Dryden Home > Collections > Photo Home > Theseus Aircraft > Photo # EC96-43591-1 |
Theseus on Take-off for First Flight | ||
|
||
Photo Number: | EC96-43591-1 | |
Photo Date: | May 1996 | |
|
||
Formats: | 558x480 JPEG Image (75 KBytes) 1191x1024 JPEG Image (615 KBytes) 2000x1720 JPEG Image (713 KBytes) |
|
|
||
Photo Description: |
The Theseus prototype research aircraft takes off for its first test flight from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, on May 24, 1996. | |
|
||
Project Description: |
The Theseus aircraft, built and operated by Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation, Manassas, Virginia, was a unique aircraft flown at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, under a cooperative agreement between NASA and Aurora. Dryden hosted the Theseus program, providing hangar space and range safety for flight testing. Aurora Flight Sciences was responsible for the actual flight testing, vehicle flight safety, and operation of the aircraft.
The Theseus remotely piloted aircraft flew its maiden flight on May 24, 1996, at Dryden. During its sixth flight on November 12, 1996, Theseus experienced an in-flight structural failure that resulted in the loss of the aircraft. As of the beginning of the year 2000, Aurora had not rebuilt the aircraft. Theseus was built for NASA under an innovative, $4.9 million fixed-price contract by Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation and its partners, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, and Fairmont State College, Fairmont, West Virginia. The twin-engine, unpiloted vehicle had a 140-foot wingspan, and was constructed largely of composite materials. Powered by two 80-horsepower, turbocharged piston engines that drove twin 9-foot-diameter propellers, Theseus was designed to fly autonomously at high altitudes, with takeoff and landing under the active control of a ground-based pilot in a ground control station "cockpit." With the potential ability to carry 700 pounds of science instruments to altitudes above 60,000 feet for durations of greater than 24 hours, Theseus was intended to support research in areas such as stratospheric ozone depletion and the atmospheric effects of future high-speed civil transport aircraft engines. Instruments carried aboard Theseus also would be able to validate satellite-based global environmental change measurements. Dryden’s Project Manager was John Del Frate. |
|
|
||
NASA Photo by: | Dennis Taylor | |
|
||
Keywords: | Theseus; Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation; Dryden Flight Research Center; West Virginia University; Fairmont State College; John Del Frate |
Dryden Home > Collections > Photo Home > Theseus Aircraft > Photo # EC96-43591-1 |
|
|
Business | Education | History | Gallery | News Room | Organizations | Research | Search | Site Index | |
Last Modified: February 6, 2002 |