New Display
Air Force museum gets AFRL test engine
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
A modified scaled composites Long-EZ aircraft, developed by a team at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, has found a home at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — An experimental engine developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory for aircraft flight testing has received a place in the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
The AFRL's Propulsion Directorate developed the pulsed detonation engine. It was used on a record-breaking manned flight Jan. 31 in Mohave, Calif. Test pilot Pete Siebold, flying a modified scaled composites Long-EZ aircraft, achieved a speed of more than 120 mph and altitude of 60 to 100 feet, producing more than 200 pounds of thrust.
Rather than burn fuel for propulsion, the engine ignites an air and fuel mixture, which is detonated in controlled explosions inside open-ended tubes resembling exhaust pipes, the Air Force said. The detonation moves through the tubes, creating a supersonic shock wave that continually pulses and generates thrust.
The Air Force museum, at a ceremony Monday, Aug. 25, also was given hearing protection technology created to protect pilots from the engine noise. The 711th Human Performance Wing's warfighter interface division, battlespace acoustics branch, developed the hearing protection.
Noise levels in the cockpit reach 130 decibels, compared to about 100 dB for a typical fighter jet, the Air Force said.
