Innovative Space Craft Takes Shape A Hybrid Plane-Rocket, The X-33 Will Land At Malmstrom Air Base

In a light brown hangar surrounded by miles and miles of light brown California desert, workers are piecing together what could become a unique chapter in Montana and U.S. aviation history.

Using computers, lasers and other sophisticated tools, workers are in the early stages of assembling the X-33, the plane-rocket hybrid scheduled to make a series of landings at Montana’s Malmstrom Air Force Base.

Crews in the cavernous hangar are working at a steady clip on a variety of metal skeletons that ultimately will be pieced together to form the 273,000-pound, 67-foot long experimental bird.

While a lot of what happens in the hangars at Edwards Air Force Base is closely guarded, the timetable for the X-33 is no secret.

Lockheed Martin got the contract to build the X-33 in July 1996. The craft is supposed to be ready for flight testing, including the flights to Malmstrom, in mid-1999.

Company officials say the $941 million project, a joint venture of NASA, Lockheed Martin and a consortium of other aerospace firms, is solidly on track.

Construction on a launch pad in the desert at Edwards began in mid-November. A pint-sized mock-up of the X-33 has endured more than 5,000 hours of wind tunnel testing.

Even the budget is in decent shape. Lockheed officials say they have spent about $400 million of their $1.1 billion total X-33 budget.

In fact, some of those with the X-33 program seem as cocky as test pilots.

“We are going to shift the paradigm of the way we do space in this country,” Cleon Lacefield, the X-33 program manager, told an entourage of Montana visitors this month.

The Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, as this expansive patch of asphalt, hangars and brown sand is called, has a history of quick turnarounds, notes Jack Gordon, who oversees the operation for Lockheed Martin, the nation’s largest defense and space contracting concern.

Throughout the hangar, workers in jeans and T-shirts work at a steady but unhurried pace. In one area, the nose of the craft is beginning to take shape. A few paces away, a gaggle of workers are focused on a tall panel of titanium, where the craft’s innovative aerospike engines will be mounted.

Across the room, hints of fuselage rest among a maze of metal forms. Nearby, sparks from welders flash and fade.

It’s impressive, even if it’s hard to see all the pieces together hurtling through the sky faster than the speed of sound.

For admirers of engineering and entrepreneurship, the show in the hangar is a good one.

“I’m very impressed,” said Montana Sen. Conrad Burns, one of the more colorful Montanans who visited the Skunk Works. The substantial investment of Lockheed, Boeing and other aerospace firms on what they hope will be a big step toward commercial space travel appeals to the Republican considered a friend of aviation and space exploration.

Equally impressed was Mike Ferguson, administrator of the Montana Aeronautics Division.

“I think it’s going to be a big asset to the U.S. space program,” Ferguson said. “It’s certainly going to be a plus for not only Malmstrom Air Force Base but the whole state of Montana.”

For Ferguson, an obvious aviation buff, the chance to be part of groundbreaking research and development outweighs the concerns about safety and noise held by some.

The X-33, unlike the space shuttle or even the planned Venture Star, will not have a flight crew. That’s means computers and gadgets, not human hands, will be responsible for giving the aircraft a soft landing on the Malmstrom strip.

That’s unnerving to some folks. Others worry about the sonic booms the X-33 will create as it descends from its suborbital path.

Lacefield, the X-33 manager, says there will be just one boom, while the craft is still very high.

“Other than that, there will not be any noise,” he said. “The boom will be right over the airport.”

The craft’s engines primarily will be used to thrust it vertically to about 300,000 feet. From there, it essentially will follow a long glide path to Malmstrom, officials say.

Ferguson says he expects the X-33 landings in last half of 1999 will draw large crowds to Malmstrom. The state’s top aviation official plans to be on hand for the first landing.

“Sonic booms are music to my ears,” Ferguson said. “It’s always given me a great feeling of pride and security.”