|
|
NASA Eclipse Project
Tom Tucker, NASA History Division, Washington, DC
Eclipse was a unique and interesting experiment that deserves to be
known. A highly-readable narrative, along with a number of documents that record an important flight research effort by NASA.
We recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of aviation
and space technology. It will be especially valuable to anyone
undertaking tow testing in the future. Tom Tucker tells the story in an interesting way that
makes the monograph a joy to read.
Carried out by Kelly Space & Technology, Inc. in partnership with
the Air Force and Dryden Flight Research Center (at Edwards Air Force
Base, in the Mojave Desert of California), this project tested and
gathered data about a potential newer and less expensive way to launch
satellites into space. (Kelly
already had filed "Patent application Space Launch Vehicles Configured
as Gliders and Towed to Launch Altitude by Conventional Aircraft”)
It takes formidable engine thrust to get a launch vehicle to 20,000
feet. Why not let a transport airplane do all that first-stage
work?
The concept was simple:
“You can pull more than you can carry.”
Kelly planned to use a modified Boeing 747 for his ultimate tow plane.
Kelly Space & Technology was a small venture company that hoped to
demonstrate a new approach to satellite launching by first towing a
space launch vehicle to altitude behind a transport airplane down a conventional airport runway .
History had some precedents for this experiment.
A B-29 towed a captured German Me163 rocket plane at Muroc Army Air Field (now known as Edwards AFB) . Earlier, in
1941 129 Germans suffered their deaths when the ropes to their first
glider, the Gigant, snarled in a crash that made aviation history.
Aerotow project—using a monster rope--began on
6 May 1997, when a
QF-106 was towed in tether tests. The
USAF supplied Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC) at Edwards Air Force
Base (AFB) supplied and flew the transport, a C-141A.
This
big book contains the original patent, flight logs, pilot’s flight test
reports, field notes, letters, mementos, bibliography, and more.
It is a veritable treasure-trove of hard-to-find historical documents.
177 pages, 11 x 8-1/2" size. $19.95.
|
USA
(Insured
Priority Mail: $7.50)
|
|
International
(Priority Airmail: $14.45) |
We ship
worldwide and charge only actual postal costs: combine several books into
one shipment to save!
|
|
