Author Topic: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands  (Read 31256 times)

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15289
  • Liked: 7829
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #20 on: 05/08/2011 01:32 pm »
Some photos of the early Atlas test stands.

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15289
  • Liked: 7829
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #21 on: 05/08/2011 01:33 pm »
Here are some pictures showing that everything did not always go well.


Offline Art LeBrun

  • Photo freak
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2128
  • Orange, California
  • Liked: 35
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #22 on: 05/08/2011 08:03 pm »
Early Atlas tenant at Edwards with ramp details..........
« Last Edit: 05/08/2011 08:03 pm by Art LeBrun »
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15289
  • Liked: 7829
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #23 on: 05/08/2011 11:12 pm »
So they mounted an entire rocket. not just the engines?  I guess that explains the A-frames, but that never occurred to me.

Offline Art LeBrun

  • Photo freak
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2128
  • Orange, California
  • Liked: 35
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #24 on: 05/09/2011 12:59 am »
1-1 and 1-A tested the full Atlases while 1-4 was engines only (2nd image). Note the early Series A 135,000 lb engines at 1-4 in 1956.
« Last Edit: 05/09/2011 01:25 am by Art LeBrun »
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15289
  • Liked: 7829
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #25 on: 05/09/2011 01:42 am »
So did Test Stand 1-A used to have an A-frame structure over it for holding the Atlas?  If so, they tore that down to replace it with large propellant tanks when they tested the F-1 engine there.

I got to stand on that test stand last September.  It is mothballed now, but could be put back into use if they wanted it.  What is so impressive about these stands is the drop--if you stand at the edge of the railing and look down, it's a long drop to the desert floor.  (I'm not afraid of heights, but I was wary of getting too close to the railing on a mothballed structure, because I did not trust it not to break, and it was a long fall to the shock absorbent concrete at the bottom of the flame trench.)

Offline Art LeBrun

  • Photo freak
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2128
  • Orange, California
  • Liked: 35
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #26 on: 05/09/2011 02:06 am »
Image of 1-A in test. This was the stand badly damaged by the fire and explosion of Atlas 6C in March 1959.

Second image is looking at 1-A during construction.
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

Offline Art LeBrun

  • Photo freak
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2128
  • Orange, California
  • Liked: 35
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #27 on: 05/09/2011 02:15 am »
Another view of 1-A. The Atlas appears to have an insulation blanket wrapped around the lox tank.
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15289
  • Liked: 7829
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #28 on: 05/09/2011 02:33 am »
Image of 1-A in test. This was the stand badly damaged by the fire and explosion of Atlas 6C in March 1959.

Okay, if this 1-A is the same 1-A that exists today (and I'm pretty sure it is), then look just behind it in the picture.  You'll see a flat concrete pad area that looks like it just a little bit outward.  That's where they eventually built 2-A.  2-A is the current active large test stand at the facility.  There are several pictures of it posted earlier.  Those show a framework over the top of the test stand.  That stand is used for horizontal component tests.

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15289
  • Liked: 7829
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #29 on: 05/09/2011 02:36 am »
Also if you look at that picture you'll see steps coming up diagonally on the side of the pad.  I got to walk around inside the bunker under the ridge (and pad structure), then come up those steps to the pad.  When you exit the bunker, you suddenly find yourself standing on a gridwork platform hanging over 120 feet or more above the ground.  You can see through the steps and it's a long fall.  My biggest concern was that I'd drop something and it'd fall through the grid.

Offline Art LeBrun

  • Photo freak
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2128
  • Orange, California
  • Liked: 35
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #30 on: 05/09/2011 03:15 am »
Thanks for the details of your visit - gridwork and all. Looking through such structures is not for the faint of heart.

Another view of 1-A with 2-A site in the background. On the hilltop is 1-4.
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

Offline Art LeBrun

  • Photo freak
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2128
  • Orange, California
  • Liked: 35
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #31 on: 05/11/2011 03:50 am »
One more view of 1-A about 1957............
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15289
  • Liked: 7829
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #32 on: 05/11/2011 03:59 am »
Interesting.  What looks like a bunker is visible at the other ridge.  But what the heck is that spot?  I don't remember seeing that from 1-A when I was there.

