| Phantom Works, AFRL Test Supersonic JDAM
Aviation Week & Space Technology
12/03/2007, page 13
During a recent test at the High-Speed Test Track at Holloman AFB, N.M., researchers from Boeing Phantom Works and the Air Force Research Laboratory used a rocket sled and active flow control to release an Mk.82 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) standard test vehicle at a speed of about Mach 2 from a weapons bay with a size approximating that of the U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber. The technology involved in active flow control enabled this first-ever munitions test at high supersonic speeds. The configuration used in the Hifex rocket sled test is a tandem array of microjets upstream of the weapons bay. Wind tunnel testing indicated that without active flow control, the JDAM test vehicle would not have penetrated the boundary layer, but ricocheted back into the bay. |
