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JetStar and Learjet in flight JetStar and Learjet in flight

Photo Number: EC82-20536
Photo Date: August 30, 1982

Formats: 539x480 JPEG Image (89 KBytes)
1150x1024 JPEG Image (501 KBytes)
3000x2670 JPEG Image (5,050 KBytes)

Photo
Description:
The NASA C-140 JetStar research aircraft (top) is followed by a NASA Learjet equipped with acoustic sensors during one of several tests of advanced propellors mounted on the vertical pylon atop the JetStar's fuselage. Several advanced prop designs were tested on the JetStar in 1982 by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Facility (DFRF), Edwards, California, to study the effects of noise created by propellors on aircraft structures and cabin interiors. To assess possible noise problems with the subscale turbofan, DFRF technicians mounted microphones on both the JetStar and the Learjet chase plane. DFRF then made measurements at close range and at longer distances. The data enabled structural changes and flightpath modifications.

Project
Description:
In the 1960s, the same JetStar was equipped with an electronic variable stability flight control system. Called then a General Purpose Airborne Simulator (GPAS), the aircraft could duplicate the flight characteristics of a wide variety of advanced aircraft and was used for supersonic transport and general aviation research and as a training and support system for Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests at Dryden in 1977.

In 1985, the JetStar's wings were modified with suction and spray devices in a laminar (smooth) air flow program to study ways of improving the flow of air over the wings of airliners. The program also studied ways of reducing the collection of ice and insects on airliner wings.


NASA Photo by: NASA photo

Keywords: C-140; JetStar; Lockheed; Lear Jet; advanced propellor designs; General Purpose Airborne Simulator; GPAS; laminar flow; insect contamination; leading-edge flight test; LEFT; surface disturbances; ice particles


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