The North American X-10 (originally designated RTV-A-5 ) is an unmanned technology demonstrator developed by North American Aviation . It was a subscale reusable design that included many of the design features of the SM-64 Navaho missile. The X-10 was similar to the development of the Bell X-9 Shrike project, which was based on features of the GAM-63 RASCAL .
31-446: (Redirected from X-10 ) X10 may refer to: North American X-10 , an unmanned technology demonstrator for advanced missile technologies SL X10 , a Swedish suburban train X10 industry standard , communication over wired power line or wireless used for home automation X10 Wireless Technology , a vendor of home automation products X-10,
62-414: A Microsoft conference demonstrating Xbox 360 games/technologies for 2010 on 11 February 2010 X Window System , 10th protocol version from 1986 to 1988 [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title formed as a letter–number combination. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to
93-803: A code name for the Metallurgical Project X-10 Graphite Reactor , one of the world's first nuclear reactors Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 , a smartphone using the Android operating system X10 (video game), a video game by Warthog Games Limited X Ten, a gene-sequencing machine in the HiSeq series produced by the San Diego–based biotech firm Illumina Fujifilm X10 , a digital compact camera from 2011 Skydio X10 or X10D autonomous drone Computer related [ edit ] X10 programming language Microsoft X10 Event ,
124-408: A desert runway. General characteristics Performance Related development Transonic Transonic (or transsonic ) flow is air flowing around an object at a speed that generates regions of both subsonic and supersonic airflow around that object. The exact range of speeds depends on the object's critical Mach number , but transonic flow is seen at flight speeds close to
155-576: A distance of 400 mi (644 km), and reached an altitude of 41,000 feet (12,000 m). These were performance levels superior to nearly all manned turbojet aircraft (the exception being the YF-104 Starfighter ). In 1955 the program moved to Cape Canaveral, Florida , to complete the test program. Here a new set of six X-10 vehicles completed the testing of the N-6 inertial navigation system at supersonic speeds, reach 49,000 feet (15,000 m) altitude,
186-569: A total flight distance of 627 mi (1,009 km) and a peak speed of Mach 2.05. Of all the X-10s built, only one survived the test program: serial 51-9307, the first X-10 to fly. Of the other four aircraft that flew at Edwards AFB, one exploded on takeoff, one was lost in flight, and the remaining two were destroyed in landing accidents. As for the vehicles flown at Cape Canaveral, three were expended in planned dive-in flights against Grand Bahama Island , and two were lost in landing accidents. In 1958,
217-521: Is Mach 1 and the Prandtl–Glauert singularity . In astrophysics, wherever there is evidence of shocks (standing, propagating or oscillating), the flow close by must be transonic, as only supersonic flows form shocks. All black hole accretions are transonic. Many such flows also have shocks very close to the black holes. The outflows or jets from young stellar objects or disks around black holes can also be transonic since they start subsonically and at
248-412: Is added to the forward-sweeping [leading] side of the rotor, possibly causing localized transonics). Issues with aircraft flight relating to speed first appeared during the supersonic era in 1941. Ralph Virden, a test pilot, crashed in a fatal plane accident. He lost control of the plane when a shock wave caused by supersonic airflow developed over the wing, causing it to stall. Virden flew well below
279-407: Is fundamentally untrue for transonic flows because the disturbance caused by an object is much larger than in subsonic or supersonic flows; a flow speed close to or at Mach 1 does not allow the streamtubes (3D flow paths) to contract enough around the object to minimize the disturbance, and thus the disturbance propagates. Aerodynamicists struggled during the earlier studies of transonic flow because
310-692: Is located at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio . This was the first X-10 to fly. The aircraft was delivered to the Air Force Museum in 1957, upon completion of the program. It is displayed in the museum's Research & Development Hangar. The 1960s series Men Into Space used footage of the X-10 and SM-64 Navaho tests at Edwards AFB to depict spacecraft landings on
341-469: Is the use of swept wings , but another common form is a wasp-waist fuselage as a side effect of the Whitcomb area rule . Transonic speeds can also occur at the tips of rotor blades of helicopters and aircraft. This puts severe, unequal stresses on the rotor blade and may lead to accidents if it occurs. It is one of the limiting factors of the size of rotors and the forward speeds of helicopters (as this speed
SECTION 10
#1732849071866372-509: The RTV-A-5 (Research Test Vehicle, Air Force), or X-10 in 1951. This vehicle was to prove critical flight technology for the design of the Navaho cruise missile. These included proving the basic aerodynamics to Mach 2, flight testing the inertial guidance unit and flight control avionics to the same speed, and validate the recovery system for the next phase in the Navaho program. Preliminary design of
403-411: The speed of sound (343 m/s at sea level), typically between Mach 0.8 and 1.2. The issue of transonic speed (or transonic region) first appeared during World War II. Pilots found as they approached the sound barrier the airflow caused aircraft to become unsteady. Experts found that shock waves can cause large-scale separation downstream, increasing drag, adding asymmetry and unsteadiness to
434-399: The transonic and supersonic environments. It also made the vehicle unstable requiring active computer flight control in the form of an autopilot . Thus, the X-10 is similar to modern military fighters which are flown by the onboard computer and not directly by the pilot. Though the X-10 was receiving directional commands from a radio-command guidance system, these commands were sent through
465-518: The X-10 was completed in February 1951 and the first vehicle was delivered to Edwards Air Force Base in May 1953. The first flight occurred on 14 October 1953. The X-10 was powered by two Westinghouse J40 turbojet engines with afterburners, and equipped with landing gear for conventional take off and landing. The combination of a delta wing with an all-moving canard gave it extremely good aerodynamics in
