Eclipse Aerotow Dynamics Experiment

NASA Dryden Flight Research Center is supporting a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract between the U.S. Air Force Research Labs and Kelly Space & Technology (KST). KST's innovation is to use an aerotowed reusable launch vehicle to put small satellites into low orbits around the Earth. In support of this idea, the SBIR is to demonstrate aerotow with representative aircraft; namely, a C-141A as the towing airplane and a QF-106A (a modified F-106) as the towed airplane. NASA Dryden has developed a computational simulation of the dynamics of the tow rope and towed airplane, conducted dynamic-stability studies, developed test plans, and completed successful ground, taxi, and flight tests.