AFMC Command News

418 FLTS breaks record with heaviest airdrop

  • Published
  • By Kenji Thuloweit
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Flight Test Nation delivered its latest aviation first when the 418th Flight Test Squadron set a record for the heaviest single payload ever extracted out of a C-17 during flight April 14.

A 77,000 pound jumbo drop test vehicle was extracted out of a C-17A T-1 at 25,000 feet over the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. The JDTV is used to test the parachutes for NASA's Ares I launch vehicle's solid rocket booster. 

NASA, in conjunction with Alliant Techsystems and the United Space Alliance, is providing a decelerator recovery system for the new five-motor segment solid rocket booster. This recoverable SRB is used in support of the Ares I space launch vehicle and is heavier than the current recoverable space shuttle SRB. The increase in weight requires a larger set of parachutes for deceleration and recovery. Testing must be accomplished in order to validate the design of a new drogue and new main parachutes for the Ares I launch vehicle.
 
"The test is designed to collect data and to see how the parachutes react to different weights," said Ellis Hines, 418 FLTS, C-17 Ares project manager. "Once testing is completed, eventually these parachutes will be attached to the Ares I boosters."

Prior to this record 77,000 pound drop, the 418 FLTS has successfully completed 42,000, 60,000 and 70,000 pound JDTV Ares I airdrops. The next airdrop is scheduled for 2011 and will be with an 85,000 pound JDTV. The test program will culminate with a 90,000 pound airdrop scheduled for fall 2011.

"We have to do this incrementally to see how the parachutes hold up," said Mr. Hines.  "The ultimate goal is 90,000 pounds." 

The C-17 airdrop is part of the JDTV phase II test system, which is comprised of a JDTV and a carriage extraction system. The CES is the carriage for the JDTV, which is used for transportation, aircraft loading, extraction and reorientation of the jumbo drop test vehicle prior to its release.

Test pilots on the project have spent hours in the simulator and aircraft training for the drop tests, to include practicing contingencies and malfunctions and performing airdrops to prepare for the dynamic response of the aircraft during the extraction of the test vehicle.

418 FLTS engineers have partnered with Boeing to analyze the effects of these heavyweight drops on aircraft ramp structural members and collect data in real time during the drops. Additionally, mission systems engineers have worked hand-in-hand with Yuma Proving Ground personnel and NASA to develop rigging procedures for the airdrop platform and test vehicle.