NASA Jet Aircraft Test Flight
Based on real test flights.
(Some details herein have been modified for readability or national security.)
When NASA does test flights, they make the Thunderbirds look like paper airplanes.
Imagine you are sitting in a Mission Control Center at NASA.
A military jet is flying in circles, punching holes in the desert sky.
In your intercom earbuds you hear the following conversation.
"Test Flight,
this is Control. Are you ready to do the flat spin test,
Bill?"
A flat spin is where the pilot On Purpose loses
control of the airplane. The vehicle then Falls toward the ground, tumbling and spinning in every direction.
"Control, let me climb to flight level Five Zero Zero... "
{That's 50,000 feet of altitude, or '500 hundred feet'. Airliners fly at level 3-0-0.}
Only four
seconds later, “Control, starting the maneuver now."
The pilot
turns the airplane’s motor off, and lets go of the ‘steering
wheel’.
On purpose. They’re supposed to do that.
{On military jets, the steering wheel is a joystick, like for video games.}
In the control room, engineers sit up straight. Total silence, except the chatter of mechanical pens on seismograph charts. The vibrations the aircraft experiences are measured on the wings and the data is radioed down to me, and I send it to the seismograph-like chart recorders in the control room. The pens of the chart recorders start to chatter like insane crickets.
{Modern chart recorders are electronic, and only simulate the sound of pens.
That's for real! The sound gives information the engineers can hear.
If there is more vibration on the aircraft, the pens chatter more.}
Tension builds.
The
engineer sitting beside you talks into her headset mic.
"Control,
Engineering. We are ready for the recovery maneuver."
{Only the Controller may speak directly with the pilot. Keeps things simple.}
"Bill, this is
Control. They say they're ready for part 2."
"Control,
Test Flight. Beginning part 2 maneuver now."
On the real-time video monitor, we see an airplane tumbling downward. For a moment it’s even falling backward toward the ground!
Gradually the
supersonic jet airplane points it’s front end more and more toward
the ground.
Yes, I said that right. They fly straight down
in order to get enough wind-speed to gain control and to restart their
engines. Yeah,,, $5 billion dollar vehicle and they push-start
it. Yup.
"Control, we are starting to get some traction here."
Now, let's describe
what Bill sounds like here.
In the classic West Virginia
accent that most pilots adopt while flying, this guy sounds like he’s
relaxing on a sunny beach. Like, ‘Ho-hum. Another boring day
at work. Yawn!’ The people who are safe in the control room are
more nervous than the person who is falling out of the sky at high
speed! On Purpose!
The chatter of the
charts starts to sound less crazy.
The engineer gives the
controller a thumbs up sign.
"Test Flight,
Control. Engineering says they are getting good data. Continue
the maneuver."
"Roger Control." The airplane
continues to fall.
“Control, Engineering. We’re good here.”
"Bill, this
Control. They say they have all the data they need. Go ahead and pull
up."
"Control, Test Flight. We are terminating the
maneuver. Returning to flight level five zero zero."
Test flights are like that. Exciting in a boring sort of way.
But only when things go right. Things don't always go right. Then things get exciting in a not-at-all-boring sort of way!
"Tracking, Control.
Why do we not have any data?"
"Control, Tracking. We don't
seem to be tracking the airplane at this moment."
"Radar, Control.
Is your radar locked onto the vehicle?"
"Control, Radar.
We lost him after that flat spin. As soon as he gets back to 50,000
feet we will find him again. Stand by, control." A few seconds later, "Control, Radar. We have a lock on the target."
{'Lock' is a radio word that means the radar is tracking the airplane well.}
Sometimes worse things go wrong.
We were tracking a
cargo rocket in outer space once, and we lost track of it like this.
The vehicle went
around the Earth a couple times before we found it again. Oopsie!
Sometimes the pilot
decides he or she would rather take their chances without the
airplane, and they jump out at 50,000 feet altitude. For
comparison, commercial jet airliners fly at about 35,000 feet.
That’s why the testing is done way out over the desert in
restricted areas like Area 51 in Nevada, and that’s why people are
not allowed to go there. They could end up with jet airplanes falling
on their heads. Not a healthy choice.
#Test flights
#Science Fact
#Real Life Sci-Fi
