Drucella Andersen

Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

May 21, 1992
(Phone: 202/453-8316)

RELEASE: 92-70

MADE IN DETROIT -- FLOWN BY NASA

When NASA's sleek SR-71 research aircraft gets ready to fly,

a deafening roar booms across the concrete runway apron -- not
from the jets themselves, but from the two 454-cubic-inch
Chevrolet V-8 engines that crank up the plane's powerplants.

The SR-71 starter cart is just one example of the innovative

ways that NASA has put off-the-shelf automotive technology to
work in its aeronautics and space research programs. During
the last 30 years, the high-tech agency has used a variety of
auto products from shock absorbers and brake light switches to
entire cars and truck trailers.

To test the flying qualities of the M2-F1 lifting body --

ancestor of today's Space Shuttle -- NASA enlisted an
automobile to get the craft airborne. NASA's Flight Research
Center (now Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility), Edwards,
Calif., bought a stripped-down Pontiac Catalina convertible to
use as a tow vehicle for the M2-F1. The engine was tuned for
high performance, rollbars were added and other modifications
were made.

The Pontiac first towed the M2-F1 aloft on April 5, 1963,

roaring across the dry lakebed at 114 miles per hour, about the
same speed as an early Cessna 150. During the next 4 months,
the car hauled the tubby craft into the air on more than 100
other test hops for a total flight time of about 4 hours. The
Catalina's gas mileage was not good -- less than 4 miles per
gallon.

NASA's first "hot rod" ended its career in 1968 doing spins
on wet and dry pavement at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility,
Wallops Island, Va. The tests were part of a highway safety
study on skid resistance that NASA did for the Virginia Highway
Research Council.

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NASA also has used a 1961 Ford Fairlane, a 1967 Plymouth

Fury wagon and a 1969 Ford XL sedan in research to predict
aircraft braking ability and to study tire friction. NASA's
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., modified the cars by
installing brake line cutoff valves that let one diagonal pair
of wheels brake while the opposite pair rolled free.

The Fairlane studied tire hydroplaning in the mid-1960s.

The Plymouth and Ford XL performed locked-wheel skids at high
speeds in runway friction tests. Engineers correlated the
readings from special onboard recorders with data from
specially instrumented aircraft.

The 427-cubic-inch Ford XL has been a real workhorse.

Though it has only 46,000 miles on its odometer, the car has
made thousands of test runs, usually braking from about 60
miles per hour to a complete stop. In an early task, the Ford,
proudly emblazoned with a NASA logo like the agency's research
airplanes, tested 50 runways in the United States, England,
Germany, Italy and Spain under various weather conditions. The
1968 program involved NASA, the Air Force and the Federal
Aviation Administration.

More recently, the Ford paved the way for Shuttle landings
with runway friction checks at NASA's Kennedy Space Center,
Fla., Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility and on the gypsum
surface at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. The car
also has helped find the cause of several runway accidents in
support of inquiries by the National Transportation Safety
Board, the Navy and the Air Force.

The Ford still serves NASA at Langley. Future tasks for the
car include studies of how anti-snow and ice chemicals and
aircraft deicing fluids affect runway friction, tests to help
define the effect of natural rainfall on tire friction and
possible use in aircraft accident investigations where traction
may be a factor.

From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, the engine,

front-wheel-drive and frame of an Oldsmobile Toronado has
helped NASA study the problem of wake vortices in Langley's
Vortex Research Facility. Wake vortices are funnels of air
streaming from an aircraft's wings that can affect the control
of planes flying behind. The Toronado hardware powers a
carriage that pulls detailed airplane models through a 300-foot
test section while laser beams illuminate and measure the
airflow. The engine itself, beefed up with improved
carburation and racing parts, churns out about 500 horsepower.

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Ames-Dryden has four of the carts that ground crews use to

start the engines of NASA's SR-71 "Blackbirds." Each cart has
two Chevrolet V-8s, upgraded with hotter plugs and coils, that
drive through two 350 turbo automatic transmissions. About 10
years ago, the Chevy motors and transmissions replaced the
original Buick engines and Dynaflow transmissions while the
carts were still in Air Force service.

NASA's use of auto components sometimes has been a matter of

necessity. In 1978, two Highly Maneuverable Aircraft
Technology (HiMAT) remotely-controlled research aircraft
arrived at Dryden without their landing gear because funds had
run out. The resourceful Dryden engineers simply bought a set
of over-the-counter shock absorbers from the nearest Sears,
Roebuck & Co. and mounted them as part of a jerry-rigged gear
setup.

To make sure that the real plane would be cushioned on

landing, the engineers first fitted the gear to a
specially-build sled matching the weight of a HiMAT. The sled
was hauled at high speed across the dry lake on the back of a
flatbed truck and pushed off, bouncing to a stop undamaged.
The calculations obviously were correct since the unpiloted
planes went on to prove several advanced aircraft systems in a
very successful research program from 1979 to 1984.

When NASA needed a carrier for its Long Duration Exposure

Facility (LDEF), a school-bus-size satellite that exposed 57
experiments to space for nearly 6 years, it talked to several
firms about building a custom unit. Fruehauf Trailer
Corporation, Southfield, Mich., had a cost-effective solution
-- just splice two of its truck trailers to form a single
transporter. The trailers were sent to Langley Research
Center, where Fruehauf employees modified the units and welded
them together. LDEF was assembled directly on the trailer,
which later transported the satellite on the ground before its
1984 launch into space and after its 1990 retrieval from Earth
orbit.

What's next for the agency and its innovative cadre of

pilots and engineers? Stay tuned. Or to borrow again from the
auto world: "NASA, Start your engines!"
-end-

NOTE TO EDITORS: A short 3/4" video illustrating some of these

programs is available to media by calling 202/453-8594. Still
photos also are available by calling 202/453-8375.
B&W
Color
Olds Toronado carriage 92-H-291 92-HC-255
LDEF trailer 92-H-292
92-HC-256
Pontiac Catalina 92-H-293
Plymouth Fury 92-H-294
Ford XL 92-H-295