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The Northrop HL-10 is one of five US heavyweight lifting body designs flown at NASA's Flight Research Center (FRC—later Dryden Flight Research Center) in Edwards, California, from July 1966 to November 1975 to study and validate the concept of safely maneuvering and landing a low lift-over-drag vehicle designed for reentry from space. It was a NASA design and was built to evaluate "inverted airfoil" lifting body and delta planform. It currently is on display at the entrance to the Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base.
Development
Northrop Corporation built the HL-10 and Northrop M2-F2, the first two of the fleet of "heavy" lifting bodies flown by the NASA Flight Research Center. The contract for construction of the HL-10 and the M2-F2 was $1.8 million. "HL" stands for horizontal landing, and "10" refers to the tenth design studied by engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. Main gear was a modified T-38 system retracted manually, Launching a Saturn V to low Earth orbit with a light payload would not be an efficient use of capability, and the Apollo program was ended mainly on cost grounds.
HL-10 flights
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Vehicle<br />Flight #
! Date
! Pilot
! Mach
! Velocity /km/h
! Altitude /m
! Duration
! Comments
|-
|HL-10 #1
|December 22, 1966
|Peterson
|0.693
|735
|13,716
|00:03:07
|First HL-10 flight<br />Unpowered glide
|-
|HL-10 #2
|March 15, 1968
|Gentry
|0.609
|684
|13,716
|00:04:03
|Unpowered glide
|-
|HL-10 #3
|April 3, 1968
|Gentry
|0.690
|732
|13,716
|00:04:02
|Unpowered glide
|-
|HL-10 #4
|April 25, 1968
|Gentry
|0.697
|739
|13,716
|00:04:18
|Unpowered glide
|-
| HL-10 #5
| May 3, 1968
| Gentry
| 0.688
| 731
| 13,716
| 00:04:05
| Unpowered glide
|-
| HL-10 #6
| May 16, 1968
| Gentry
| 0.678
| 719
| 13,716
| 00:04:25
| Unpowered glide
|-
| HL-10 #7
| May 28, 1968
| Manke
| 0.657
| 698
| 13,716
| 00:04:05
| Unpowered glide
|-
| HL-10 #8
| June 11, 1968
| Manke
| 0.635
| 697
| 13,716
| 00:04:06
| Unpowered glide
|-
| HL-10 #9
| June 21, 1968
| Gentry
| 0.637
| 700
| 13,716
| 00:04:31
| Unpowered glide
|-
| HL-10 #10
| September 24, 1968
| Gentry
| 0.682
| 723
| 13,716
| 00:04:05
| Unpowered glide<br />XLR-11 installed
|-
| HL-10 #11
| October 3, 1968
| Manke
| 0.714
| 758
| 13,716
| 00:04:03
| Unpowered glide
|-
| HL-10 #12
| October 23, 1968
| Gentry
| 0.666
| 723
| 12,101
| 00:03:09
| 1st powered flight<br />engine malfunction<br />landed Rosamond
|-
| HL-10 #13
| November 13, 1968
| Manke
| 0.840
| 843
| 13,000
| 00:06:25
| 3 tries to<br />light engine
|-
| HL-10 #14
| December 9, 1968
| Gentry
| 0.870
| 872
| 14,454
| 00:06:34
| -
|-
| HL-10 #15
| April 17, 1969
| Manke
| 0.994
| 974
| 16,075
| 00:06:40
| -
|-
| HL-10 #16
| April 25, 1969
| Dana
| 0.701
| 744
| 13,716
| 00:04:12
| Unpowered glide
|-
| HL-10 #17
| May 9, 1969
| Manke
| 1.127
| 1,197
| 16,246
| 00:06:50
| 1st lifting body<br />supersonic flight
|-
| HL-10 #18
| May 20, 1969
| Dana
| 0.904
| 959
| 14,966
| 00:06:54
| -
|-
| HL-10 #19
| May 28, 1969
| Manke
| 1.236
| 1,312
| 18,959
| 00:06:38
| -
|-
| HL-10 #20
| June 6, 1969
| Hoag
| 0.665
| 727
| 13,716
| 00:03:51
