NASA Hyper III

Role: Lifting-body remotely piloted vehicle
National origin: United States
Manufacturer: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Designer: Dale Reed
First flight: 12 December 1969
Primary user: NASA
Number built: 1

The NASA Hyper III was an American unpowered full-scale lifting body remotely piloted vehicle designed and built at the NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Design and development

The Hyper III was designed to help in the M2 lifting body program, it had a flat bottom and sides and a simple straight wing with no flaps, ailerons or any control surfaces. The wing was designed to simulate a pop-out wing that had been proposed for a re-entry vehicle. It had twin fins and rudders canted at 40° from the vertical with hinged elevons on the horizontal surface. The landing gear was a fixed tricyle type, using spring steel legs from a Cessna aircraft. It was fitted with an emergency parachute system and the aircraft was controlled by 5-channel radio link, instrument data was down-linked using a 12-channel radio.

On the 12 December 1969 the Hyper III was launched from a helicopter at 10,000 feet. It glided 5 km, turned round, came back and landed. After the three-minute flight it was not flown again as the Center cancelled the program.

Specifications

Data from Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1973-74

General characteristics

Length: 32 ft 0 in (9.75 m)
Wingspan: 15 ft 0 in (4.57 m)
Height: 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m)
Wing area: 35.41 ft (3.29 m)
Empty weight: 950 lb (431 kg)
Gross weight: 950 lb (431 kg)

Performance

Maximum speed: 173 mph (277 km/h)
Stall speed: 69 mph (111 km/h)
Range: 11 miles (18 km)
Service ceiling: 12000 ft (3660 m)

NASA M2-F1

Bibliography

Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1973-74. London, United Kingdom: Jane's Yearbooks. 1973. ISBN 0 354 00117 5.

NASA Hyper III Pictures

More airplane video.

Source: WikiPedia