NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Collection

C-140 JetStar landing on Rogers Dry Lakebed

This 26 second movie clip shows C-140 JetStar landing on Rogers Dry Lakebed.

From 1976 to 1987 the NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio -- today known as the Glenn Research Center -- engaged in research and development of an advanced turboprop concept in partnership with Hamilton Standard, Windsor Locks, Connecticut, the largest manufacturer of propellers in the United States. The Advanced Turboprop Project took its impetus from the energy crisis of the early 1970's and sought to produce swept propeller blades that would increase efficiency and reduce noise.

As the project progressed, Pratt & Whitney, Allison Gas Turbine Division of General Motors, General Electric, Gulfstream, Rohr Industries, Boeing, Lockheed, and McDonnell Douglas, among others, also took part. NASA Lewis did the much of the ground research and marshaled the resources of these and other members of the aeronautical community. The team came to include the NASA Ames Research Center, Langley Research Center, and the Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility (before and after that time, the Dryden Flight Research Center). Together, they brought the propeller to the flight research stage, and the team that worked on the project won the coveted Collier Trophy for its efforts in 1987.

To test the acoustics of the propeller the team developed, it mounted propeller models on a C-140 JetStar aircraft fuselage at NASA Dryden. The JetStar was modified with the installation of an air-turbine-drive system. The drive motor, with a test propeller, was mounted on a pylon atop the JetStar. The JetStar was equipped with an array of 28 microphones flush-mounted in the fuselage of the aircraft beneath the propeller. Microphones mounted on the wings and on an accompanying Learjet chase aircraft provided far-field acoustic data.

Between May 21, 1981 and August of 1982, the JetStar completed roughly 45 research flights with three different propellers in varying configurations. Dryden engineers analyzed some of the resultant data, while they sent flight tapes to Hamilton Standard, Lewis, and Langley for analysis there. The results indicated a need for noise-reduction technology to keep the noise levels down to the project goals.

An improved version of the advanced turboprop underwent flight testing in 1987 on a Gulfstream II over Georgia in 1987. These flight tests verified predictions of a 20- to 30-percent fuel savings. However, with the end of the energy crisis, the need for such savings disappeared, and the Advanced Turboprop Project did not lead to the expected industry-wide adoption of the new propeller systems on transport aircraft.

In the 1960s, the same JetStar that was used to test the advanced turboprop had been equipped with an electronic variable-stability flight-control system. Called then a General Purpose Airborne Simulator (GPAS), the aircraft could duplicate the flight characteristics of a wide variety of advanced aircraft and was used for supersonic transport and general

aviation research, and as a training and support system for Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests at Dryden in 1977. Over the years, the JetStar has also been used for a variety of other flight research projects, including laminar-flow-control flight tests in the mid-1980s.

Circa 1970s

C-140 Jetstar Still photos of the Jetstar are available in several resolutions at
http://www.dfrc.nas…[ http://www.dfrc.nas…]

Langley Research Center

Dryden Flight Research Center

Approach and Landing Tests

General Electric

Space Shuttle

Ames Research Center

Boeing

Pratt & Whitney

JetStar

Advanced Turboprop Project

Lewis Research Center

Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility

Glenn Research Center

Hamilton Standard

swept propeller blades

Allison Gas Turbine Division of General Motors

Gulfstream

Rohr Industries

Lockheed

McDonnell Douglas

Collier Trophy

C-140

Learjet

Gulfstream II

energy crisis

GPAS

General Purpose Airborne Simulator

ALT

laminar-flow-control

Leading Edge Flight Tests

Space Shuttle Orbiter

Ohio

Douglas

Hamilton

Connecticut

Georgia

Rogers Dry Lake

Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC)

Langley Research Center (LaRC)

Ames Research Center (ARC)

United States of America

Glenn Research Center (GRC)

1977

1982

1987

May 21, 1981

1977

1981

1982

1987

EM-0017-02

SPD-DRYDEN-EM-0017-0 2

http://www.dfrc.nas…