X-36 Tests to Demonstrate More BenefitsADVANCED FLIGHT SOFTWARE TESTS ON the NASA/Boeing X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft will demonstrate technology designed to increase aircraft survivability and significantly reduce the life-cycle costs of military and commercial aircraft. The Reconfigurable Control for Tailless Fighter Aircraft (RESTORE) program will use advanced flight control software to respond to a variety of battle damage and hardware failures during testing conducted at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, by the Air Force Research Laboratory of Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. During the RESTORE program, the Air Force will fly the remotely piloted X-36 aircraft using neural network software to provide flight control reconfiguration during simulated damage in flight.
Control of the X-36 was transferred to Dryden from NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, where NASA completed its X-36 flight research program in November 1997. The program successfully demonstrated the feasibility of future tailless fighters to achieve agility levels superior to today's best military fighter aircraft. The RESTORE flight tests are a joint effort funded by NASA, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Patuxent River, Maryland. The Boeing Company owns the X-36 aircraft, and the company's Phantom Works division is developing the RESTORE technology. During the original X-36 flight research program at Dryden, 31 flights were made in only 25 weeks in 1997, for a total 15 hours, 38 minutes, and using four flight control software versions. The aircraft reached an altitude of 20,200 feet and a maximum angle of attack of 40 degrees. A pilot in a ground station cockpit, complete with a head-up display, remotely controls the aircraft. This eliminates the need for expensive and complex autonomous flight control systems. Built by the Boeing Company Phantom Works in St. Louis, Missouri, the 28-percent-scale X-36 is designed to fly without the traditional tail surfaces common on most aircraft. The X-36 is 18 feet long, has a 10-foot wingspan, is three feet high and weighs 1,270 pounds. It is powered by a F112 turbofan engine, which provides 700 pounds of thrust and was developed by Williams International Corp., Inc., of Walled Lake, Michigan, Ames and the Boeing Company Phantom Works developed the technologies required for a tailless fighter beginning in 1989, and a technology demonstration was proposed in 1993. In 1994, Phantom Works began fabrication of the two aircraft in its rapid prototyping facility in St. Louis. The aircraft was designed and built in only 28 months. NASA and Boeing were full partners in the program, which was jointly funded under a roughly 50-50 cost-sharing arrangement. During NASA's X-36 flight tests, Ames led the program, Boeing conducted the flight test operation and Dryden provided range and technical support. For more information, contact Michael Mewhinney at Ames Research
Center.
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