Stock Photo - On Wednesday, April 24, 1996, the F_15 Advanced Control Technology for Integrated Vehicles ACTIVE aircraft achieved its first supersonic yaw vectoring flight at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. ACTIVE is a joint NASA, U.S. Air Force, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace MDA and Pratt & Whitney P&W program. The team will assess performance and technology benefits during flight test operations. Current plans call for approximately 60 flights totaling 100 hours. Reaching this milestone is very rewarding. We hope to set some more records before we´re through, stated Roger W. Bursey, P&W´s pitch_yaw balance beam nozzle PYBBN program manager. A pair of P&W PYBBNs vectored horizontally side_to_side, pitch is up and down the thrust for the MDA manufactured F_15 research aircraft. Power to reach supersonic speeds was provided by two high_performance F100_PW_229 engines that were modified with the multi_directional thrust vectoring nozzles. The new concept should lead to significant increases in performance of both civil and military aircraft flying at subsonic and supersonic speeds.