thumb|Closeup of rear of LASRE pod

thumb|LASRE cold test dumping water after first in-flight cold flow test - 4 March 1998

thumb|Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE) ground cold flow test

LASRE was NASA's Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment which took place at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, until November 1998. The experiment sought to provide flight data to help Lockheed Martin validate and tune the computational predictive tools used to determine the aerodynamic performance of the Lockheed Martin X-33 lifting body and linear aerospike engine combination and to lay groundwork for a future reusable launch vehicle.

LASRE was a small, half-span model of the X-33's lifting body with eight thrust cells of an aerospike engine, rotated 90 degrees and mounted on the back of a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird aircraft, to operate like a kind of "flying wind tunnel." The experiment focused on determining how a reusable launch vehicle's engine plume would affect the aerodynamics of its lifting body shape at specific altitudes and speeds reaching about 750 miles/hour (335 meter/second or 1207 km/h). Design refinements looked to minimize the interaction of the aerodynamic flow with the engine plume, which could create drag.

Five later flights focused on the experiment; two were used to cycle gaseous helium and liquid nitrogen through the experiment to check its plumbing system for leaks and to check engine operation characteristics. The first of these flights occurred 4 March 1998. The SR-71 took off at 10:16 a.m. PST. The aircraft flew for 1:57 hour, reaching Mach 1.58 before landing at Edwards AFB.

LASRE hardware

The experiment itself was a small, half-span model of a lifting body shape. The model contained eight thrust cells of an aerospike engine and was mounted on a housing known as the "canoe," which contained the gaseous hydrogen, helium, and instrumentation gear.

References

Further reading

  • Flight Testing the Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE) Sept 1998
  • Photographs
  • Movies