NASA helps Society of Experimental Test Pilots commemorate 100 years of flight
Story by Frederick A. Johnsen
News Chief, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
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A detailed four-foot scale model of NASA's Active Aeroelastic Wing (AAW) supersonic F/A-18 jet is shadowed by the photographic likeness of the real AAW aircraft on the NASA Dryden ramp in a diorama at the Society of Experimental Test Pilots centennial of flight event in Los Angeles Sept. 24-27. The AAW aircraft is capable of twisting its wings for efficient roll control - a modern variation on one of the Wright brothers' oldest ideas.
Courtesy photo |
The accomplishments of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center span more than half the century of flight being commemorated in Los Angeles Sept. 24-27 by the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP). A Dryden exhibit at SETP's centennial symposium in the Westin Bonaventure Hotel honors the pioneering research of the Wright brothers, followed by NASA's wingless lifting bodies of the 1960s and the cutting-edge wing-twisting Active Aeroelastic Wing F/A-18 in three-dimensional dioramas.
NASA research pilots and test engineers are joining astronauts from Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and the space shuttle in a series of SETP seminars culminating in a black-tie banquet Saturday, Sept. 27.
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| Replicating a famous NASA photo of the B-52 mother ship overflying NASA pilot Bill Dana and a Lifting Body on the dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base, a mannequin in a pressure suit, complete with air conditioning pack, sets the scene at the Society of Experimental Test Pilots centennial of flight symposium in Los Angeles Sept. 24-27. Courtesy photo |
Sessions include research pilot Scott Crossfield discussing efforts to create a Wright Flyer replica; a panel devoted to the breaking of the sound barrier, with Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager, Robert A. Hoover, and Robert L. Cardenas; a session on the Mach 3 SR-71 and the famed "Skunk Works" of Kelly Johnson presented by Rogers E. Smith and Edward T. Schneider; the space shuttle, with astronauts and pilots Scott Altman, Robert L. Crippen, Gordon Fullerton, Fitzhugh Fulton, and Richard H. Truly.
A group of principals involved in the hypersonic X-15 and the Lifting Bodies will include Scott Crossfield, Bill Dana, Joe Engle, Pete Knight, Cecil Powell, Dale Reed, and Robert M. White; and a special gathering of astronauts including Buzz Aldrin, Vance Brand, Scott Carpenter, Michael Collins, Eugene Cernan, James Lovell and Walter M. Schirra is scheduled to discuss the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo manned space programs.
Registration to attend the events is handled by the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
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