From: S.J. Van Sickle (sjvan@csd.uwm.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 22 1999 - 08:00:30 MDT
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First Roton ATV Envelope Expansion Flight Test Conducted Successfully
For Immediate Release
MOJAVE, Calif., September 20, 1999 - Rotary Rocket Company's Roton ATV
(Atmospheric Test Vehicle) approach and landing demonstrator made the first
of a series of four envelope expansion flights at 07:43 am PDT, Thursday
September 16, 1999. The 65 feet tall by 22 feet diameter conical vehicle was
piloted by a two person crew comprising the pilot, Dr. Marti Sarigul-Klijn,
Cmdr. USN-Ret and Roton Chief Engineer, with Brian Binnie, Cmdr. USN-Ret.
and Roton Flight Test Director, as copilot. Both crew members are highly
qualified and experienced flight test pilots.
The flight, the second for the Roton ATV, was an impressive demonstration of
the vehicles' stability and control as it hovered virtually stationary for
two and a half minutes. During the test, the ATV reached a planned maximum
altitude of 20 feet above the Mojave runway. The main test objectives were
to validate the performance and cockpit workload improvements implemented
since the first flight on July 23, 1999. These improvements included
increased thrust output of the blade mounted, tip rockets and the
installation of an auto-throttle controller to maintain the rotor RPM at a
preset value. Both of these changes worked nominally and preliminary flight
results show good correlation with the ATV's integral hardware-in-the-loop
simulator. The scheduled nominal test duration was 5 minutes. The actual
test duration was four and a half minutes. The actual test duration was
governed solely by the pilot's conservative flight planning requirement to
hold 1,500 lbs. of fuel in reserve.
The next flight in the series of four envelope expansion tests will be a low
altitude, translational flight down Runway 30 at Mojave. This flight will
examine the longitudinal stability and control behavior of the Roton ATV in
forward flight. Future ATV flight testing will verify the Roton's
pilot-guided approach and landing capability over a wide range of operating
conditions and demonstrate landings from altitudes of several thousand feet.
The primary function of the Roton ATV is to demonstrate the operational
viability of vertically landing a returning space vehicle using a tip
thruster powered rotor-blade landing system. The Roton ATV is similar in
concept to the Space Shuttle Enterprise that NASA built and flew to test the
orbiter's landing characteristics before proceeding to build space-worthy
version Space Shuttles.
Gary C. Hudson, President and CEO of Rotary Rocket Company said after the
successful conclusion of the flight, "Everyone present at this second test
was impressed by the stability and control exhibited by the Roton ATV. Very
impressed." He went on to congratulate the flight crew and other employees
of Rotary Rocket Company for their superb efforts in implementing the
vehicle improvements in such a short period of time.
Rotary Rocket Company's Roton piloted space vehicle will serve the
telecommunications satellite market, a more than $30 billion market, at a
fraction of the price of existing commercial rockets. The Roton will enter
into commercial service in 2001. Rotary Rocket Company has offices in
Redwood City, California, Mojave, California and Washington D.C.
# # #
Contact:
Geoffrey V. Hughes, Vice President of Sales & Marketing
Rotary Rocket Company
650-298-3305
marketing@rotaryrocket.com
For more information visit our web site at http://www.rotaryrocket.com/
Video clips and photos from the flight test program are available on our
What's Hot page and in the Video and Photo Galleries at the URLs below:
http://www.rotaryrocket.com/hot/hot.html
http://www.rotaryrocket.com/videogallery.html
http://www.rotaryrocket.com/photogallery.html
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