"recent technological advances have assured the possibility of radically expanding the maneuvering envelop of future fighter designs. increases in force and moment generation as well as enhanced departure resistance will enable the next generation of fighters to perform maneuvers beyond today's… More

Modern fighter aircraft are operating in a flight regime with increasing demands for maneuverability and controllability to be effective in the combat arena. one of the limitations to that effectiveness is the inability to accurately track targets for gun or missile shots due to the degrading… More

Incidents of g-induced loss of consciousness (g-loc) occur with alarming frequency in today's high performance tactical aircraft and pose a significant hazard to flight safety. it is clear that the number of g-loc related mishaps now occuring in the peace-time training environment is only a fraction… More

Modern close-in air combat, with all aspect missile, is extremely fast paced with hard maneuvering to achieve the first point-and-shoot option. nose position at the expense of energy conservation is often a tactical expediency, and some current aircraft achieve this first shot option with transitory… More

Modern fighter aircraft are operating in a flight regime with increasing demands for maneuverability and controllability to be effective in the combat areana. one of the limitations to that effectiveness is the inability to accurately track targets for gun or missile shots due to the degrading… More

An innovative approach is proposed which would add adaptive features to current angle-of-attack/load factor limiter concepts to aid pilots' energy and agility management duringcombat. the combat agility management system would be scheduled with aircraft motion quantities to give the pilot improved… More

Incidents of g-induced loss of consciousness (g-loc), with the accompanying loss of aircraft and lives, have occurred with increased frequency in today's high performance tactical fighters. in addition, the number of g-loc relatedmishaps now occurring in peace-time may be considerably lessthan that… More

Modern close-in air-to-air combat can be characterized as a "point and shoot" environment because of the all-aspect ir missile. success in air combat depends to a large degree on the ability to rapidly point the aircraft at the adversary and launch a missile. such pointing maneuvers may produce… More

Research studies have shown that the aerodynamic forces and moments of fighter aircraft and missile configurations can be controlled by manipulating the vortices which dominate the flow field. this proposed research program will investigate the feasibility of using some of these same vortex control… More

We propose to use new and innovative criteria to evaluate the relationship between departure susceptibility and agility of several modern fighter aircraft. the criteria consider high angle of attack stability requirements and assess the controllability limits of agile combat maneuvers. one aspect of… More

Recent acquisitions of a domed simulation with background, laser and high resolution target displays and graphics workstations for manned adversaries by afwal/figd are aimed at increasing their capability to evaluate and refine design requirements for tactical aircraft. the current emphasis for this… More

The advanced air-to-air systems performance evaluation model (aaspem) is a comprehensive, digital, multi-aircraft engagement model developedby the boeing military aircraft company for the usaf. this model emphasizes beyond visual range (bvr) combat. the within-visual-range (wvr) or close-in combat… More

Fighter aircraft in future air combat will require additional agility and maneuverability to be effective. a key technology to improve agility is improved aerodynamic control at high angles of attack. technology recently developed on generic fighter shapes for high-angle-of-attackaerodynamic control… More

The main interest of this research effort focuses on the liftovershoot phenomenon for straight and moderately swept wings. one practical problem when one wants to utilize the dynamic lift as a means to enhance aircraft performance is that the lift-overshoot is usually too short-lived to be of usage.… More

Department of defense procurement agencies have made it clear that they expect future combat aircraft contractors to be able to simulate design performance in highly complex and realistic battle environments. today simulations of this environment are expensive to procure and operate. as a result,… More

The goal of this project is an innovative method of enhancing the controllability of aircraft at moderate-to-high angles-of-attack (aoa) by controlling the forebody vortex flow with rotatable nose-boom strakes. the idea is to control the asymmetry of the nose-boom wake by placing small, movable… More

The development of a multi-component, force-and-moment balance for applications in low-speed flow visualization water tunnels is the goal of this project. the balance willallow detailed flow visualization and force-and-moment measurements to be performed simultaneously in a water tunnel, thus… More

The usaf trainer masterplan developed shortand long-term stratigies for meeting current and future undergraduate pilot training (upt) requirements. one element of the plan calls for the developement of a reconnaissance-attack-fighter system (bfts) aircraft toreplace the t-38 in the 2005 timeframe.… More

The principle objective of this contract will be to provide the air force with a low-cost high fidelity man-in-the-loop air combat simulation facility. the facility will provide the government with a critical technology the ability to simulate advanced technologies. this facility will have the… More

The evaluation of lateral/directional stability departure boundaries for combat aircraft in preliminary design has historically been based on the knowledge of certain static aerodynamic coefficients. For aircraft operating at high angles of attack and high yaw and roll rates, these criteria are… More

Accurate simulation of force level air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, requires an accurate, comprehensive, tactical environment. Historically, simulation development has focused on increasing the fidelity of single ship operations. Only recently have high fidelity force level air combat… More

Fighter agility is comprised of both maneuverability and controllability. Inadequate controllability can limit the agility potential through a combination of reduced control power and/or a lack of bare airframe departure resistance. Typical departure criteria include only static aerodynamic terms… More

This proposal is focused on determining the significance of dynamic aerodynamic coefficients in aerodynamic mathematical models used to evaluate the flight characteristics of modern fighter and transport aircraft. This assessment will be accomplished with a unique method of dynamic testing in the… More

Aircraft range is limited, in part, by skin friction drag. Recent advances in control technology with small actuators such as piezoelectric materials and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) may make active boundary layer control for drag reduction practical. The unique characteristics of… More

