North American X-10
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The North American X-10 (originally designated RTV-A-5) was an unmanned technology demonstrator developed by North American Aviation. It was a subscale reusable design that included many of the design features of the
SM-64 Navaho The North American SM-64 Navaho was a supersonic intercontinental cruise missile project built by North American Aviation (NAA). The final design was capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to the USSR from bases within the US, while cruising at ...
missile. The X-10 was similar to the development of the Bell X-9 Shrike project, which was based on features of the
GAM-63 RASCAL The GAM-63 RASCAL was a supersonic air-to-surface missile that was developed by the Bell Aircraft Company. The RASCAL was the United States Air Force's first nuclear armed standoff missile. The RASCAL was initially designated the ASM-A-2, then ...
.


Development

To facilitate development of the long-range Navaho
surface-to-surface A surface-to-surface missile (SSM) or ground-to-ground missile (GGM) is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea and strike targets on land or at sea. They may be fired from hand-held or vehicle mounted devices, from fixed ins ...
cruise missile, North American Aviation (NAA) developed the RTV-A-5 (Research Test Vehicle, Air Force), or X-10 in 1951. This vehicle was to prove critical flight technology for the design of the Navaho cruise missile. These included proving the basic aerodynamics to Mach 2, flight testing the inertial guidance unit and flight control
avionics Avionics (a blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the hundreds of systems that are fit ...
to the same speed, and validate the recovery system for the next phase in the Navaho program. Preliminary design of the X-10 was completed in February 1951 and the first vehicle was delivered to Edwards Air Force Base in May 1953. The first flight occurred on 14 October 1953. The X-10 was powered by two
Westinghouse J40 The Westinghouse J40 was an early high-performance afterburning turbojet engine designed by Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division starting in 1946 to a US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) request. BuAer intended to use the design in severa ...
turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, an ...
engines with afterburners, and equipped with landing gear for conventional take off and landing. The combination of a delta wing with an all-moving canard gave it extremely good aerodynamics in the
transonic Transonic (or transsonic) flow is air flowing around an object at a speed that generates regions of both subsonic and supersonic airflow around that object. The exact range of speeds depends on the object's critical Mach number, but transoni ...
and supersonic environments. It also made the vehicle unstable requiring active computer flight control in the form of an
autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...
. Thus, the X-10 is similar to modern military fighters which are flown by the onboard computer and not directly by the pilot. Though the X-10 was receiving directional commands from a radio-command guidance system, these commands were sent through the on-board computer which implemented the commands. Later X-10s included an N-6
inertial navigation system An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors (accelerometers), rotation sensors ( gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity (dir ...
which completely controlled the vehicle through the cruise portion of the flight.


Operational history

At the time it entered service, the X-10 was one of the fastest turbojet-powered aircraft flown. From 1953 to 1955 a total of five X-10s flew 15 flights at Edwards AFB. There it reached a maximum flight speed of Mach 1.84, flew a distance of , and reached an altitude of . These were performance levels superior to nearly all manned turbojet aircraft (the exception being the YF-104 Starfighter). In 1955 the program moved to
Cape Canaveral, Florida Cape Canaveral ( es, Cabo Cañaveral, link=) is a city in Brevard County, Florida. The population was 9,912 at the 2010 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay–Melbourne– Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area. History After t ...
, to complete the test program. Here a new set of six X-10 vehicles completed the testing of the N-6 inertial navigation system at supersonic speeds, reach altitude, a total flight distance of and a peak speed of Mach 2.05.


Disposition

Of all the X-10s built, only one survived the test program: serial 51-9307, the first X-10 to fly. Of the other four aircraft that flew at Edwards AFB, one exploded on takeoff, one was lost in flight, and the remaining two were destroyed in landing accidents. As for the vehicles flown at Cape Canaveral, three were expended in planned dive-in flights against
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, and two were lost in landing accidents. In 1958, the remaining three Cape Canaveral X-10s were selected for use as high speed targets for the BOMARC surface-to-air missile. The plan was to recover and reuse the X-10, not to have them shot down by the BOMARC. None of these vehicles completed their target flight: two were lost when landing and the third suffered a mechanical problem forcing it to be flown into the Atlantic.


Surviving aircraft

The sole surviving X-10 s/n GM 19307 is located at the
National Museum of the United States Air Force The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the ...
in
Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...
. This was the first X-10 to fly. The aircraft was delivered to the Air Force Museum in 1957, upon completion of the program. It is displayed in the Museum's Research & Development Hangar.


Notable appearances in media

The 1960s series Men Into Space used footage of the X-10 and
SM-64 Navaho The North American SM-64 Navaho was a supersonic intercontinental cruise missile project built by North American Aviation (NAA). The final design was capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to the USSR from bases within the US, while cruising at ...
tests at
Edwards AFB Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is E ...
to depict spacecraft landings on a desert runway.


Specifications (X-10)


See also


References


Notes


Bibliography

* Miller, Jay. ''The X-Planes: X-1 to X-29.'' Marine on St Croix, Minnesota: Specialty Press, 1983. . * Miller, Jay. ''The X-Planes: X-1 to X-45.'' Sittingbourne, UK: Midland COunties Publishing, 2001. . * Werrell, Kenneth P. The Evolution of the Cruise Missile. Montgomery, Alabama: Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base. 1998, First edition 1995. .


External links


North American RTV-A-5/X-10
at Designation-Systems.Net {{USAF early missiles Edwards Air Force Base X-10, North American Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States X-10 Delta-wing aircraft Canard aircraft Twinjets