| Unpowered glide
|-
| HL-10 #21
| June 19, 1969
| Manke
| 1.398
| 1,484
| 19,538
| 00:06:18
| -
|-
| HL-10 #22
| July 23, 1969
| Dana
| 1.444
| 1,350
| 19,446
| 00:06:13
| -
|-
| HL-10 #23
| August 6, 1969
| Manke
| 1.540
| 1,656
| 23,195
| 00:06:12
| 1st four-<br />chambered flight
|-
| HL-10 #24
| September 3, 1969
| Dana
| 1.446
| 1,542
| 23,762
| 00:06:54
| -
|-
| HL-10 #25
| September 18, 1969
| Manke
| 1.256
| 1,341
| 24,137
| 00:07:06
| -
|-
| HL-10 #26
| September 30, 1969
| Hoag
| 0.924
| 980
| 16,383
| 00:07:16
| -
|-
| HL-10 #27
| October 27, 1969
| Dana
| 1.577
| 1,675
| 18,474
| 00:06:57
| -
|-
| HL-10 #28
| November 3, 1969
| Hoag
| 1.396
| 1,482
| 19,544
| 00:07:19
| -
|-
| HL-10 #29
| November 17, 1969
| Dana
| 1.594
| 1,693
| 19,687
| 00:06:48
| -
|-
| HL-10 #30
| November 21, 1969
| Hoag
| 1.432
| 1,532
| 24,165
| 00:06:18
| -
|-
| HL-10 #31
| December 12, 1969
| Dana
| 1.310
| 1,402
| 24,372
| 00:07:08
| -
|-
| HL-10 #32
| January 19, 1970
| Hoag
| 1.310
| 1,399
| 26,414
| 00:06:50
| -
|-
| HL-10 #33
| January 26, 1970
| Dana
| 1.351
| 1,444
| 26,726
| 00:06:51
| -
|-
| HL-10 #34
| February 18, 1970
| Hoag
| 1.861
| 1,976
| 20,516
| 00:06:20
| Fastest lifting<br />body flight
|-
| HL-10 #35
| February 27, 1970
| Dana
| 1.314
| 1,400
| 27,524
| 00:06:56
| Highest lifting<br />body flight
|-
| HL-10 #36
| June 11, 1970
| Hoag
| 0.744
| 810
| 13,716
| 00:03:22
| Lift/Drag<br />powered approach
|-
| HL-10 #37
| July 17, 1970
| Hoag
| 0.733
| 803
| 13,716
| 00:04:12
| Last flight
|}
Aircraft serial number
- Northrop HL-10 — NASA 804, 37 flights
Status
The HL-10 is currently on display at the entrance of Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, CA.
Specifications (Northrop HL-10)
thumb|right|300px|NASA HL-10 Lifting Body Diagram
General characteristics
- Crew: one pilot
- Length: 21 ft 2 in (6.45 m)
- Wingspan: 13 ft 7 in (4.15 m)
- Height: 9 ft 7 in (2.92 m)
- Wing area: 160 ft<sup>2</sup> (14.9 m<sup>2</sup>)
- Empty: 5,285 lb (2,397 kg)
- Loaded: 6,000 lb (2,721 kg)
- Maximum takeoff: 10,009 lb (4,540 kg) (propellant wt 3,536 lb - 1,604 kg)
- Powerplant: 1 x Reaction Motors XLR-11 four-chamber rocket engine. 8,000 lbf (35.7 kN) thrust
Performance
- Maximum speed: 1,228 mph (1,976 km/h)
- Range: 45 miles (72 km)
- Service ceiling: 90,303 ft (27,524 m)
- Rate of climb: ft/min ( m/min)
- Wing loading: 62.5 lb/ft<sup>2</sup> (304.7 kg/m<sup>2</sup>)
- Thrust-to-weight: 1:0.99
Fictional references
In the pilot movie, and an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man series, titled "The Deadly Replay", the HL-10 serial number 804 is identified as the aircraft flown by Col. Steve Austin when he crashed, leading to his transformation into a bionic man, and the HL-10 is also featured in this episode. Other episodes and Martin Caidin's original novel, Cyborg, contradict this, however, by identifying Austin's aircraft as a fictional cousin of the HL-10, the M3-F5. Further confusion is added by the fact that both the HL-10 and the M2-F2 are featured in the opening credits of the television show.
See also
References
- NASA Dryden HL-10 Photo Collection
- Developing and Flight Testing the HL-10 Lifting Body - NASA 1994 (PDF)
- Current display location