Nov 15 1963
From The Space Library
NASA'S Flight Research Center, FAA, and U.S. Navy announced completion of a series of test flights simulating the supersonic transport aircraft (SST) flying in the air traffic control network. A Navy A5A jet aircraft was used to simulate the SST because its thrust-to-weight ratio enabled it to simulate closely the performance of the SST up to 50,000 ft. Some 21 flights were made into Los Angeles along Federal airways, starting from level flight at 50,000 ft. and mach 1.7, then decelerating to mach 1.4 and descending, dropping below the speed of sound before reaching 30,000 ft., and flying at 340 mph at 20,000 ft., not much faster than present-day jet transports. Flight controllers reported no problems with descent and landing, although takeoff and climb did present more problems because of the high performance of the aircraft. (FRC Release 31-63)
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