phillips, “Some Recent Research on the Handling Qualities of Airplanes,” RM H55L29a (1956).
[70]. Robert G. Hoey and Capt. Milburn G. Apt, “F-100C Phase IV Stability and Control Test” AFFTC TR-56-25, Oct. 1956, pp 8, 144, 145.
[71]. Day, “Coupling Dynamics in Aircraft,” p. 1.
[72]. In engineering shorthand, Cn/Cna=Cl/Cla.
[73]. Day, “Coupling Dynamics in Aircraft,” p. 1.
[74]. Stillwell, X-15 Research Results, pp. 51–52; Thompson, At the Edge of Space, pp. 200–202.
[75]. Personal experience as a flight planning engineer during the X-15 initial envelope expansion tests.
[76]. Robert G. Hoey, “Correlation of X-15 Simulation Experience with Flight Test Results, AGARD Report 530 (1966).
[77]. See, for example, Document 25 in J.D. Hunley, ed., Toward Mach 2: The Douglas D-558 Program, SP-4222 (Washington, DC: NASA, 1999), pp. 101–103.
[78]. H. Julian Allen and Alfred J. Eggers, Jr., “A Study of the Motion and Aerodynamic Heating of Ballistic Missiles Entering the Earth’s Atmosphere at High Supersonic Speeds,” NACA Technical Report 1381 (1958) [this widely distributed report was preceded by a more restricted limited-issue classified report for Government and industry earlier]; see also Hartman, Adventures in Research, pp. 215–218.
[79]. Jenkins, X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight, passim.
[80]. Joel W. Powell and Ed Hengeveld, “ASSET and PRIME: Gliding Re-Entry Test Vehicles,” Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, vol. 36 (1983), pp. 369–376.
[81]. Personal inspection of the SV-5D (X-23) heat shield following vehicle recovery.
[82]. Johnny G. Armstrong, “Flight Planning and Conduct of the X-15A-2 Envelope Expansion Program”, FTC TD-69-4, July 1969.