Rake Airflow Gage Experiment Flies on NASA F-15B
11.25.08
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center recently conducted a flight test of an airflow-measurement device mounted underneath its F-15B research aircraft in the Rake Airflow Gage Experiment. The device involves a cruciform array or rake composed of conical probes that are used for measuring airflow parameters – airspeed, angle of attack and sideslip – at nine specific locations underneath the F-15B. The rake was attached to a boom-cylinder test device that was mounted to NASA Dryden's Propulsion Flight Test Fixture six-component force balance.
The purpose of the flight was to quantify the flow-field at the nine separate locations that correspond to the aerodynamic interface plane of a planned follow-on experiment called the Channeled Centerbody Inlet Experiment. That experiment is scheduled to be flight-tested in 2009.