496-434: The behavior of transonic flow over a double wedge airfoil , the first to do so with only the assumptions of thin-airfoil theory. Although successful, Guderley's work was still focused on the theoretical, and only resulted in a single solution for a double wedge airfoil at Mach 1. Walter Vincenti , an American engineer at Ames Laboratory , aimed to supplement Guderley's Mach 1 work with numerical solutions that would cover
527-483: The flow around the vehicle. Research has been done into weakening shock waves in transonic flight through the use of anti-shock bodies and supercritical airfoils . Most modern jet powered aircraft are engineered to operate at transonic air speeds. Transonic airspeeds see a rapid increase in drag from about Mach 0.8, and it is the fuel costs of the drag that typically limits the airspeed. Attempts to reduce wave drag can be seen on all high-speed aircraft. Most notable
558-490: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=X10&oldid=1243647890 " Category : Letter–number combination disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages North American X-10 To facilitate development of the long-range Navaho surface-to-surface cruise missile , North American Aviation (NAA) developed
589-425: The on-board computer which implemented the commands. Later X-10s included an N-6 inertial navigation system which completely controlled the vehicle through the cruise portion of the flight. At the time it entered service, the X-10 was one of the fastest turbojet-powered aircraft flown. From 1953 to 1955 a total of five X-10s flew 15 flights at Edwards AFB. There it reached a maximum flight speed of Mach 1.84, flew
620-442: The process of applying the hodograph method to transonic flow near the end of World War II. He focused on the nonlinear thin-airfoil compressible flow equations, the same as what Tricomi derived, though his goal of using these equations to solve flow over an airfoil presented unique challenges. Guderley and Hideo Yoshihara, along with some input from Busemann, later used a singular solution of Tricomi's equations to analytically solve
651-412: The range of transonic speeds between Mach 1 and wholly supersonic flow. Vincenti and his assistants drew upon the work of Howard Emmons as well as Tricomi's original equations to complete a set of four numerical solutions for the drag over a double wedge airfoil in transonic flow above Mach 1. The gap between subsonic and Mach 1 flow was later covered by both Julian Cole and Leon Trilling , completing
SECTION 20
#1732849071866682-565: The remaining three Cape Canaveral X-10s were selected for use as high speed targets for the BOMARC surface-to-air missile. The plan was to recover and reuse the X-10, not to have them shot down by the BOMARC. None of these vehicles completed their target flight: two were lost when landing and the third suffered a mechanical problem forcing it to be flown into the Atlantic. The sole surviving X-10 s/n GM 19307
713-445: The simplest forms of the compressible flow equations were difficult to solve due to their nonlinearity . A common assumption used to circumvent this nonlinearity is that disturbances within the flow are relatively small, which allows mathematicians and engineers to linearize the compressible flow equations into a relatively easily solvable set of differential equations for either wholly subsonic or supersonic flows. This assumption
744-414: The speed of sound at Mach 0.675, which brought forth the idea of different airflows forming around the plane. In the 40s, Kelly Johnson became one of the first engineers to investigate the effect of compressibility on aircraft. However, contemporary wind tunnels did not have the capability to create wind speeds close to Mach 1 to test the effects of transonic speeds. Not long after, the term "transonic"
775-401: The tail of the aircraft will reach supersonic flight while the nose of the aircraft is still in subsonic flight. A bubble of supersonic expansion fans terminating by a wake shockwave surround the tail. As the aircraft continues to accelerate, the supersonic expansion fans will intensify and the wake shockwave will grow in size until infinity is reached, at which point the bow shockwave forms. This
806-443: The then-current theory implied that these disturbances– and thus drag– approached infinity as local Mach number approached 1, an obviously unrealistic result which could not be remedied using known methods. One of the first methods used to circumvent the nonlinearity of transonic flow models was the hodograph transformation. This concept was originally explored in 1923 by an Italian mathematician named Francesco Tricomi , who used
837-421: The transformation to simplify the compressible flow equations and prove that they were solvable. The hodograph transformation itself was also explored by both Ludwig Prandtl and O.G. Tietjen's textbooks in 1929 and by Adolf Busemann in 1937, though neither applied this method specifically to transonic flow. Gottfried Guderley, a German mathematician and engineer at Braunschweig , discovered Tricomi's work in
868-437: The transonic behavior of the airfoil by the early 1950s. At transonic speeds supersonic expansion fans form intense low-pressure, low-temperature areas at various points around an aircraft. If the temperature drops below the dew point a visible cloud will form. These clouds remain with the aircraft as it travels. It is not necessary for the aircraft as a whole to reach supersonic speeds for these clouds to form. Typically,
899-660: Was defined to mean "across the speed of sound" and was invented by NACA director Hugh Dryden and Theodore von Kármán of the California Institute of Technology. Initially, NACA designed "dive flaps" to help stabilize the plane when reaching transonic flight. This small flap on the underside of the plane slowed the plane to prevent shock waves, but this design only delayed finding a solution to aircraft flying at supersonic speed. Newer wind tunnels were designed, so researchers could test newer wing designs without risking test pilots' lives. The slotted-wall transonic tunnel
930-433: Was designed by NASA and allowed researchers to test wings and different airfoils in transonic airflow to find the best wingtip shape for sonic speeds. After World War II , major changes in aircraft design were seen to improve transonic flight. The main way to stabilize an aircraft was to reduce the speed of the airflow around the wings by changing the chord of the plane wings, and one solution to prevent transonic waves
961-400: Was swept wings. Since the airflow would hit the wings at an angle, this would decrease the wing thickness and chord ratio. Airfoils wing shapes were designed flatter at the top to prevent shock waves and reduce the distance of airflow over the wing. Later on, Richard Whitcomb designed the first supercritical airfoil using similar principles. Prior to the advent of powerful computers, even