Tow pilots, check this out!

Flight Journal, Jun 1998

There's always something interesting happening at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Recently for instance, it is supporting and hosting a Kelly Space and Technology Inc. (KS)/USAF project known as "Eclipse." The project goal is to successfully demonstrate a reusable-towlaunch-vehicle concept that will eventually tow a manned space vehicle (a la space shuttle) into the atmosphere and release it. The low-cost, reusable launch vehicle will then fire its own rockets, thereby propelling itself into space. When its mission is complete, it will glide back to earth; the concept is to eliminate the need for solid-rocket-boosters.

So far, there have been several successful tows of the modified QF-106 delta-wing aircraft by an Air Force C-141A transport-type aircraft. The QF-106 was selected by KTI because the aircraft has a delta-wing planform much like the Astroliner spacecraft the company plans to build. The C-141A was chosen because it can be configured as a tow aircraft with no modification to its airframe.

The Air Force Flight Test Center (AFI:TC) supplied the C-141A transport aircraft and crew and configured the aircraft as required for the tests. It also provided general engineering support and assumed flightsafety responsibilities for the C-141A.

Two tow-rope configurations will be tested. The first consists of three primary elements: a 1,000-foot Vectran rope that is bisected by a 50-foot section of &ply nylon strap. (The nylon segment significantly improves the damping characteristics of the towrope.) A second tow rope will be made of a single. 1,000-foot Vectran rope.

After the hookup, the C141A taxies forward and takes up slack, then takes off with a 120-knot airspeed. In tow, with engines at idle, the QF-106 rotates at 130 knots, then lifts off at 165 knots. The QF-106 pilot then positions the airplane in a "low tow" position at a minus-20degrees-elevation angle that's maintained throughout the tow. Once the target altitude has been reached, the QF-106 releases from the tow and fires up its idling engines, blasting off into the test regine-hardly a typical afternoon at the local glider port.