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

remotely piloted aircraft An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

that was produced for a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

program to develop technologies for future

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

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

composite material A composite or composite material (also composition material) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a ...

s (

graphite Graphite () is a Crystallinity, crystalline allotrope (form) of the element carbon. It consists of many stacked Layered materials, layers of graphene, typically in excess of hundreds of layers. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable ...

and

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

), 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 situat ...

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 (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...

. 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 exp ...

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 aircraft, 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 ...

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 is an American experimental aircraft that tested a forward-swept wing, canard control surfaces, and other novel aircraft technologies. Funded by NASA, the United States Air Force and DARPA, the X-29 was developed by Grumman, a ...

experimental aircraft, and composite construction are used widely on both commercial and military aircraft. The aircraft's 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 Aircraft flight control system, control the Spacecra ...

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 (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...

and the other at the

Armstrong Flight Research Center The NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. Its primary campus is located inside Edwards Air Force Base in California and is considered NASA's premier site for aeronautical rese ...

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 {{Use mdy dates, date=December 2017 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 Aircraft with skid landing gear