Aircraft range is limited, in part, by skin friction drag. Recent advances in control technology with small actuators such as piezoelectric materials and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) may make active boundary layer control for drag reduction practical. The unique characteristics of… More

"Compliant structures technology, coupled with variable camber leading-edge dynamicstall control, has the potential to significantly improve the performance of modernrotorcraft. The objective of this Phase I proposal is to use compliant structurestechnology to design a hinge-less, variable camber,… More

"It is proposed to setup a full volume 3D particle tracking velocimetry system and expand on an existing particle tracking code to obtain quantitative flow visualization of the entire flow field around an airplane model in a low speed water tunnel. Theoff-body flowfield data will be used to… More

Compliant structures technology, coupled with variable camber leading-edge dynamic stall control, has the potential to significantly improve the performance of modern rotorcraft. The objective of the Phase I effort and Phase II proposal is to use compliantstructures technology to design and test a… More

Airfoil stagnation point control has the potential to significantly improve the performance of aircraft by producing a radically enhanced natural laminar flow (NLF) low drag wing. By controlling the stagnation point location of an NLF airfoil, the range of low drag lift coefficients can be extended… More

Airfoil stagnation point control will significantly improve the performance of aircraft by producing a radically enhanced natural laminar flow, low-drag wing. By controlling the stagnation point location of an NLF airfoil, the range of low-drag lift coefficients can be extended by up to 100%. The… More

An important mission for NASA is the development of revolutionary flight concepts and technology. The development of Micro unmanned air vehicles (Micro-UAVs) and Mars aircraft has received considerable attention in recent years. Unlike conventional aircraft and UAVs, Micro-UAVs and Mars aircraft… More

Recent success of an annular aerospike flight test by NASA Dryden has prompted keen interest in providing thrust vector capability to the annular aerospike nozzle (AAN). The AAN with a moveable spike could provide a solid-fueled rocket with thrust vectoring and unique throttling capability.Cal… More

A novel technique for controlling transition from laminar to turbulent flow in very low Reynolds number conditions has been developed. Normally flows with Reynolds numbers in the range of 20,000 to 120,000 are dominated by laminar separation bubbles and are difficult to transition without using… More

A robust flow control method promising significantly increased performance and virtual shape control for natural laminar flow (NLF) sections is proposed using a novel momentum porting concept. Significant aerodynamic, systems, and control benefits are possible through the integration of virtual… More

An important mission for NASA is the development of revolutionary flight concepts and technology. The development of Micro unmanned air vehicles (MAVs) and Mars aircraft has received considerable attention recently. Unlike conventional aircraft, MAVs and Mars aircraft suffer from operation in an… More

Recent success of an annular aerospike flight test by NASA Dryden has prompted keen interest in providing thrust vector capability to the annular aerospike nozzle (AAN). The AAN with a moveable spike for thrust vectoring and throttling could provide a more efficient alternative to traditional bell… More

A novel and robust flow control technique for the virtual shaping of extended run Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) sections has been developed. The virtual shaping and separation control technology can be used to control the size and extent of extremely large separation bubbles to virtually shape the aft… More

The proposed innovation is to use the refrigerant capabilities of nitrous oxide (N2O) to provide the cooling required for reusable operation of an aerospike nozzle in conjunction with an N2O-HTPBýý hybrid rocket motor. The phase change cooling as liquid N2O is flashed into a vapor is crucial to… More

The proposed innovation is a self-contained, self-powered, robust flight test sensor array for the determination of separation. The proposed system uses off the shelf, currently available technology to create a reusable distributed sensor array, which requires no external wiring or power source. … More

The development of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) has received considerable attention in recent years for both military and civilian uses. MAVs typically suffer from operation in an extremely low Reynolds number flight regime. At these very low Reynolds numbers, the aerodynamic flow features can be… More

The proposed innovation is an aircraft flight envelope monitoring system that will provide real-time in-cockpit estimations of aircraft flight envelope boundaries, performance, and controllability. The adaptable monitoring system will provide information on current and predicted aircraft… More

The proposed innovation is an aircraft flight envelope monitoring system that will provide real-time in-cockpit estimations of aircraft flight envelope boundaries. The adaptable system will provide information on current and predicted aircraft performance and controllability, alerting the pilot to… More

The proposed innovation is a self-contained, self-powered, robust flight test sensor array for the determination of separation. The proposed system uses off-the-shelf, currently available technology to create a reusable distributed sensor array, which requires no external wiring or power source. … More

An important mission for NASA is the development of revolutionary flight concepts and technology. The development of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), the resurgence of general aviation, and growing interest in environmentally conscious, all-electric, emissionless aircraft have brought about a renewed… More

The proposed innovation is to use the refrigerant capabilities of nitrous oxide (N2O) to provide the cooling required for reusable operation of an aerospike nozzle in conjunction with an N2O-HTPB (hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene, a synthetic rubber that is used as a binder in solid rocket motors… More

The proposed project is crucial to enabling safe flight research on a rocket nozzle that is based on our recent innovation, which is to use the refrigerant capabilities of nitrous oxide (N2O) to provide cooling for an aerospike nozzle on hybrid rocket motor using N2O as the oxidizer. The phase… More

An all-electric aircraft testbed is proposed to provide a dedicated development environment for the rigorous study and advancement of electrically powered aircraft. The new testbed aircraft will be developed from an existing conventional airframe and provide a dedicated platform to study, design,… More

The proposed innovation is a robust, bio-inspired, and self-contained sensor array for the measurement of shear stress. The proposed system uses commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) components to create a distributed sensor array for the measurement of shear stress in either a flight or… More