National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASAfacts

Phoenix Missile Hypersonic Testbed

Researchers at NASA’s Dryden Flight 

Research Center at Edwards Air Force 

Base, Calif., and the Naval Air Warfare 

Center Weapons Division, China Lake, 

Calif., are investigating the use of surplus demilitarized Navy AIM-54 Phoenix 

air-launched missiles as possible hypersonic test platforms or testbeds. Hypersonic flight is defined as aerodynamic 

flight at speeds of Mach 5 or greater, 

and use of surplus Phoenix missiles is 

one of the methods being considered 

to obtain critical flight data in the hypersonic regime.

These missions, to be conducted over 

restricted military test ranges, would 

involve launching a missile from a 

NASA F-15 aircraft flying at speeds up 

to Mach 2.0, with the missile then accelerating to speeds up to Mach 5.0, 

depending on its trajectory, before fuel 

is exhausted. The missiles would carry 

experimental research payloads into the 

hypersonic regime, something that is 

currently difficult to achieve.

The Phoenix missiles used for hypersonic research will have their explosive 

warheads removed and their tracking 

and guidance systems replaced with 

a smaller, more lightweight guidance 

system. The missiles will also be heavily 

instrumented to obtain and transmit test 

data from experiments in such areas as 

thermal protection materials, scramjet 

propulsion, guidance & control, boundary layer transition and aerodynamics at 

hypersonic speeds. 

At present, NASA is performing design, 

analysis, and testing leading up to a 

Phoenix missile mounted under NASA’s F-15B research aircraft ED06-0217-37
Critical Design Review at the end of 2007. As 

part of the preliminary studies, several “captivecarry” flights will be flown by the F-15 with an 

inactive missile with no propellant carried on the 

aircraft’s centerline pylon to determine the performance of the aircraft when carrying the missile. The project has not been funded to conduct 

actual launches to obtain hypersonic flight test 

data, and a decision on funding such research is 

not expected before 2008. 

When in military service, the Phoenix missile was 

the primary long-range air-to-air weapon carried 

by the Navy’s now-retired fleet of Grumman F-14 

aircraft. It was the first operational radar-guided 

air-to-air missile that could be launched in multiple numbers against different targets from an aircraft. The missile was in operational service with 

F-14 squadrons from 1974 through its retirement 

in late 2004. The Navy has no current need for 

the remaining supply of Phoenix missiles and is 

making several available 

to NASA for its hypersonic research efforts. 

A Phoenix missile is

13 feet long, 15 inches in 

diameter with a wingspan 

of 36 inches. It weighs 

about 1,000 lbs. in its 

military configuration. 

Thomas Jones of NASA 

Dryden Flight Research 

Center is the principal 

investigator for the development of the Phoenix 

missile hypersonic testbed. This testbed development effort is funded 

by the Hypersonics Project under the Fundamental Aeronautics Program of NASA’s Aeronautics 

Research Mission Directorate. 

Technicians attach nosecone to Phoenix missile ED06-0217-06

NASA Facts

Natiional Aeronautics and Space Administration

Dryden Flight Research Center

P.O. Box 273

Edwards, CA 93523-0273

Voice 661-276-3449 FAX 661-276-3566

pao@dfrc.nasa.gov

www.nasa.gov

FS-2007-1-093-DFRC