Payload to attract private research

By DON JERGLER Valley Press Business Editor

The Antelope Valley Press. August 17, 1999

EDWARDS AFB - A tremendous roar thundered over the high desert Monday as the SR-71 spy plane punched through the skies above the Antelope Valley carrying on its back 10,000 pounds of steel, and nearly all hope for its own future. As the engines revved, a seemingly endless stream of searing exhaust contorted the image of Joshua trees in the background. The long, black, ominous frame rolled forward, then up toward the heavens, where, even saddled with a massive testing platform, it easily cruised to Mach 3 -- about 2,000 mph at an altitude of 75,000 feet, or three times the speed of sound.

We're reaching into the unknown," said Steven Schmidt, manager of a program that for the time being aims to save the Cold War warrior from an existence as a centerpiece in aerospace museums. Schmidt and other engineers at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center mounted the testing platform on the SR-71's back, hoping it will make an inviting laboratory for private industry. Monday's was the third flight with the 40-foot platform. Engineers are testing the plane for handling capabilities while carrying the hunk of steel at supersonic speeds. Monday's test was to Mach 3.0. A test scheduled for sometime in September will have the pilots take the jet to its unclassified envelope, Mach 3.3 - more than 2,200 mph - at altitudes of over 85,000 feet. Mach 3 is faster than a 30.06 rifle bullet. Eventually, if talks scheduled for this week between NASA and interested aerospace corporations go well, Schmidt said, the platform will be fitted with prototype rocket engines, which burn both fuel and air. The engines could eventually be used on reusable, single stage-to-orbit - space vehicles.

The research role is not new for the SR-71. in 1993, a science camera platform for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was mounted and flown on the Blackbird. The jet also has been used by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, to test the use of charged chlorine atoms to protect and rebuild the Earth's ozone layer. It's been a tested for the development of a satellite based wireless communications network. Most recently, the SR-71 was used as a flying wind tunnel in 1998. Mounted with Lockheed Martin's linear aerospike experiment, it made seven flights to help Lockheed test how the operation of an aerospike engine will affect the aerodynamics of future reusable launch vehicles. Those rocket engine tests were for the X-33, a prototype of the Venture Star space shuttle follow-on. The advantage of the SR-71, NASA engineers, say, is that it provides real-life conditions for testing that a wind tunnel cannot reproduce. Also, wind tunnels are not capable of sustaining speeds at Mach 3, which are needed for testing the prototype engines. The SR-71 cruises at Mach 3, with a reported top speed of Mach 3.2 some contest this is a low estimate the government gives to keep certain aspects of the former spy plane a secret. According to Schmidt, at Mach 3 the SR-71's pilots must throttle back to keep the plane from naturally climbing to faster speeds. We've got no problem with thrust," he said.

While its speed and high-altitude capabilities make it the fastest, highest-flying plane in use, the jet's operating costs make it a target for those in both Congress and the Air Force looking to reduce spending. In July, it flew for the first time in nearly a year when it took to the sky for the first of its four flights with the platform, reaching Mach 2.25 at 55,000 feet. Before that, the last flight of an SR-71 was at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center on Oct.29, 1998. For the past 10 years, the 'Blackbird's fate 'has been in question. The Cold War spy plane was first retired in 1989. In 1995, Congress brought two of the spy planes out of retirement because no comparable reconnaissance instrument had been developed. In 1996, the SR-71 program was grounded because the Air Force said funds were not authorized. Congress authorized the funds, and the Air Force flew an SR-71 in the fall. In October 1997, President Bill Clinton used the line-item veto the project, wipe out the $39 million for the SR-71, apparently ending the program. In June 1,998, the Supreme Court ruled the line-item veto unconstitutional, sending the SR-71 back into limbo. In September 1998, the Air Force asked that the $39 million be redistributed, once again ending the program.

With that last decision, all orders reverted back to March 1998, when the Air Force, citing Clinton's veto, approved the aircraft's permanent retirement. Before that, the SR-71 spent decades retrieving aerial intelligence from a variety of hostile locales, including North Vietnam, North Korea, the Middle Fast and the fringes of the former Soviet Union. None of the planes were ever shot down. An SR-71 reached 2,194 mph on July 28, 1976, to set the world absolute and class speed records over a 15- to 25-kilometer straight course. That same day, another SR-71 flew to 85,069 feet, setting the record for sustained horizontal flight. Developed for the Air Force by Lockheed Skunks Works as a reconnaissance aircraft 30 years ago, need for the plane has waned as the Department of Defense began to look to cheaper, more effective surveillance methods such as satellites and continued use of the much slower U-2 spy plane. Cost estimates vary, but it is estimated that each time the plane flies, it expending $36,000 in fuel. Much of this is due to its weight. The aircraft, which is 107 feet long with a wing span of 55 feet, weighs roughly 147,000 pounds including fuel. It is estimated an SR-71 costs $30 million a year to operate. While the plane' is powered by two Pratt and Whitney J-58 axial- flow turbojets with afterburners each producing 32,500 pounds of thrust, much of the thrust used to fly at Mach 3 is produced by the movable spike system at the front of the engine, by the nozzles at the exhaust which burn air compressed in the engine. The Air Force has loaned its two SR-71s to the project.