Award Data

The Air Force has identified fuel cells as an "emerging technology of choice for power generation" because of their "supreme fuel efficiency, reduced air emissions and minimal fuel costs". The electrolyte is a critical component of a fuel cell, and no solid electrolyte has been identified that permits fuel cell operation in the intermediate temperature range 200-400°C (although this temperature ...

The multiple-view genlocked camera (MVGC) developed and demonstrated duringthe first phase of this program will be extened to the long infrared domain. In addition, real-time structure from motion (SFM) and video-based anvigation algorithms will be coded on the Phase I and Phase II ontrol computers. Captive Flight Tests in winter and summer conditions will be executed to gather data and to evalu ...

Successful operation of next-generation unmanned air vehicles will demand a high level of autonomy. Autonomous low-level operation in a high-threat environment dictates a need for on-board, robust, reliable and efficient trajectory optimization. The proposed effort will develop and demonstrate an innovative combination of traditional analytical and numerical solution procedures to produce effici ...

The overall goal of the proposed research is to develop a comprehensive, efficient, and well-validated model for the prediction of the shape and thermal history of components manufactured using Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM) processes. The proposed model will use a combined Eulerian-Lagrangian treatment for analyzing the three-dimensional gas-particle flow. Analysis of radiative heat exchange ...

NOVASOL proposes to develop an acousto-optic deflection (AOD) beam steering technology adapted to the needs of airborne free space optical communications (FSOC) at 1550 nm. AOD technology will enable development of the compact beam steering solutions required to transition FSOC to airborne platforms. AOD has found appliction to a variety of areas, but it has not yet been applied to the problem of ...

The objective of this proposal is to demonstrate the feasibility of detecting damage in structures using Laser Doppler Vibrometry (LDV) and further lead to the development of a robust aerospace structural health monitoring system. The proposed concept is based on use of LDV to measure velocities and displacements associated with high frequency operational deflection shapes as well as lamb waves. ...

Lockheed Martin delivered the first operational F-16 Fighting Falcon to the United States Air Force in January 1979. With more than 10 miles of wiring packed into an aircraft just 49 feet long, the aging F-16 suffers from intermittent power wire failures that pose a significant fire hazard. These failures often occur when a cable's degraded jacket enables a water droplet or metal shaving to temp ...

Newer, smart transducers that conform to the IEEE 1451 standards will be used in new and legacy Instrumentation Support Systems (ISS)s allowing the ISSs to know exactly what is available on a test vehicle and also the coordination of the instrumentation setup, ground station setup, full pre-test checkout and dynamic error correction. Changes in the operational scenarios of ISS as a consequence of ...

As new technologies trend towards lower supply voltages to reduce power consumption at higher speeds their interfaces become less compatible with older legacy systems. In space electronics the challenge is greater since components and systems must also be radiation hardened. Therefore, there exists a need for unique radiation hardened interface devices that transparently convert from one type of ...

PITEC proposes a compact long wave infrared (LWIR) hyperspectral imager that is smaller and lighter than previously fielded instruments, but offers comparable performance. The point design collects data with 50nm spectral resolution sampled at 3 pixels per spectral resolution element between 8 and 11.5 microns. The swath width is 7 degrees, sampled with 256 pixels with IFOV of 0.5 mrad. The r ...