What Might Have Been? An F-15N?

"user314" (user314) 02/25/2020 at 10:29 • Filed to: Planelopnik, planelopnik history, nasa, f-15, f-14, aim-54, phoenix missile

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!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!  

In 2007 NASA began to look at reusing AIM-54 Phoenix missiles, retired in 2004 along with the F-14, as hypersonic boosters. The idea was that the NASA F-15B would carry accelerate to Mach 2 then launch the Phoenix , which would keep going to Mach 5 and carry out whatever research was needed (t hermal protection materials, scramjet propulsion, guidance & control, boundary layer transition, aerodynamics at hypersonic speeds, etc.)

Captive carry flights were carried out in late 2007, with a demiled AIM-54 mounted to a pylon, mounted to another pylon under the centerline of the Eagle. Funding was not provided to continue the experiments however, and the remaining Phoenixes were scrapped or sent off to museums.

Chariotoflove > user314 02/25/2020 at 10:44

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Notchback88 > user314 02/25/2020 at 10:54

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Ok Project Aces, I would now like LAAMs on my F-15J/Es please. 

Ash78, voting early and often > user314 02/25/2020 at 10:57

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Holy crap, just the idea of launching a missile at Mach 2 sounds sketchy as hell.

Imagine being a kid and driving down the highway at 60mph, then folding up a paper airplane, rolling down a window, lighting the plane on fire, and saying “Ready for test flight?”

user314 > Ash78, voting early and often 02/25/2020 at 11:30

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Back in the early ‘60s (natch), the CIA and USAF asked the Lockheed Skunk Works to come up with a drone that could be used to overfly areas of interest that the A-12/SR-71 couldn’t. The result was the D-21 , which was mounted to the back of two specially modified A-12s and launched at Mach 3.

The idea worked, kinda , but was very dangerous, and as it turned out, completely superfluous as there really wasn’t anywhere a Blackbird couldn’t go. One of the M-21 carrier aircraft was destroyed in an accident (the pilot survived but the launch officer drowned), and the D-21s were modified to be launched by B-52s.

Several missions were launched over China during the Vietnam war, but none of them returned photographs, and the D-21s were eventually remanded to the Boneyard where they would have remained in obscurity, wrapped in Spraylat, until a chance gust of wind blew the covers off several while a tour bus was going through.

Oops.

phenotyp > user314 02/25/2020 at 12:00

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That’s just stupid.

user314 > phenotyp 02/25/2020 at 12:09

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How so? T here’s plenty of precedent for using retired military hardware for scientific pursuits; using the Phoenixes this way would have been cheaper than designing a wholly new booster and  been more efficient than simply shredding them.

Ash78, voting early and often > user314 02/25/2020 at 12:38

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One of my favorite plane stories of all. My dad was an aero engineering student in SoCal in the late 60s, encouraged a lot by the work going on around there (he ended up going civilian ).

In the 80s I had the GI Joe version of that, which included a MANNED version. Very cramped.

phenotyp > user314 02/25/2020 at 13:23

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The Phoenix was just a big missle with a nuclear capability.

The F-14 with a pair of Phoenixes was like my childhood dream.

Scrap those motherfuckers. If we can use a couple of them to make sense of the world, great. If not, recycle em.

user314 > Ash78, voting early and often 02/25/2020 at 13:41

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I had the Joe Sky Raven, same plane but in Chromed plasti c and no drone :

Ash78, voting early and often > user314 02/25/2020 at 13:54

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Wow, I had almost forgotten about that one!

I have to commend their resourcefulness on the partial recycling of artwork. Not exactly the days of Photoshop...

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > phenotyp 02/26/2020 at 08:12

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The Phoenix was a conventional warhead missile.

It’s 100 nmi range and Mach 5 speed make it an excellent choice for high speed research by NASA. Why not use it to perform scientific research? It’s cheaper to take something that already exists and adapt it to a new use than to design something completely new to per form the exact same job that could be done with existing hardware.

phenotyp > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 02/26/2020 at 09:31

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My mistake! Not sure why I thought it was nuke capable.

I do see your point— I mean, if they’re just lying around, might as well use them for something other than blowing shit  up.