A laser propelled Lightcraft vehicle has been successfully flown in a series of experiments conducted at the High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility (HELSTF), White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), NM. The flight tests, conducted under a joint USAF/NASA flight demonstration program, used a single optimized geometry scaled over a range of sizes designed to fly on the 10 kW Pulsed Laser Vulnerability Test System (PLVTS) pulsed carbon dioxide laser. The axisymmetric Lightcraft vehicles were propelled by airbreathing, pulsed-detonation engines with an infinite fuel specific impulse. Schlieren and shadowgraph pictures were taken as a function of time, and laser beam propagation studies were conducted with different focal length telescopes. Spin-stabilized free-flight launches outside the laboratory have been accomplished to altitudes approaching 30 m (100 ft).
Ground and Flight Tests of a Laser Propelled Vehicle
1998
11 pages
Report
No indication
English
Ground and flight tests of a laser propelled vehicle
AIAA | 1998
|Ground and Flight Tests of a Laser Propelled Vehicle
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1998
|Flight and Ground Tests of a Laser-Boosted Vehicle
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1998
|Flight and ground tests of a laser-booted vehicle
AIAA | 1998
|