Recapturing NASA's Aeronautics Flight Research Capabilities (2012) / Chapter Skim
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2 Focus for ARMD - Case Studies
2 Focus for ARMD - Case Studies
Pages 26-45
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From page 26... ...
The ERA project was chosen by the committee to represent subsonic flight research because it was formed to integrate a number of promising technologies developed under ARMD subsonic research programs to show how they can improve fuel efficiency and reduce the emissions and noise of subsonic aircraft in flight. While subsonics research supports today's industrial base, the Fundamental Aeronautics Research Program's Hypersonics and Supersonics projects were chosen because they represent the emerging near- and farther-term aeronautics and space applications that are important to the nation.
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From page 27... ...
2 NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, "Fundamental Aeronautics Program: Subsonic Fixed Wing," available at http://www. aeronautics.nasa.gov/fap/sfw_research_overview_feature.html, last updated September 9, 2009.
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From page 28... ...
In the committee's view, it is important to reduce the projects based on technical merit and not on their expenses to date. NASA had plans to develop a "sub-scale test vehicle" by 2016 to demonstrate a number of the key technologies identified in this 3 NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, "Fundamental Aeronautics Program: Subsonic Fixed Wing," available at http://www.
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From page 29... ...
FOCUS FOR ARMD -- CASE STUDIES 29 FIGURE 2.2 The X-48B being tested in the Full-Scale Tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virgina. SOURCE: Courtesy of Boeing/Bob Ferguson.
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From page 30... ...
To this end, the ERA project created working groups and technical interchange meetings, developed Space Act Agreements for cooperative partnerships, and used the NASA Research Announcement Project to solicit promising research ideas. 6 Once the technology is successfully developed, the ERA project will be able to share its knowledge with others, such as the Fundamental Aeronautics Program.
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From page 31... ...
If the ARMD budget is increased a modest amount and the ERA project receives a share of this budget, the number of flight research opportunities will increase. If this additional budget was directed into scale or sub-scale test vehicles, the integrated research could be performed on at least the airframe technologies and, to a lesser amount, noise reduction.
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From page 32... ...
The Supersonics project, one of four projects managed under NASA Aeronautics' Fundamental Aeronautics Program, exists today to develop the tools and technologies necessary to achieve this goal. Stating as its objective to "eliminate technology barriers preventing civil supersonic airliners," 10 the supersonics research project contains a broad and diverse portfolio that has been refined through past programs like the United States Supersonic Transport (SST)
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From page 33... ...
and laboratory studies at Langley's new interior effects room, which is a sonic boom playback simulator set up to resemble a typical residential living room.25 Researchers can vary signature intensity, frequency of occurrence, and many additional acoustic characteristics like structural transmission, rattle, and source directionality.26 NRAs regarding development and validation of sonic boom focus prediction codes and community response test protocols for future low-boom flight research are under way at the writing of this report. 27 Nearly 45 percent of the Supersonics project resources are currently allocated to determining a solution to sonic boom, and 15 NRC, NASA Aeronautics Research: An Assessment, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2008.
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From page 34... ...
FIGURE 2.5 "Quiet Spike" test on a NASA F-15 research aircraft. This device was used to alter the sonic boom produced by the aircraft.
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From page 35... ...
Coen and L Povinelli, NASA, "Fundamental Aeronautics Program: Supersonics Project," briefing to the National Research Council Committee to Assess NASA's Aeronautics Flight Research Capabilities, June 13, 2011, Washington, D.C.
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From page 36... ...
Program schedule and results are highly dependent on the level of achievable and sustained investment. These findings led the committee to its final two findings concerning NASA's supersonics research project: Finding: If NASA determines that progress in supersonics is a priority, then given the progress in low boom technology that has been demonstrated over the past decade and in light of this research challenge being the principal remaining barrier to routine supersonic operations, NASA together with the FAA could proceed immediately with an integrated technology experimental aircraft program to validate low-boom acoustic ground signatures and establish a set of quantitative criteria for the sonic boom footprint over land.
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From page 37... ...
35 The ARMD hypersonics research project has done a good job up to this point in maintaining and advancing its modeling and simulation, ground test, and flight research capabilities even though its budget has dropped by a factor of approximately five over the past 5 years. It has achieved this by leveraging partnerships with other NASA mission directorates and other U.S.
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From page 38... ...
Well-designed/instrumented flight tests can also provide data to verify computer models and design tools and/or mature the technology readiness levels of key technologies. Reliance on partners has so far proven to be an effective strategy to obtain hypersonic flight data, but future success requires the continued support of partner organizations such as other NASA mission directorates and DOD (see Figure 2.6)
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From page 39... ...
Pittman, "Hypersonics Project Flight Research Fundamental Aeronautics Program," briefing to the National Research Council Committee to Assess NASA's Aeronautics Flight Research Capabilities, June 13, 2011, Washington, D.C. 38 Executive Office of the President of the United States, National Science and Technology Council, Committee on Technology, Aeronautics Science and Technology Subcommittee, "Biennial Update: National Aeronautics Research and Development Plan," available at http://www.
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From page 40... ...
government agencies. The dire budget situation for hypersonics is somewhat mitigated by the shift of flight test research responsibility for planetary entry, descent, and landing technology from the ARMD Hypersonics project to the NASA Office of Chief Technologist, which arguably can properly shoulder some of the burden for this research.41 But recent failures during flight tests of both the DARPA HTV-2 and the Air Force X-51 indicate the need for more involvement by NASA experts in the nation's atmospheric hypersonic flight research efforts, contrary to current NASA Hypersonics project budget projections.
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From page 41... ...
"Hypersonics Project Flight Research," briefing to the National Research Council Committee to Assess NASA's Aeronautics Flight Research Capabilities, June 13, 2011, Washington, D.C. As Bolden stated, work was continuing on developing a "practical hypersonic vehicle, with more sophisticated technology flight experiments planned in the next few years." 42 The committee agrees with the administrator's comments.
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From page 42... ...
44 D McBride, "Dryden Flight Research Center Flight Projects and Perspectives," briefing to National Research Council Committee to Assess NASA Aeronautics Flight Research Capabilities, April 20, 2011, Edwards, Calif.
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From page 43... ...
The current process for getting authorization to fly a UAV in the National Airspace System from the Federal Aviation Administration is quite difficult. The NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD)
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From page 44... ...
In this environment of constrained budgets, NASA is considering how it can make greater use of small UAVs for fundamental research. NASA also has the opportunity to be a resource center to industry and other government agencies for the safe flight testing of UAVs within the NASA Dryden range.
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From page 45... ...
FOCUS FOR ARMD -- CASE STUDIES 45 FIGURE 2.1.1Lockheed Martin/Air Force Research Laboratory's Body Freedom Flutter aircraft, built by Lockheed Martin. This vehicle was designed to test the limits of aircraft structures, including the point of destructive flutter.
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