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Schedule for this lecture.
Goddard Space Flight Center Engineering Colloquium
Date: Monday, November 1, 1999
This lecture will tell the dramatic story of the most unusual flying machines ever flown. Eight different lifting body configurations were flown at the NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards, California over a 12 year period from 1963 to 1975. These wingless wonders were all considered flying prototypes or models of future spacecraft that could land like an airplane after the searing heat of reentry from space. Precursors of today's Shuttle, the X-33, and the X-38, the lifting bodies provided technical and operational engineering data that shaped all three space vehicles.
The eight different configurations varied considerably from the bulbous, unpowered, lightweight plywood M2-F1 to the very sleek, rocket-powered, all-metal supersonic X-24-B. Some of these configurations, such as the M2-F2, pushed the limits of both design engineers and test pilots' capabilities and were dangerous to fly. Control of the M2-F2 was eventually lost by the test pilot. Movie footage of the resulting crash was later used for the lead-in to each episode of the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.
This lecture will present an engineer's eye view of the flight research at Edwards Air Force Base (location of NASA's Flight Research Center) and of the politicians, technicians, engineers, pilots, and managers who are involved with the Center. The talk will deal with the "Real Stuff" (the people who create and service the flying machines) and with Tom Wolfe's "Right Stuff" (the pilots who fly the machines).
R. Dale Reed is an aerospace engineer with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Idaho. He began working at what later became the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center as a research engineer in 1953. He conducted aerodynamic loads research on the X1-E, X-5, F-100, and D-558-II aircraft and performed aerodynamic heating measurements on the X-15 before he began developing, advocating, and implementing the lifting-body flight research program that he will speak about. Before his retirement from NASA, in 1985, he won four NASA awards ranging from the Exceptional Service Medal to an Associate Fellow Award.
Following his formal retirement, Mr. Reed went to work for a variety of contractors and is today again working at Dryden, now as a contract engineer. In his long career, he has published 14 technical reports and a number of periodical articles. He has also taken out four patents and managed 19 programs. He is currently working actively with the X-38 program.
So far in 1999, Mr. Reed has received two awards. The NASA Public Service Medal was awarded for innovative design concepts for aircraft and spacecraft. The Kelly Johnson award, of the Society of Flight Test Engineers, was given for a lifetime of achievements, including lifting body tests, development of large-scale remote-control test aircraft, and the creation of a hydrazine-powered engine suitable for use in a Mars airplane. Kelly Johnson, after whom the award is named, was the designer of such aircraft as the U-2 spy-plane and the SR-71 Blackbird.
Colloquium Committee Sponsor: Brent Warner, GSFC
Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov