..Approaching Plant 42 in Palmdale....
Several Tristars were equipped with 35mm film cameras to record images for use in computing
takeoff and landing performance, most often to calibrate the Autoland Flight Control System.
The cameras were located in pairs in the radome looking forward early in the program. A
hatch under the cockpit was modified to house two cameras, so the installation could be used
in production aircraft. Occasionally a camera was located in the aft cabin to look behind the
aircraft as it departed the runway area, useful for areas which lacked the extended target field
Lockheed installed at Plant 42.
The data needed was the aircraft position relative to the ILS beam; localizer and glideslope, and
the position of the aircraft at touchdown relative to the desired landing location. Towards this end
the runway lights on the sides of the runway were surveyed, and to enhance the data some were added
to the edges of the runway. In addition, 16 foot by 8 foot plywood targets were installed in the unused
agricultural area to the east of runway 25 at Plant 42, each carefully surveyed to permit measuring the
desired parameters for several miles from the runway.
..The film was read in a high-resolution film reader which gave the x and y coordinates
of each target. These coordinates were input to an analysis program which computed the aircraft orientation
and location relative to the landing point. This gave distance back, altitude, distance off center,
pitch angle, roll angle and yaw angle. Integrating between successive frames was use to determine the
rates of interest; airspeed, rate of climb, roll rate, yaw rate. The targets were read in groups of
3, with the computer using the survey data to compute the parameters from the shape of the triangle
on the film, relative to where the plane would be if it were looking straight down at the target field....
..Aerial photos of construction..
..Wandering Escapees in the Antelope Valley.
..Calibrating and reading aerial photos.
