Legendary X-31 flies again: Second life with VECTOR technology program
Munich/Patuxent River, 26 February 2001
The legendary experimental aircraft X-31, able to fly unsurpassed extreme flight maneuvers thanks to its three-dimensional thrust-vector control, is flying again. On Saturday, February 24, 2001, the maiden flight for the new test phase of the U.S.-German VECTOR program took place at the U.S. Naval Aviation Flight Test Center at Patuxent River, Maryland. Commander Vivan Ragusa was at the controls during the 40-minute functional test flight, during which the X-31 was flown up to 400 knots and at a 30 degree angle of attack. This was reported by EADS Military Aircraft, the German industrial partner within the VECTOR program, on Monday.
Prior to the first VECTOR flight, several taxi trials had been performed in February primarily to check brakes, drag chute and a laser tracking system which measures take-off and landing performance of the X-31. The first flight test phase, scheduled for about six weeks, calls for the check-out of the aircraft systems and for the familiarisation of the U.S. and German test pilots with the X-31.
The VECTOR program objectives are to explore extreme short take-off and -landing capabilities by using integrated thrust-vectoring control. VECTOR stands for Vectoring ESTOL - Extremely Short Take-Off and Landing - Control Tailless Operation Research. The record-breaking maneuverability and agility of the X-31 was already demonstrated in the first half of the Nineties with the Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability (EFM) program, which was the first and only international X-Program in history.
The VECTOR program is jointly conducted by the U.S. partners U.S. Navy and Boeing, and the German partners Federal Office for Defense Technology and Procurement (BWB), the German Air Force's Test Center (WTD) 61, Manching, EADS Military Aircraft, and the Institute for Flight Systems Technologies of the German Aerospace Research Agency (DLR) in Brunswick, Lower Saxony.
After the X-31 experimental aircraft had been transferred to 'Pax River' last year, the joint team brought the aircraft back to flight status after a five year storage period. After completion of the functional check flights the X-31 will be modified to conduct the VECTOR flight demonstrations. Amongst these new systems is the Advanced Flush Air Data System AADS, developed by EADS Military Aircraft and Nord-Micro, the flight control software designed for ESTOL applications, and a combined inertial/differential GPS platform for extremely high precision landing approaches. The new components enable the VECTOR demonstrator aircraft to conduct approaches to the runway at high angles of attack up to 40 degrees at a low speed of around 100 knots. With such a maneuver the pilot's ability to see the runway is severely restricted , a fact that requires extremely reliable control and navigation systems with automatic landing capability.
ESTOL landings will be tested in the next flight test phase after a further update program. E.g., the actuators of the deflectors for the thrust vectoring system will be modified t to provide fail-safe operation. Real ESTOL landings will be performed after demonstrating the functionality in a safe altitude with landings on a virtual runway.
In an additional VECTOR test phase the engineers will simulate Tailles Operation Research with reduced or even totally removed tail fin based on wind tunnel tests. Design concepts for an appropriate flight control system shall be the result of this study.
Your contact:
Military Aircraft
Wolfram Wolff
Phone: +49-89-607 25711
Fax: +49-89-607 22455
e-mail: wolfram.wolff@m.eads.net
