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episode 288: Flight Research at NASA Armstrong, Part 3: Historic
Guest: Al Bowers Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Tim Jurik
In this episode I talk with NASA Armstrong’s chief scientist Al Bowers about the research projects he has been involved in during his long career at NASA. We cover deep stall research with a Schweizer sailplane, high-alpha flight and thrust vectoring with the X-29, X-31 and F-18 HARV, aero-tow of fast jets with the F-106, supercritical wings with the F-8, as well as space related projects using the SR-71 and the X-30. This is one of my favourite episodes of all time, since it is a bit of trip down memory lane for me personally, and Al perfectly hits the sweet spot between recounting facts and telling anecdotes.
I met Al when I was visiting NASA Armstrong in early 2017; this episode is a continuation of the conversations there about full-scale and subscale research there.
Schweizer Deep Stall Project 00:06:45
Schweizer-1-36 | Dutch Roll
F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) 00:17:22F-18 HARV
F-18 HARV Phase 2 - Thrust Vectoring 00:30:40X-15
F-18 HARV Phase 3 - Movable Strakes 00:41:30X-31 (Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability) 00:46:05
F-15B ACTIVE 00:51:06
F-15 ACTIVE
Oblique Wing 00:58:40AD-1 | Robert T. "RT" Jones | Ilan Kroo | Neil Armstrong
F-8 Supercritical Wing 01:16:56F-8 Supercritical Wing | Richard Whitcomb | Area Rule (German Aerospace Center (DLR) (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.))
Grumman X-29 01:29:10X-29 NASA Fact Sheet | X-29 Wikipedia Entry | F-5 | Dynamic Inversion
SR-71 01:41:21SR-71 | NASA Armstrong Fact Sheet: SR-71 Blackbird | Omega Tau SR-71 Episode | Aerospike
Controlled Impact Demonstration 01:51:50Crash In the Desert
F-106 Aerotow 02:09:43Lowering the Cost of Space Launches | Mark "Forger" Stucky | Low Altitude Parachute Extraction
Rockwell X-30 02:34:48Rockwell X-30 National Aero-Space Plane
Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Lower Drag (Prandtl) 02:47:45Prandtl-D Aircraft
Conclusion 02:55:35