Quick Start for New Aeronautics Project
NASA
HAS SELECTED THREE ADVANCED aeronautical concepts as "quick
starts" in its Revolutionary Concepts (RevCon) project. The
selected concepts are AeroCraft, a piloted, partially buoyant airship;
the Blended Wing Body, a powered, remotely piloted, flying wing
configuration; and the Pulse Detonation Engine, a design geared
toward lower maintenance and operations costs. The purpose of the
RevCon project is to encourage the development of ideas that could
lead to revolutionary experimental planes, lower maintenance and
operations costs and partnerships with industry and other government
agencies to fund further research.
These three concepts will become the first element of the project,
which uses the ongoing flight research program led by Dryden Flight
Research Center to develop revolutionary aeronautical concepts.
The project also seeks to advance traditional approaches to aerospace
technology and create methods to reduce development and certification
time for new aircraft and flight systems.
AeroCraft could dramatically improve cargo transportation and
would offer transport faster than ocean freight but cheaper than
air freight. Project partners are Dryden in Edwards, California,
Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, and Micro Craft
of Tullahoma, Tennessee. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works of Palmdale,
California, and American Blimp Corporation of Hillsboro, Oregon,
are providing support roles. Flight experiments using a scale model
are slated for 2001.
The Blended Wing Body promises to improve fuel efficiency, maximum
takeoff weight and direct operating costs for commercial carriers,
which could, in turn, translate into lower fares for airline customers.
This project partners Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia,
Dryden, Ames and Boeing Phantom Works of Long Beach, California.
The first flight at Dryden is scheduled for 2002.
The Pulse Detonation Engine is a novel approach for future high-speed
jet propulsion. The design is expected to provide higher propulsion
efficiency and simplicity using significantly fewer parts, resulting
in lower maintenance and operating costs. The engine will be tested
in a wind tunnel at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and
eventually will be attached to an SR-71 "Blackbird" aircraft
and test-fired to a speed of Mach 3. The live fire tests will take
place in 2002.
Dryden is the lead center for the RevCon project, which seeks to
go beyond the evolutionary steps in advancing aerospace technology,
looks for breakthrough aeronautics technologies and funds flight
research of advanced vehicle concepts. The selected ideas are a
significant departure from traditional approaches to aeronautical
design, according to Dryden Director of Research Engineering Bob
Meyer, who also is the chair of the InterCenter RevCon Planning
Team.
RevCon is not intended to be a one-shot program. The plan is for
it to be a continuous series of advanced vehicle concept developments
with a two-phase approach. To provide a quick start for RevCon in
fiscal year 2000, proposals for the first RevCon phase were limited
to solicitation to the four NASA "aeronautics centers":
Ames, Dryden, Glenn and Langley. The quick start is intended to
accelerate the development of two or three concepts already on track
for a flight demonstration in two to three years.
Some of the proposals received for the quick starts could meet
another of RevCon's goals—to forge partnerships with industry
and other federal agencies to fund efforts that produce groundbreaking
results. As these projects work through the early phases of development,
NASA's Office of Aero-Space Technology will issue a NASA Research
Announcement to solicit new ideas for future RevCon selections.
The second phase includes flight experiments with a new testbed
or a technology demonstration on an existing testbed aircraft, such
as the nose strakes that flew at Dryden on the F-18 High Alpha Research
Vehicle to enhance high-angle-of-attack aerodynamic control. As
one or more projects work through the phases, another NASA Research
Announcement is expected to solicit new ideas to keep projects continuously
in the RevCon cycle approximately every two years. The ideas for
RevCon are solicited from industry, NASA centers, other government
agencies and academia.
Projects could lead to scaled X-planes such as the X-36 that can
demonstrate new airframe technology such as tailless flight, Meyer
said. A prime example of the kinds of technologies in the past that
had to be proven in flight before they were considered viable concepts
was the M2-F1 aircraft, which led to generations of lifting-body
aircraft, as well as the Space Shuttle.
For more information, contact Gerald Malcolm at Dryden Flight Research
Center. Call: 661/258-7402,
E-mail: Gerald.Malcolm@dfrc.nasa.gov Please mention you read
about it in Innovation.
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