Impacts of Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System Tile on an F-15 Aircraft Vertical Tail

Ko, William L. (1985) Impacts of Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System Tile on an F-15 Aircraft Vertical Tail. Technical Report NASA TM-85904, Research Engineering, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

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Abstract

Impacts of the space shuttle thermal protection system (TPS) tile on the leading edge and the side of the vertical tail of the F-15 aircraft were analyzed under different TPS tile orientations. The TPS tile-breaking tests were conducted to simulate the TPS tile impacts. It was found that the predicted tile impact forces compare fairly well with the tile-breaking forces, and the impact forces exerted on the F-15 aircraft vertical tail were relatively low because a very small fraction of the tile kinetic energy was dissipated in the impact, penetration, and fracture of the tile. It was also found that the oblique impact of the tile on the side of the F-15 aircraft vertical tail was unlikely to dent the tail surface.

EPrint Type:	NASA Technical Memorandum
Keywords:	Impacts, penetration, and fracture tests, Space shuttle tiles
Subjects:	(12 - 20) Astronautics: Other, Astronautics Aircraft/Project: Space Shuttle Orbiter Aircraft/Project: F-15
ID Code:	551
Deposited On:	30 January 2006
Additional Information:	24 pages.