XQM-103 high-maneuvrability RPV

I was assigned to the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory in August 1971 and was allowed to interview within the Lab to find a job I liked. I had just received my BS degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the US Air Force Academy. There I met a retired AF colonel, John Seaberg who had the idea of taking an obsolete Firebee and investigating using it as an Air to Air fighter. John had found two mothballed Teledyne-Ryan 147G's in the backroom of the Air Force Museum and had arranged to acquire them for our project, which became to be the FDL-23 Research Test Vehicle program (FDL for Flight Dynamics Lab). We contracted with Teledyne-Ryan to design the changes we wanted, and I see that you have mentioned Robert (Bob) Chisman lead the Ryan effort and who contributed some content to your site. Bob was a great engineer and became a great friend. I need to also mention Del Stapp (Ryan) who was the 'crew chief', Bob Mabli (Lear Siegler Inc) who designed the autopilot and Tom Jacobsen (Lear Siegler Inc) who got Bob's design to work. Jim Welty was the lead engineer from Vega (Vega Precision Laboratories).

We decided that, in order to be a good test bed as a fighter, we needed to develop an all-axis flight control system, a new type of proportional command system, a set of speed brakes, a flight test telemetry system, and a nose camera to view the horizon and perhaps an airborne target. The 147G was originally a high altitude drone with long wings (we had to build new wingtips) and a big engine (we liked that). We also needed to beef up the structure, especially the wing box, the nose, and the tail, which we modified heavily to have a large active rudder, not just a trim tab. One of the 147Gs had never been flown and the other one was pretty beat up. We moved the newer aircraft in pieces to a local contractor, SRL, to carry out the modifications. I decided to paint the aircraft bright red with white panels on the top of each wing to better see the aspect angle in flight. We started calling the aircraft the 'Red Baron' and we got red flight suits to wear during the missions. We took a lot of flak from pilots over that.

We also contracted with Lear-Siegler for the new flight control system, and with Vega Precision Labs for the proportional command system. All this work took about 18 months to complete. We also needed to build an advanced crew module for the flight crew of two (remote pilot and remote flight engineer) which we I [who?]designed roughly like a regular fighter cockpit with the crew sitting side by side. Bob Gill had come on board to help with the design and construction of the modules. The pilot had a TV for the nose camera at eye level, and a moving map display mounted lower under the instrument panel. I acquired a set of cockpit displays from an F-106 fighter that had vertical tape displays for airspeed and altitude, instead of round dials. It had a conventional round attitude-director indicator. We built two modules, one for the simulator and one for operations. The pilot controls included a 3-axis joystick on the right armrest, and a throttle and speed brake control on the left armrest.

The Lear Siegler flight control system was designed with a number of control modes: the normal 'bang-bang' programmed climb/dive and left/right turn modes, as well as two proportional modes. In one mode, the control stick commanded a specific climb or dive angle, or roll angle, and the other fighter-style mode, the control stick controlled pitch and roll rates, not angles. We also could control a specific G-load in pitch.

We then negotiated with the 6514th Test Squadron at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB to support the program with C-130 launch and HH-53 helicopter recovery services and moved the aircraft out to Edwards in 1973 to complete the modifications and begin the flight test program. I also got a couple of fighter pilots from the AF Test Pilot School interested in the program who agreed to be trained as pilots. One pilot, Maj Mel Hayashi, went on to become the Commander of the Test Pilot School and the other pilot, Maj Skip Holm, left the AF and started his career as a commercial test pilot, then became a race pilot flying the P-51 Mustang 'Dago Red', winning the World Unlimited Air Races at Reno Nevada several times (see Skip Holm website).

The Flight Dynamics Lab built a simulation of the modified aircraft and I put together a training program for the two pilots, experienced drone controller Jim Jolly, and myself. We wanted to see if there were differences in the abilities of different types of pilots: fighter pilots, drone controllers, and engineers like me with light aircraft experience. As you might expect, Hayashi and Holm were much better at flying it than Jim and I were.

