The Rockwell RPRV-870 HiMAT (Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology) is an experimental

remotely piloted aircraft An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controlle ...

that was produced for a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

program to develop technologies for future

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

. Among the technologies explored were close-coupled canards, fully digital flight control (including propulsion),

composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

s (

graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...

and

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

), remote piloting,

synthetic vision system A synthetic vision system (SVS) is a computer-mediated reality system for aerial vehicles, that uses 3D to provide pilots with clear and intuitive means of understanding their flying environment. Functionality Synthetic vision provides situati ...

winglets Wingtip devices are intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft by reducing drag. Although there are several types of wing tip devices which function in different manners, their intended effect is always to reduce an aircraft' ...

, and others. Two aircraft were produced by

Rockwell International Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avionics and industrial products. R ...

. Their first flights took place in 1979, and testing was completed in 1983.

Design and development

The HiMATs were remotely piloted, as the design team decided that it would be cheaper and safer to not risk a pilot's life during the experiments. This also meant that no

ejection seat In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the aircraft pilot, pilot or other aircrew, crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an ex ...

would have to be fitted. The aircraft was flown by a pilot in a remote cockpit, and control signals up-linked from the flight controls in the remote cockpit on the ground to the aircraft, and aircraft telemetry downlinked to the remote cockpit displays. The remote cockpit could be configured with either nose camera video or with a 3D synthetic vision display called a "visual display". The aircraft were launched from a

B-52 Stratofortress The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air ...

at altitude. There was also a TF-104G Starfighter chase plane with a set of backup controls which could take control of the HiMAT in the event that the remote pilot on the ground lost control. Advances in digital flight control gained during the project contributed to the

Grumman X-29 The Grumman X-29 was an American experimental aircraft that tested a forward-swept wing, canard control surfaces, and other novel aircraft technologies. The X-29 was developed by Grumman, and the two built were flown by NASA and the United St ...

experimental aircraft, and composite construction are used widely on both commercial and military aircraft. Initial concept included a wedge-shaped exhaust nozzle with 2D

thrust vectoring Thrust vectoring, also known as thrust vector control (TVC), is the ability of an aircraft, rocket, or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine(s) or motor(s) to control the attitude or angular velocity of the v ...

Aircraft on display

The two HiMAT aircraft are now on display, one at the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

and the other at the Armstrong Flight Research Center.

Specifications

Gallery

File:HiMat at the National Air and Space Museum.jpg, HiMAT aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum File:Himatcockpit2.jpg, HiMAT Remote Cockpit with Synthetic Vision Display 2D 2 DIMENSIONAL NOZZLE MOCKUP ON HIMAT HIGHLY MANEUVERABLE AIRCRAFT TECHNOLOGY - NARA - 17497393.jpg, Initial mockup of HiMAT with two dimensional

References

External links

HiMAT Research Vehicle
at Boeing.com NASA vehicles HiMAT Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States 1970s United States experimental aircraft Canard aircraft Mid-wing aircraft Single-engined jet aircraft Twin-boom aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1979 {{mil-aviation-stub