NASA F-15B #836 in flight with Quiet Spike attached. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
NASA F-15B #836 in flight with Quiet Spike attached. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
NASA F-15B #836 landing with Quiet Spike attached. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
NASA F-15B #836 in flight with Quiet Spike attached. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
NASA F-15B #836 in flight with Quiet Spike attached. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
NASA F-15B #836 in flight with Quiet Spike attached. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
NASA F-15B #836 in flight with Quiet Spike attached. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
NASA F-15B #836 in flight with Quiet Spike attached. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
NASA F-15B #836 in flight with Quiet Spike attached. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
Left to right: workhorse F-15B #836, "Mr. Bones" F-15D #884, and "2nd to None" F-15D #897 on the back ramp at NASA's Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center.
Left to right: "2nd to None" (F-15D #897), "Mr. Bones" (F-15D #884), and workhorse F-15B #836 on the back ramp at NASA's Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center.
NASA's F-15B testbed aircraft undergoes pre-flight checks before performing the first flight of the Quiet Spike project. The first flight was performed for evaluation purposes, and the spike was not extended. The Quiet Spike was developed as a means of controlling and reducing the sonic boom caused by an aircraft 'breaking' the sound barrier.
Some of the test team for the Gulfstream Quiet Spike project assembled for a group photo on May 3, 2006. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
NASA's F-15B testbed aircraft in flight during the first evaluation flight of the joint NASA/Gulfstream Quiet Spike project. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
Gulfstream Aerospace and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center are testing the structural integrity of a telescopic 'Quiet Spike' sonic boom mitigator on the F-15B testbed. The Quiet Spike was developed as a means of controlling and reducing the sonic boom caused by an aircraft 'breaking' the sound barrier.
Gulfstream's Quiet Spike sonic boom mitigator being installed on NASA DFRC's F-15B testbed aircraft. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
NASA's F-15B testbed aircraft lands after the first flight of the Quiet Spike project. The first flight was performed for evaluation purposes, and the spike was not extended. The Quiet Spike was developed as a means of controlling and reducing the sonic boom caused by an aircraft 'breaking' the sound barrier.
Approaching the runway after the first evaluation flight of the Quiet Spike project, NASA's F-15B testbed aircraft cruises over Roger's Dry Lakebed near the Dryden Flight Research Center. The Quiet Spike was developed by Gulfstream Aerospace as a means of controlling and reducing the sonic boom caused by an aircraft 'breaking' the sound barrier.
NASA Dryden's F-15B testbed aircraft with the Gulfstream Quiet Spike sonic boom mitigator attached undergoes ground vibration testing in preparation for test flights. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
The control panel for the joint NASA/Gulfstream Quiet Spike project, located in the backseat of NASA's F-15B testbed aircraft. The project seeks to verify the structural integrity of the multi-segmented, articulating spike attachment designed to reduce and control a sonic boom.
NASA's two modified F-15B research aircraft joined up for a fly-over of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards AFB, Calif., after a research mission.
All six divots of thermal insulation foam have been ejected from the flight test fixture on NASA's F-15B testbed as it returns from a LIFT experiment flight.
A close-up of the panels on the F-15B's flight test fixture shows five divots of TPS foam were successfully ejected during the LIFT experiment flight #2, the first flight with TPS foam.
NASA's F-15B carrying thermal insulation foam on its flight test fixture is shadowed by a NASA F-18B chase aircraft during a LIFT experiment research flight.
A post-flight inspection of the panels on the F-15B's flight test fixture shows five divots of TPS foam were successfully ejected during the LIFT experiment flight #2, the first flight with TPS foam.
Two panels of Space Shuttle TPS insulation were mounted on the flight test fixture underneath NASA's F-15B during the Lifting Foam Trajectory flight test series.
One of NASA's two F-15 research aircraft gets refueled in mid-air over Lake Isabella from a USAF KC-135 tanker while NASA's other F-15 flies chase alongside.
