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More than 200 models of aircraft proposed for Navy and Marine Corps use have been tested at the Center. About 10
In the 60 years since Eugene Ely’s two flights brought about the marriage of Navy surface operations and aviation, the resulting combination of people, machines, and environment demanded unceasing attention to ensure that the union would be successful. For the past 26 years, a major portion of this task—the evaluation of aircraft and aircraft systems for Navy operational applications—has been accomplished by a unique organization having the command title of the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland.
Here, some 65 miles from Washington, D.C., at one of the Navy’s largest air stations, a major flight-testing/ ground laboratory/aeronautical school complex functions as the principal agency for the Navy’s seal of approval of aircraft and associated systems and modifications. New aircraft, for example, must earn their operational stamp of acceptance by undergoing an exacting series of flight and ground tests that probe insistently for the answer to one basic question:
Will it do what it is supposed to do?
per cent of these aircraft did not gain appr°C for Fleet operational use. Of those which ultimately became operational, few, if uWJ’ were “perfect” in the beginning, but were brought, through testing and evaluation, 1° optimum peak of performance.
Almost as challenging as the development0 ever-higher performance aircraft has been the need to evolve testing methods and techniques needed for increasingly comply aircraft. The Center’s answer: the latest N equipment and the most qualified engineers and pilots. These elements are combined . within six divisions: the Test Pilot School; Fhp Test; Service Test; Weapons System Test; Computer Services and Technical Support. .
Their major product, as several generations naval aviators will confirm, has been the introduction to the Fleet of proven, dependable aircraft.
A Test Pilot School student heads
for an F-4 Phantom and an evaluation flight.
The testing of sophisticated aircraft, by Hnition, requires sophisticated test pilots- gators who have been formally and Pensively trained in his specialty.
The Navy anticipated the need for such ‘"lining as early as 1945, when an informal Vagram was established for the veteran Pilot® of the Flight Test Division.
The 1969 version of that program is an \ht-month course, divided equally betweeen Endemic and flight phases. The “students dually, all are experienced aviators) sPencl ty their time in the classroom and the other in test planning and actual flying-
They fly both fixed and rotary wing aircraft, M and propeller-driven, and recently, gliders *ere again added to the Center’s “stable.
More than 1,000 students have attended the <1. S. Naval Test Pilot School, and its graduates he engaged in major roles in aviation operations, space exploration, and in aviation
An instructor at reviews a probl
the Test Pilot School em with students.
The Centers Flight Test Division is assigned the responsibility of evaluating experimental and new-production Navy aircraft, as well as modified versions of older aircraft, through an exhaustive technical investigation of ground, flight, and shipboard characteristics.
Pilots attached to the Flight Test Division examine planes for such things as flying qualities, stability and control, airframe and engine performance and general suitability, determining if contract guarantees have or have not been met.
To assure that a new or modified plane meets the Navy’s standards for performoOcC and safety, pilots test fly each plane repeatedly under all weather conditions, day and night, in varying loads and configurations. As a rule, about one year of comprehensive testing is required for a n<?^ plane. A flight test program for a modified older plane may take from one month to several years, depending on the extent of modifications.
Another important task of Flight Test is ascertain the new or modified airplane’s compatibility with flight support equipment such as catapults and arresting gear.
To determine if a new or modified plane can be adequately serviced and maintained by Navy personnel is the mission of the Test Center’s Service Test Division.
Service Test Division does this by trying to wear an aircraft out, obtaining in the process vital information pertaining to the man-hour maintenance requirements and spare parts usage data.
Meticulous records are logged during each phase of aircraft testing, enabling the division to accomplish as much in a six-month period as in a normal (approximately two-year) service tour of flying.
Also developed during the testing period are maintenance methods and procedures. If, at the end of the testing period, a conflict exists between the manufacturer’s official recommendations and those of the Service Test Division, the" Navy accepts the official recommendations of Service Test.
An additional function of Service Test is a program especially designed to familiarize pilots and maintenance personnel with new types of Navy aircraft before the plancs are delivered to the Fleet.
Squadron pilots and maintenance technic111 attend this Fleet Introduction Program for 11 j period of about eight weeks to learn, first ht,n from Service Test representatives who have participated in the initial testing of a particular aircraft.
