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NASA NTRS2005

Active Tailoring of Lift Distribution to Enhance Cruise Performance

During Phase I of this project, Raytheon Aircraft Company (RAC) has analytically and experimentally evaluated key components of a system that could be implemented for active tailoring of wing lift distribution using low-drag, trailing-edge modifications. Simple systems such as those studied by RAC could be used to enhance the cruise performance of a business jet configuration over a range of typical flight conditions. The trailing-edge modifications focus on simple, deployable mechanisms comprised of extendable small flap panels over portions of the span that could be used to subtly but positively optimize the lift and drag characteristics. The report includes results from low speed wind tunnel testing of the trailing-edge devices, descriptions of potential mechanisms for automation, and an assessment of the technology.

Flamm, Jeffrey D.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Integration of Advanced Concepts and Vehicles Into the Next Generation Air Transportation System: Introduction, Key Messages, and Vehicle Attributes - Volume 1

Raytheon, in partnership with NASA, is leading the way in ensuring that the future air transportation continues to be a key driver of economic growth and stability and that this system provides an environmentally friendly, safe, and effective means of moving people and goods. A Raytheon-led team of industry and academic experts, under NASA contract NNA08BA47C, looked at the potential issues and impact of introducing four new classes of advanced aircraft into the next generation air transportation system -- known as NextGen. The study will help determine where NASA should further invest in research to support the safe introduction of these new air vehicles. Small uncrewed or unmanned aerial systems (SUAS), super heavy transports (SHT) including hybrid wing body versions (HWB), very light jets (VLJ), and supersonic business jets (SSBJ) are the four classes of aircraft that we studied. Understanding each vehicle's business purpose and strategy is critical to assessing the feasibility of new aircraft operations and their impact on NextGen's architecture. The Raytheon team used scenarios created by aviation experts that depict vehicles in year 2025 operations along with scripts or use cases to understand the issues presented by these new types of vehicles. The information was then mapped into the Joint Planning and Development Office's (JPDO s) Enterprise Architecture to show how the vehicles will fit into NextGen's Concept of Operations. The team also identified significant changes to the JPDO's Integrated Work Plan (IWP) to optimize the NextGen vision for these vehicles. Using a proven enterprise architecture approach and the JPDO s Joint Planning Environment (JPE) web site helped make the leap from architecture to planning efficient, manageable and achievable. Very Light Jets flying into busy hub airports -- Supersonic Business Jets needing to climb and descend rapidly to achieve the necessary altitude Super-heavy cargo planes requiring the shortest common flight path -- are just a few of the potential new operations in the future National Airspace System. To assess the impact of these new scenarios on overall national airspace operations, the Raytheon team used the capabilities of a suite of tools such as NASA's Airspace Concepts Evaluation System (ACES), the Flight Optimization System (FLOPS), FAA's Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), Intelligent Automations Kinematic Trajectory Generator (KTG) and the Aviation Safety Risk Model (ASRM). Detailed metroplex modeling, surface delay models for super heavy transports, prioritized routing and corridors for supersonics business jets, and VLJ demand models are some of the models developed by the Raytheon team to study the effect of operating these new vehicles in the future NAS. Using this suite of models, several trade studies were conducted to evaluate these effects in terms of delays, equity in access, safety, and the environment. Looking at the impact of each vehicle, a number of critical issues were identified. The Raytheon team concluded that strict compliance to NextGen's 4-dimensional trajectory (4DT) management will be required to accommodate these vehicles unique operations and increased number of flights in the future air space system. The next section provides a discussion of this and the other key findings from our study.

