Public Affairs, Volume 63, Number 58
Serving the community of Edwards Air Force Base California www.edwards.af.mil - www.facebook.com/EdwardsAirForceBase
September 9, 2016
Bombs away! Left: A photo-based graphic shows F-35 AF-1 releasing a GBU-12 during a weapons separation test June 17. The GBU-12 (Guided Bomb Unit) is a laser-guided 500-pound bomb. Below: AF-1 flies over the Pacific Coast Highway near Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station during the GBU-12 separation testing mission. The F-35 has surpassed several major milestones this year. The Air Force declared the aircraft’s Initial Operational Capability August 2, and the F-35 Integrated Test Force completed a weapons separation testing surge August 17. During the surge, the F-35 released 30 weapons in 31 days, a first for flight test. The aircraft also scored its first air-to-air kill during a missile test July 28. (Photos by by Jonathan Case, graphic by Chad Bellay. Courtesy of Lockheed Martin)
Air Force advances rocket technology
The United States is one step closer to eliminating its reliance on Russian technology to launch its military satellites. The Hydrocarbon Boost Technology Demonstrator, a U.S. Air Force technology effort focused on development of Oxygen Rich Staged Combustion rocket engine technology, has recently completed its first full-scale component test at 100-percent power. The development of Oxygen Rich Staged Combustion technology has been deemed a critical technology for the nation to help eliminate the United States’ reliance on foreign rocket propulsion technology. The testing was performed by Aerojet Rocketdyne under contract to the Air Force Research Laboratory Rocket Propulsion Division, nicknamed the AFRL Rocket Lab. The HBTD’s kick pump is the first full-scale component to commence testing. The AFRL Rocket Lab recently completed the test campaign
of HBTD’s sub-scale preburner at its test facilities at Edwards Air Force Base in the same historic facility that tested the F-1 engine for the Project Apollo Saturn V program and RS-68 engines for the Delta IV expendable launch vehicle system. The kick pump was tested at Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facility in Sacramento, California, which has been used continually through Titan missile, Apollo and space shuttle programs. The kick pump is a complex turbopump assembly made up of both a turbine and pump, hence the term turbopump. It is designed to be extremely compact and rotates at punishing speeds to meet extraordinarily high efficiencies required for space access, even down to one-third of engine power levels - a severe challenge for current state-of-the-art turbopumps, system designers say. The kick pump operates in excess of 75,000 rpm at its 100-perSee Rocket, Page 2