Pilots and maintenance specialists .
accumulate a total of some 600 hours stu(hj,,lr the aircraft at the Center, after which the'J return to their own commands to instruct their squadron mates prior to receipt of the new aircraft.
A special section within the Service Test Division conducts tests and studies involving the aircrew’s relationship to their equipment. Human engineering problems such as fatigue, noise levels, cockpit design, life support systems, escape equipment, and psychological factors are studied by specialists, including flight surgeons.
The Weapons Sijstems Test Division is the largest and newest at the Center. The division was formed in 1960 through the merger of two former divisions—Armament Test and Electronics Test. Concerned with the accuracy and effectiveness of aircraft fire power, the division tests every aviation ordnance item except guided missiles.
Under varying temperature conditions, in specially constructed chambers on the ground, and at widely varying flight altitudes, division personnel test all weapons systems—guns, mines, bombs, rockets and related equipment—for accuracy and reliability. Electronic systems and components are tested for operational suitability and effectiveness in specific Navy aircraft.
Much of this testing is done in the Centers electronically shielded hangar, the largest of its kind in the world, which excludes o" outside electrical interference.
In large planes, equipped as flying laboratories, electronic equipment is further tested. The division also tests and develops components for ground and ship navigational aids.
lesapeake Bay below. All new guns adaptable to aircraft mounting are evaluated at the Center.
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Employing new capabilities in electronic sensors and telemetry, computer teams, like these engine*-' who are checking for errors in a printout record, are able to analyze aircraft performance even while the test flight is in progress.
Long an essential element of the Center’s technical activity, the computer became an official part of the command in 1968 with the establishment of the Computer Services Division.
By exploiting the potential of data acquisition, telemetry and readout capability, test flights now produce far greater quantities of information—meaningful results that in turn may be applied almost immediately to obtain additional data during the flight.
Ground technicians, who assess the residts of test data, no longer need rely on radio voice reports and information scrawled on the pilot’s knee pad. Improved sensors, data transmitters, and rapid readout capability have greatly expanded the productivity of each flight to make them more efficient and economical—unusual in an age where expensiveness is often synonymous with complexity. Additional side benefits are derived from the value of services provided by the Computer Services Division for other commands and contractors.
Testing highly complex aircraft weapons systems at the Naval Air Test Center today requires a myriad of accurate records to he made of all aspects of the aircraft’s performance.
Programs such as spin evaluations, aircraft carrier suitability trials, flying qualities, weapon installation and operation, avionics evaluations and serviceability tests all require systems for recording hundreds of data “bits” essential to accurate assessments.
The Technical Support Division furnishes fust such equipment, working closely with the Computer Services Division in providing services for the Naval Test Pilot School and the three flight Divisions.
The Division also conducts research and develops new systems to meet future Navy requirements in the air.
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The Commander, Naval Air Test Center was recently assigned a second “hat”—that of the Test and Evaluation Coordinator under the Naval Air Systems Command.
This new responsibility was established in February of 1968 to co-ordinate all Naval Air resources for test and evaluation projects.
The need for such an office within the Naval Air Systems Command structure had been developing rapidly as advanced high- performance aircraft and sophisticated weapons systems became operational.
A current aircraft system may cost more than 30 million dollars, involve tremendous amounts of support equipment and people, and require many hours of testing before they can be sent to the Fleet.
The establishment of the Test and Evaluation Coordinator assures optimum use of funds and resources to obtain the
delivery of combat-ready weapons systems i the Fleet as rapidly as possible.
Under the Test and Evaluation Coordinator, 12 test bases now operate motc than 43 different models of aircraft in the course of their respective assignments. The Naval Air Test Center is the largest of them, operating close to a'hundred of these aircraft.
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For naval aviation and the Navy, the end result of this combined effort at NATC, and a the associated bases and commands, is to provide a better product for the Fleet customer—by developing improved hardtvarC and techniques that have made the name “Pax River” a familiar standard of excellence in aviation. Today, the Naval Air Test Centef may be, as Vice Admiral John S. McCain said of it in World War II, “. . . the most needed station in the naval establishment.”
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