NASA FRC
 June 9, 1965

MEMORANDUM for Chief, Research Division

X-15 Project Office

FROM: X-15-3 Research Project Engineer

SUBJECT: Flight Research Report on flight 3-42-65

Flown on May 28, 1965, Pilot Capt. J. Engle

I. PURPOSE OF FLIGHT

To obtain data for the following programs:

A. NSL Radiometer - the flight requirements were to perform roll oscillations to ±5 degrees at rates no greater than 5 degrees/second for horizon scanning purposes.

B. Langley Scanner - no flight requirements were made other than an altitude flight.

C. Boundary Layer Noise - flight requirements for this study were to maintain approximately 625 psf in the altitude range of 65K to 75K feet in a velocity range of 2625 to 3350 fps.

D. Although the nose gear modification checkout was not listed on the Flight Request, gear instrumentation was installed for the nose gear and also on the main gear for the North American Aviation studies. No flight requirements were necessary.

E. Pilot altitude buildup.

 II. FLIGHT PLAN
 
The flight plan was based on the peak altitude of 200,000 feet pre-determined, as a step in the pilot altitude buildup. The roll oscillations were scheduled to be performed above 180K feet.

The altitude predictor was mounted on the instrument panel and was to be checked out on this flight.

The check points used by the pilot were to be an indication of the performance of the Inertial System and hence the predictor.

During the flight these check points agreed perfectly during the boost portion and the predictor was assumed correct. Therefore, at burnout, when the predictor indicated too low a predicted altitude, the pilot made a pullup in alpha and shutdown 100 fps faster. As it turned out discrepancies did exist, and an overshoot of approximately 10,000 feet resulted.

Energy management consideration prevented flying the plane back at the q requested of the BLN experiment.
 

III. INSTRUMENTATION BY EXPERIMENTS A. Usage 1. NSL Radiometer - 1 track on tape recorder.

2. Langley Scanner - 1 track on tape recorder.

3. Boundary Layer Noise - 5 tracks on tape and 10 thermocouples on oscillograph 0-25.

4. Nose Gear Modification Checkout - 7 channels on oscillograph 0-7 and 2 thermocouples on oscillograph 0-25.

5. Local Flow - 11 channels on oscillograph 0-7.

 B. Results 1. No significant malfunctions occurred in the vehicle's instrumentation system. IV. SUMMARY
 
Final data workup and Operations Engineering report were not available for this report. The control system operated normally and good pilot ratings were given for the control tasks.

Joseph A. LaPierre

Aerospace Engineer