The Boeing X-40 Space Maneuver Vehicle was a test platform for the X-37 Future-X Reusable Launch Vehicle.

History

The unpiloted X-40A was built to 85% scale to test aerodynamics and navigation of the X-37 Future-X Reusable Launch Vehicle project. After the first

drop test A drop test is a method of testing the in-flight characteristics of prototype or experimental aircraft and spacecraft by raising the test vehicle to a specific altitude and then releasing it. Test flights involving powered aircraft, particularly ...

in August 1998 the vehicle was transferred to NASA, which modified it. Between April 4 and May 19, 2001, the vehicle successfully conducted seven free flights. In 2001 it successfully demonstrated the

glide Glide may refer to: * Gliding flight, to fly without thrust Computing *Glide API, a 3D graphics interface *Glide OS, a web desktop *Glide (software), an instant video messenger *Glide, a molecular docking software by Schrödinger (company), Schr� ...

capabilities of the X-37's fat-bodied, short-winged design and validated the proposed guidance system.

Testing

The first X-40A drop test occurred at

Holloman AFB Holloman Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base established in 1942 located six miles (10 km) southwest of the central business district of Alamogordo, and a census-designated place in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

on August 11, 1998 at 06:59. This was a joint

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...

project known as Space Maneuver Vehicle. It was released from an altitude of approximately and away from the end of Runway 04 by a

UH-60 Black Hawk The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift utility military helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted the S-70 design for the United States Army's Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System ( ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

(later tests used the

CH-47 Chinook The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is a tandem rotor helicopter developed by American rotorcraft company Vertol and manufactured by Boeing Vertol. The Chinook is a heavy-lift helicopter that is among the heaviest lifting Western helicopters. Its name, C ...

helicopter). The vehicle dove to the

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

in an approach similar to the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...

's, flared, and landed left of the runway centerline. Its drag chutes successfully deployed, and the vehicle tracked to within of the centerline and stopped at a distance of slightly more than .

Specifications (X-40A)

References

External links

NASA Dryden X-40A Image Gallery

* ttp://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/x-40.htm X-40 Space Maneuver Vehicle (SMV) at GlobalSecurity.org
Boeing X-37 / X-40 page at Designation-Systems.Net
{{AFRL spacecraft X-40 Spaceplanes X-40, Boeing 1990s United States military gliders V-tail aircraft Military space program of the United States Air Force Research Laboratory projects

History

Testing

Specifications (X-40A)

See also

References

External links