The innovative engineers and technicians at Arnold Engineering and Development Center in Tennessee developed a High Speed Fan Facility to verify the viability of the Towed Airborne Plume Simulator to test early warning sensors on military aircraft. TAPS will be carried aloft, towed behind an aircraft, but first USAF wanted to test it on the ground. AEDC journalist Philip Lorenz III reports that the center used off-the-shelf components and cannibalized ducting to construct a temporary HSFF to test TAPS on the ground.
The Air Force is moving away from weapons meant to strike specific types of targets and instead toward generic munitions with "swappable" payloads that can be used in a variety of ways, said Air Force Global Strike Command planner Maj. Gen. Jason R. Armogost. Other goals are to increase production…