They have very low humidity in the desert there, so nothing really rusts.  They can abandon these sites and then go back to them 20 years later and the structure is still intact.  You cannot do that at Stennis or Huntsville.

Offline Art LeBrun

  • Photo freak
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2128
  • Orange, California
  • Liked: 35
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #33 on: 05/11/2011 04:16 am »
Interesting.  What looks like a bunker is visible at the other ridge.  But what the heck is that spot?  I don't remember seeing that from 1-A when I was there.

They have very low humidity in the desert there, so nothing really rusts.  They can abandon these sites and then go back to them 20 years later and the structure is still intact.  You cannot do that at Stennis or Huntsville.

 I would think it is a photo "bunker" to study the exhaust plumes since this probably was the first stand to allow the full jet to flow down and outward.
 At Sycamore Canyon Sherman tank chassis were used to photograph tests among the hills surrounding the 2 major sites.
 Admittedly before posting I was wondering if the current view looked like the past in early photos.
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15289
  • Liked: 7829
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #34 on: 05/11/2011 08:15 pm »
Admittedly before posting I was wondering if the current view looked like the past in early photos.

I'm really trying to reconcile that ridge with the photo bunker with what I saw standing there.  I don't remember looking off in that direction.  However, a quick look at the Google satellite view does indicate there is a dirt road leading to that site, and some kind of small building there--the problem is that the satellite view doesn't give you a good sense of the terrain.  It's hard to tell the height of anything, and that bunker looks like it is on the side of a mountain in the ground view, but looks like it is simply sitting on rolling terrain in the satellite view. 

So that location still remains, although it probably has not been used in 30+ years.
« Last Edit: 05/11/2011 08:16 pm by Blackstar »

Online AnalogMan

  • Member
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3431
  • Cambridge, UK
  • Liked: 1602
  • Likes Given: 50
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #35 on: 05/11/2011 09:11 pm »
If you are using Google Earth, then you can see what the satellite images look like when mapped onto the topology of the terrain - its not true 3D since imaged man-made structures remain 'flat' but it should give you a feel for the relative height of various features in the image.

To show the terrain, just hold the shift key down and then click and drag the mouse pointer vertically downwards.  This will shift your point of view from bird's-eye to something oblique.  Navigation takes a little getting used to - you can do normal click-dragging to go forwards/backwards (vertical drag) or move left/right (horizontal drag).  Holding the shift key down before click-dragging allows rotation about the initial click point (either azimuthal with horizontal drag, or elevation with vertical drag).

I took a snapshot with the view north-east over stand 1-A looking towards that second ridge where that dirt road is (at-least I think I got the right bit!)  I punched up saturation & contrast a little to bring out detail. Not seeing the structure of 1-A rise above the terrain is a little strange, but its image is just visible in the middle foreground.

I'm sure if you play around you'll be able to work out the relative height relationships (it's easier to see in realtime).

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15289
  • Liked: 7829
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Edwards AFB rocket propulsion test stands
« Reply #36 on: 05/11/2011 10:35 pm »
Yep, that's it.  Very good.  You can see the dirt road cutting across the ridge in the direct center of that terrain view.  It ends off to the left, where the little bunker is located.  If I had the software, I could draw a direct line between the test stand and the bunker.

I imagine this is boring stuff to a lot of people, but when I was touring there in Sept (I took some more recent photos a few weeks ago from the public road), one of our guides, a rocket engineer, said that back in the 1960s they were doing something like 2-3 rocket engine tests a week.  And those were F-1s and J-2s and things like that.  Big Engines.  They were just firing them off all the time.  So it must have been a great place to be a rocket engineer.

Today it's just dead.  All the tests they do are really small stuff, studying the flow of oxygen through tubes and stuff like that, trying to prevent exhaust from eroding rocket nozzles so that they can re-use the engines.  They do larger rocket component tests (not even full up engines) every couple of years or so. 

Tags:
 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement Northrop Grumman
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
1