Flight experience with altitude hold and Mach hold autopilots on the YF-12 aircraft at Mach 3

The altitude hold mode of the YF-12A airplane was modified to include a high-pass-filtered pitch rate feedback along with optimized inner loop altitude rate proportional and integral gains. An autothrottle control system was also developed to control either Mach number or KEAS at the high-speed flight conditions. Flight tests indicate that, with the modified system, significant improvements are obtained in both altitude and speed control, and the combination of altitude and autothrottle hold modes provides the most stable aircraft platform thus far demonstrated at Mach 3 conditions

Satellite personal communications system

Voice channel communication between low power mobile stations dispersed over a large area is provided by a system which includes a geostationary satellite utilizing a large UHF antenna that can receive a transmission from a caller and retransmit it over any one beam of a matrix of narrow beams, so the chosen beam covers an area in which a designated called party is located. A single up-link control channel occupying a narrow frequency band, can be utilized to receive dial up signals from a caller, and another single down link control channel can be utilized to ring up the called party located anywhere within the continental United States. The satellite antenna includes a matrix of feed horns that not only direct the beams in a controlled matrix onto the area of the continental United States, but also permit detection of the region from which the caller's signal is transmitted and the region from which the called party's answer is received, to enable the interconnection of signals received from these two regions. The system is particularly useful for rural areas

Low cost uniform heat source

Electrically powered heat source was developed for ground simulation of isotope heat-source assembly in Brayton power system. Heat source, which operates on ordinary 110 vac power, consists of tungsten filament heating element wound onto a spirally grooved boron nitride core and inserted in a hollowed-out graphite hexahedron

A computer program to calculate radiating viscous stagnation streamline flow with strong blowing

A computer program (program LEE) has been developed to calculate the fully coupled solution of the radiating viscous stagnation streamline flow with strong blowing. The report describes the digital computer program, including FORTRAN IV listing, flow charts, instructions for the user, and a test case with input and output. Program LEE is available through COSMIC

2000 BUSINESS ANALYSIS SUMMARY FOR GENERAL CROPS FARMS

Crop Production/Industries,

Isotope heat source simulator for testing of space power systems

A reliable isotope heat source simulator was designed for use in a Brayton power system. This simulator is composed of an electrically heated tungsten wire which is wound around a boron nitride core and enclosed in a graphite jacket. Simulator testing was performed at the expected operating temperature of the Brayton power system. Endurance testing for 5012 hours was followed by cycling the simulator temperature. The integrity of this simulator was maintained throughout testing. Alumina beads served as a diffusion barrier to prevent interaction between the tungsten heater and boron nitride core. The simulator was designed to maintain a surface temperature of 1311 to 1366 K (1900 to 2000 F) with a power input of approximately 400 watts. The design concept and the materials used in the simulator make possible man different geometries. This flexibility increases its potential use

Rocket experiments for spectral estimation of electron density fine structure in the auroral and equatorial ionosphere and preliminary results

Sounding rockets equipped to monitor electron density and its fine structure were launched into the auroral and equatorial ionosphere in 1980 and 1983, respectively. The measurement electronics are based on the Langmuir probe and are described in detail. An approach to the spectral analysis of the density irregularities is addressed and a software algorithm implementing the approach is given. Preliminary results of the analysis are presented

The application of Floquet theory to the computation of small orbital perturbations over long time intervals using the Tschauner- Hempel equations

Calculation of path deviation of satellite from reference trajectory - perturbation theor

Results from flight and simulator studies of a Mach 3 cruise longitudinal autopilot

At Mach numbers of approximately 3.0 and altitudes greater than 21,300 meters, the original altitude and Mach hold modes of the YF-12 autopilot produced aircraft excursions that were erratic or divergent, or both. Flight data analysis and simulator studies showed that the sensitivity of the static pressure port to angle of attack had a detrimental effect on the performance of the altitude and Mach hold modes. Good altitude hold performance was obtained when a high passed pitch rate feedback was added to compensate for angle of attack sensitivity and the altitude error and integral altitude gains were reduced. Good Mach hold performance was obtained when the angle of attack sensitivity was removed; however, the ride qualities remained poor