Aerospace Research and Development

Langley Research Center is NASA's Center of Excellence in airframe systems and leads in airborne systems, structures and materials, aerodynamics, and mission and systems analysis. Located in Hampton, Virginia, Langley's unique research facilities include over 40 wind tunnels.

A community of Langley researchers is honing the technologies that enable aircraft to fly faster, farther, safer, and to be more maneuverable, quieter, less expensive to manufacture, and more energy efficient.

A new aviation safety initiative supported by Langley is the development of Aviation Weather Information (AWIN) systems. Airliners and smaller airplanes are one step closer to having up-to-the-minute, graphical weather displays in their cockpits. Research agreements between NASA and eight industry teams have been signed to bring about the AWIN initiative.

What is envisioned in the AWIN effort is a futuristic system that allows aircraft to be both a source and user of weather information. Airborne sensors would provide data for weather systems on the plane, on the ground, and in other aircraft. As part of the cockpit instrumentation, easy-to-read, real-time displays would show weather across the country, not just a limited number of miles ahead. Satellite and ground transceivers would move weather data to and from aircraft. Industry teams working on AWIN also propose other information tools, such as alarm systems or displays of suggested routes to help pilots better avoid potentially hazardous weather situations.

New designs are taking shape for a small aircraft transportation system to make personal air travel a safe, affordable transportation alternative.

AWIN is part of an overall NASA move toward improvements in aviation safety. Because of advances in the last four decades, commercial airliners are already the safest of all major modes of transportation. But with an accident rate that has remained relatively constant in the last decade and air traffic expected to triple over the next two decades, the U.S. government wants to prevent a projected rise in the number of aircraft accidents.

The long-running Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiment (AGATE) consortium continues to make impressive progress on a broad front. This partnership between government and industry is revitalizing the U.S. light airplane industry, strengthened by the NASA General Aviation Propulsion (GAP) program.

Langley, working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and U.S. industry, scored a range of recent accomplishments by way of the AGATE consortium. Among the achievements: AGATE safety advances in energy-absorbing and improved safety harness systems that improve crash protection; an AGATE-developed process that promises to speed materials certification by the FAA for a new aircraft design from two years to six months, promising up to $1 million in savings per plane; and reducing the cost of lightning protection for small airplanes from the current $5,000 per airplane to a projected goal of $500 or less by using airplane surface treatments.

Image illustrating vehicle separation from Pegasus booster during flight research.

Langley technology partnerships have been formed among companies, universities, and local government. Government-sponsored research at the center has moved into several commercially available products and techniques, including: a non-invasive method to measure, via ultrasonics, the signs of abnormally elevated intracranial pressure common in patients with head trauma; a field inspection technique to perform near real-time analysis of non-metallic inclusions in representative stainless steel samples; and ultrasonic sensor technology for accurately measuring the strain in bolts and fasteners.

In another example of a commercial partnership, Langley's Research and Technology Group has licensed technology for improving the performance, stability, and control of helicopters. Boundary layer research done at Langley, to study the flow of air around aircraft, has spawned a number of ideas. One aerodynamic device is called "tailboom strakes." This helicopter strake technology, developed by a team of NASA and Army researchers, counteracts a single-rotor helicopter's natural tendency to turn due to torque. The result is improved pilot control of the helicopter. NASA has licensed the technology for commercial sale to Boundary Layer Research, Inc., Everett, Washington.

Color graphic model of the Hyper-X.

Moving beyond technologies to improve helicopter stability all the way to hypersonic velocities is part of Langley's research agenda. Hyper-X hypersonic propulsion hardware is to undergo high-speed ground tests at Langley, which is also managing the program. Revolutionary Hyper-X vehicles are to carry "air-breathing" engines, burning oxygen that is scooped from the atmosphere. Hyper-X program managers hope to fly vehicles at speeds 10 times the speed of sound to altitudes of 100,000 feet.

Studies led by Langley concerning global warming may lead to more accurate climate predictions. PICASSO-CENA is a collaboration between Langley, France, and industry. PICASSO-CENA, also known as the Pathfinder Instruments for Cloud and Aerosol Spaceborne Observations-Climatologie Etendue des Nuages et des Aerosols, will profile the vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols. While these measurements are being taken, another device will simultaneously image the heat emission of the atmosphere.

Data from PICASSO-CENA, to be lofted in 2003, along with NASA's Earth Observing System satellites, will help piece together 3-D images of the atmosphere. The role of clouds and aerosols in Earth's climate can be better understood through such spaceborne instruments. These types of measurements should provide the scientific basis for understanding the dynamics and energetics of Earth's atmosphere on a short-term weather basis, perhaps leading to long-term climate forecasts.