Northrop HL-10
| Northrop HL-10 | |
|---|---|
 Northrop HL-10 on first landing on December 22nd, 1966 |
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| Type: | Experimental airplane |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
December 22, 1966 |
| Number of pieces: |
1 |
The Northrop HL-10 was an American experimental aircraft based on the support fuselage concept . It was the third in a line of experimental wingless aircraft that were tested between 1963 and 1975. Other machines were:
- the NASA M2-F1 (1963)
- the Northrop M2-F2 (1968)
- the Martin-Marietta X-24 (1969)
- the Northrop M2-F3 (1970).
The letters H and L stood by for horizontal landing (horizontal landing) and the number 10 for the tenth concept of Langley Research Center of NASA . With these machines it could be shown that wing and non-propulsion aircraft can be safely controlled and landed at a defined point. In addition, the high-speed behavior of carrier aircraft was investigated.
After the successful test of the M2-F1, NASA commissioned Northrop to build two more lifting bodies (the HL-10 and the M2-F2), which, however, were now to be made of metal and thus weighed many times their predecessor. In contrast to the other lifting bodies in this series, the HL-10 had a delta-shaped structure. The machine was completed in late 1965 and delivered to NASA in January 1966. For use, the machine was brought to an altitude of around 13,000 meters by a B-52 bomber and disengaged at around 720 km / h. Then the machine ignited its rocket engine , which had a fuel supply for a burn time of about 100 seconds. The first flight (still without propulsion) took place on December 22nd, 1966 with the pilot Bruce Peterson, which (as with other lifting bodies) showed control problems. These could be remedied by changing the shape of the three oars. The HL-10 flew 37 times in total, of which the last 26 flights used its rocket engine. She reached a top speed of Mach 1.86 (February 18, 1970 with Peter Hoag at the wheel) and an altitude of over 27,500 meters (February 27, 1970 with Bill Dana at the wheel). Her last flight was on July 17, 1970. Today the machine in the NASA flight test center is at the Edwards Air Force Base ( California issued).
Technical specifications
- Crew: 1
- Length: 6.45 m
- Span: 4.15 m
- Height: 2.92 m
- Wing area: 14.9 m²
- Empty weight: 2,397 kg
- Takeoff weight: 2,721–4,540 kg (max. 1,604 kg fuel)
- Propulsion: 1 × XLR-11 rocket engine with four nozzles and 36 kN thrust
- Top speed: 1,976 km / h
- Range: 72 km
- highest altitude reached: 27,524 m
See also
- NASA HL-20 follow-up project for a space glider
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- FliegerRevue 3/2008, pp. 58-61, "Lifting Bodies and Moon Landing Trainers"
- HL-10 ( Memento from July 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at NASA
