North American X-10
Encyclopedia
North American Aviation
North American Aviation was a major US aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo Command and Service...
X-10 (model RTV-A-5) was an unmanned technology demonstrator for advanced missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
technologies during the 1950s. The X-10 was similar to the development of Bell's X-9 Shrike
X-9 Shrike
The Bell Aircraft Corporation X-9 Shrike was a prototype surface-to-air, liquid-fueled guided missile that was a testbed for the nuclear-armed GAM-63 RASCAL. It is named after the bird shrike....
project.
Development
To facilitate development of the long-range SM-64 NavahoSM-64 Navaho
The North American SM-64 Navaho was a supersonic intercontinental cruise missile project built by North American Aviation. The program ran from 1946 to 1958 when it was cancelled in favor of intercontinental ballistic missiles...
surface-to-surface
Surface-to-surface missile
A surface-to-surface missile is a guided projectile launched from a hand-held, vehicle mounted, trailer mounted or fixed installation or from a ship. They are often powered by a rocket motor or sometimes fired by an explosive charge, since the launching platform is typically stationary or moving...
cruise missile
Cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
, North American Aviation developed the RTV-A-5, or X-10 in 1951
1951 in aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1951:-Events:* Three aerial refueling points are installed on a modified United States Air Force B-29 Superfortress, making it the worlds first triple-point aerial tanker...
. This vehicle was to prove out critical flight technology for the design of the cruise vehicle of the Navaho missile design. These included proving the basic aerodynamics out to Mach 2, flight testing the inertial guidance unit and flight control avionics
Avionics
Avionics are electronic systems used on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft.Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems and the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to meet individual roles...
to the same speed, and finally validate the recovery system for the next phase in the Navaho program. Preliminary design of the X-10 was completed in February of 1951 and the first vehicle was delivered to Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County, California, in the Antelope Valley. It is southwest of the central business district of North Edwards, California and due east of Rosamond.It is named in...
in May of 1953. The first flight occurred on October 14, 1953.
The X-10 was powered by two Westinghouse J40
Westinghouse J40
|-References:...
turbojet engines with afterburners, and equipped with landing gear for conventional take off and landing. The combination of a delta wing
Delta wing
The delta wing is a wing planform in the form of a triangle. It is named for its similarity in shape to the Greek uppercase letter delta .-Delta-shaped stabilizers:...
with an all-moving canard
Canard (aeronautics)
In aeronautics, canard is an airframe configuration of fixed-wing aircraft in which the forward surface is smaller than the rearward, the former being known as the "canard", while the latter is the main wing...
gave it extremely good aerodynamics in the trans-sonic and supersonic
Supersonic
Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...
environments. It also made the vehicle unstable requiring active computer flight control in the form of an autopilot
Autopilot
An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being. An autopilot can refer specifically to aircraft, self-steering gear for boats, or auto guidance of space craft and missiles...
. Thus, the X-10 is similar to modern military fighters which are flown by the onboard computer and not directly by the pilot. In this same regard, though the X-10 was receiving directional commands from a radio-command guidance system, these commands were sent through the on-board computer which in turn implemented the commands. Later X-10s included an N-6 inertial navigation system
Inertial navigation system
An inertial navigation system is a navigation aid that uses a computer, motion sensors and rotation sensors to continuously calculate via dead reckoning the position, orientation, and velocity of a moving object without the need for external references...
which completely controlled the vehicle through the cruise portion of the flight.
Service history
At the time it came into service, the X-10 was one of the fastest turbojet-powered aircraft flown. From 1953 to 1955 a total of five X-10s flew 15 flights at Edwards AFB. There it reached a maximum flight speed of Mach 1.84, flew a distance of 400 mi (644 km), and reached an altitude of 41,000 feet. These were performance levels superior to nearly all manned turbojet aircraft (the exception being the YF-104 StarfighterF-104 Starfighter
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft originally developed for the United States Air Force by Lockheed. One of the Century Series of aircraft, it served with the USAF from 1958 until 1969, and continued with Air National Guard units...
). In 1955 the program moved to Cape Canaveral, Florida
Cape Canaveral, Florida
Cape Canaveral is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. The population was 8,829 at the 2000 census. As of 2008, the estimated population according to the U.S. Census Bureau was 10,147...
to complete the test program. Here a new set of six X-10 vehicles would complete the testing of the N-6 inertial navigation system out to supersonic speeds, reach 49,000 feet altitude, a total flight distance of 627 mi (1,009 km) and a peak speed of Mach 2.05.
Disposition
Of all the X-10s built, only one survived the test program: serial 51-9307, the first X-10 to ever fly. Of the other four aircraft that flew at Edwards AFB, one blew-up on take-off, one was lost in flight and the remaining two were destroyed in landing accidents. As for the vehicles flown at Cape Canaveral, three were expended in planned dive-in flights against Grand Bahama Island, and two were lost in landing accidents.In 1958 the remaining three Cape Canaveral X-10s were selected for use as high speed targets for the BOMARC surface-to-air missile. The plan was to recover and reuse the X-10, not to have them shot down by the BOMARC. Unfortunately, none of these vehicles would complete their target flight: two were lost on landing and the third suffered a mechanical problem forcing it to be flown into the Atlantic.
Survivors
- The sole surviving X-10 s/n GM 19307 is located at the National Museum of the United States Air ForceNational Museum of the United States Air ForceThe National Museum of the United States Air Force is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the world's largest and oldest military aviation museum with more than 360 aircraft and missiles on display...
in Dayton, OhioDayton, OhioDayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
. This was the first X-10 to fly. The aircraft was delivered to the Air Force Museum in 1957, upon completion of the program. It is displayed in the Museum's Research & Development Hangar.
General characteristics
- Length: 66 ft 0 in (20.15 m)
- Wingspan: 28 ft 2 in (8.59 m)
- Height: 14 ft 5 in (4.40 m)
- Wing area: 425 ft² ( m²)
- Empty: '25,800 lb (11,703 kg)
- Loaded: 35,000 lb (15,876 kg)
- Maximum takeoff: 42,300 lb (19,187 kg)
- Powerplant: 2x Westinghouse XJ40-WE-1 turbojets, 10,900 lbf (44.5 kN) thrust each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 1,300 mph (2,090 km/h)
- Range: 818 miles (1,316 km)
- Service ceiling: 45,000 ft (13,720 m)
- Rate of climb:5,224 ft/min ( m/min)
- Wing loading: lb/ft² ( kg/m²)
- Thrust/Weight:
Related content
Related development:SM-64 Navaho
SM-64 Navaho
The North American SM-64 Navaho was a supersonic intercontinental cruise missile project built by North American Aviation. The program ran from 1946 to 1958 when it was cancelled in favor of intercontinental ballistic missiles...
Comparable aircraft:
External links
- North American RTV-A-5/X-10 at Designation-Systems.Net