A study of display systems for manual guidance of large launch vehicles utilizing the X-15 airplane and flight simulators Technical note

10. Work U n i t No. 125-19-01-33-00-21 1 1 . Controct or Grant N o . 113. Type o f Report and Per iod Technical Note 14. Sponsoring Agency Code A study has been made of the elfectiveness of display systems f o r manually guiding launch vehicles with the accurac fo r ea r th orbit injection. Three buidance systems were investigated in two flight s imulators . One guidance display syst impipmented on the X-15 r e sea rch airplane to delermine the sys t em ' s effectiveness in a r ea l flight environment. All three guidance schemes presented to the pilot the e r r o r s in altitude and altitude r a t e with respect to a reference The pilot 's task was to null the e r r o r signals by controlllny the vehicle so that i t s t ra jectory matched, as closely as pos! relerence t ra jectory. The resul ts of the s imulator study show that the human pilot i s capable of guiding a vehicle t o a reference trajectory accuracy requirements of current manned spacecraft launch vehicles. The resul ts of two X-15 flights with one of the gu sys t ems indicaled no adverse effects of r ea l flight environment. 17. Key Wards Suggested by Author(s) 18. Distr ibut ion Statement Manual guidance and control Unrlassified Unlimited Display (guidance) 19. Security Classif . (of th is report) 20. Security Classif . (of th is page) Unclassified Unclassified * F o r sale by the Clear inghouse f o r F e d e r a l Scientific and Technical Information Springfield, Virginia 22 151