Flight Research at High Altitudes and High Speeds with Rocket-Propelled Research Airplanes

AMONG outstanding problems facing designers of high-speed, high-altitude planes, the author says, are:

1. 1.
   Deterioration of directional stability with Mach number.
2. 2.
   Loss in damping and increase in airplane natural period with altitude.
3. 3.
   Coupling of effects of inertia and aerodynamic characteristics of planes.
4. 4.
   Aerodynamic heating.

These and many other specific problems are being investigated in the 12-year-old program reported here. Its value, the author feels, lies chiefly in the confidence it gives designers and operators of high-speed planes, the backlog of data it builds up for use in future investigations, and the added focus it lends to the work of research scientists in the field.