It took a couple of years to get the aircraft fitted with a flight test instrumentation system, backup command system, and get test plans approved. We installed the crew module in Bldg 4950, the range radar control site on a hill north of the flight line. The Vega command system interfaced with the FPS-16 radar and the commands were embedded in the radar tracking signal. The Flight Test Center hadn't ever testing [tested]anything like the FDL-23 before and it caused concerns that took a number of reviews to overcome. In the meantime, we conducted the captive test program, carrying the aircraft on the C-130 pylon for two-three hour missions to test everything out that we could. One of the actions we had to take was to formally return the aircraft to the active inventory, at which time it got its XQM-103 designation. In the meantime, the 6514th was transferred to Hill AFB (Utah) due to the fact that one of the other RPV programs like the 'Have Lemon' program were starting to fire missiles at ground targets and we needed a much less populated place to test. Since all of our ground systems were installed at Edwards in California, we had to ferry the aircraft from Utah to conduct tests.

Finally, we got approval for free flight and got everything working which since almost every system was the first of its kind, was a real accomplishment. The first free flight was flown in December 1974 by Jim Jolly, the Ryan drone controller. Everything worked fine, though Jolly had a hard time holding the speed profile and keep [it from] running off the range track. Holm and Hayashi traded off for the next four flights and everything seemed to go fine. Which ever pilot wasn't flying the RTV [RPV ?] would fly chase in an F-4. The closest thing we every got to real Air Combat Maneuvering was Holm flying a very aggressive set of maneuvers at the design factor at 10 G load. The chase F-4 was unable to stay with the RTV [RPV ?] on the last flight in the free flight sequence.

The aircraft fullfilled all of its objectives for the rather conservative first phase of testing. We did start to see alot of resistance from 'real' pilots over the idea of an air-to-air unmanned aircraft.

After this set of tests, we returned the aircraft to the hanger for more modifications, as well as deciding what we wanted to do with it next. We found that the nose video camera was basically useless in finding airborne targets and wanted to build a tracker integrated with the control system, but we never got to do this enhancement.

I left the program in 1976 to get my Masters Degree. The aircraft was transferred, I believe, to the 6514th, and on the first [next] free flight, both the Vega and the backup UHF command system malfunctioned, the aircraft started flying towards Los Angeles and the flight crew commanded an emergency recovery. The aircraft landed with some nacelle damage on a mountain top overlooking Los Angeles. Someone told me later that it was the same mountain top that the 'HOLLYWOOD' sign is on, but I don't know this for sure.

The XQM-103 program was way ahead of its time, as we intended. The Vega command system was adopted for use [by] both by the Air Force and the Navy. The Lear Siegler FCS was replaced later [in which project?] by the first all-digital autopilot by Teledyne-Ryan which was tested successfully. It was a great program and a real blast to lead, and it got me a scholarship to MIT paid for by the Air Force.

Basically it was a 147J with the outer wing section removed and a special tip added to the inboard panel. The spar was beefed to extend the flight design G load. The fuselage was already strong, for it was designed to take high loads in recovery. In flight test the design G load was exceeded by a wide margin, so much so that the engine compressor rubbed the housing. Most of the benefit was expanded design capability. There was some beef up wing structure but not as much as would be required under standard combat aircraft safety margins.

The real technology change was the new digital flight control system that could be preprogrammed for combat specific maneuvers. Also the a remote pilot could take direct control of pitch, roll rate and yaw. Previously the pilot could control only direction, altitude, power or command a pre set roll angle. Experiments were conducted on agility using various combination of control. Lou Pico was the man responsible for the electronic equipment. It was his idea to use a digital computer chip and he was the one that integrated that effort.

Other changes were required in fuel system, engine control, and gyroscope to allow inverted conditions. The camera was used to see the horizon and to fly to a ground target. I don't recall the details of the nose camera but I don't think it was sophisticated.

The XQM-103 showed the air to air potential of the AQM-34 RPV.