Zellweger, Andres↗

NASA NTRS2018

Next-Generation NASA Earth-Orbiting Relay Satellites: Fusing Microwave and Optical Communications

NASA is currently considering architectures and concepts for the generation of relay satellites that will replace the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) constellation, which has been flying since 1983. TDRS-M, the last of the second TDRS generation, launched in August 2017, extending the life of the TDRS constellation beyond 2030. However, opportunities exist to re-engineer the concepts of geosynchronous Earth relay satellites. The needs of the relay satellite customers have changed dramatically over the last 34 years since the first TDRS launch. There is a demand for greater bandwidth as the availability of the traditional RF spectrum for space communications diminishes and the demand for ground station access grows. The next generation of NASA relay satellites will provide for operations that have factored in these new constraints. In this paper, we describe a heterogeneous constellation of geosynchronous relay satellites employing optical and RF communications. The new constellation will enable new optical communications services formed by user-to-space relay, space relay-to-space relay and space relay-to-ground links. It will build upon the experience from the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration from 2013 and the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration to be launched in 2019.Simultaneous to establishment of the optical communications space segment, spacecraft in the TDRS constellation will be replaced with RF relay satellites with targeted subsets of the TDRS capabilities. This disaggregation of the TDRS service model will allow for flexibility in replenishing the needs of legacy users as well as addition of new capabilities for future users. It will also permit the U.S. government access to launch capabilities such as rideshare and to hosted payloads that were not previously available. In this paper, we also explore how the next generation of Earth relay satellites provides a significant boost in the opportunities for commercial providers to the communications space segment. For optical communications, the backbone of this effort is adoption of commercial technologies from the terrestrial high-bandwidth telecommunications industry into optical payloads. For RF communications, the explosion of software-defined radio, high-speed digital signal processing technologies and networking from areas such as 5G multicarrier will be important. Future commercial providers will not be limited to a small set of large aerospace companies. Ultimately, entirely government-owned and -operated satellite communications will phase out and make way for commercial business models that satisfy NASAs satellite communications requirements. The competition being provided by new entrants in the space communications business may result in a future in which all NASA communications needs can be satisfied commercially.

Space Communications↗

NASA NTRS2018

Next-Generation NASA Earth-Orbiting Relay Satellites: Fusing Optical and Microwave Communications

NASA is currently considering architectures and concepts for the generation of relay satellites that will replace the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) constellation, which has been flying since 1983. TDRS-M, the last of the second TDRS generation, launched in August 2017, extending the life of the TDRS constellation beyond 2030. However, opportunities exist to re-engineer the concepts of geosynchronous Earth relay satellites. The needs of the relay satellite customers have changed dramatically over the last 34 years since the first TDRS launch. There is a demand for greater bandwidth as the availability of the traditional RF spectrum for space communications diminishes and the demand for ground station access grows. The next generation of NASA relay satellites will provide for operations that have factored in these new constraints. In this paper, we describe a heterogeneous constellation of geosynchronous relay satellites employing optical and RF communications. The new constellation will enable new optical communications services formed by user-to-space relay, space relay-to-space relay and space relay-to-ground links. It will build upon the experience from the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration from 2013 and the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration to be launched in 2019.Simultaneous to establishment of the optical communications space segment, spacecraft in the TDRS constellation will be replaced with RF relay satellites with targeted subsets of the TDRS capabilities. This disaggregation of the TDRS service model will allow for flexibility in replenishing the needs of legacy users as well as addition of new capabilities for future users. It will also permit the U.S. government access to launch capabilities such as rideshare and to hosted payloads that were not previously available.In this paper, we also explore how the next generation of Earth relay satellites provides a significant boost in the opportunities for commercial providers to the communications space segment. For optical communications, the backbone of this effort is adoption of commercial technologies from the terrestrial high-bandwidth telecommunications industry into optical payloads. For RF communications, the explosion of software-defined radio, high-speed digital signal processing technologies and networking from areas such as 5G multicarrier will be important. Future commercial providers will not be limited to a small set of large aerospace companies. Ultimately, entirely government-owned and -operated satellite communications will phase out and make way for commercial business models that satisfy NASA's satellite communications requirements. The competition being provided by new entrants in the space communications business may result in a future in which all NASA communications needs can be satisfied commercially.

Space Communications↗

NASA NTRS1974

Landing approach evaluation of an integrated CRT display for general aviation aircraft

A flight director adaptable to general aviation aircraft was evaluated for the landing approach task in a twin turbojet business aircraft. The flight director combined aircraft heading, pitch and roll atitude, and ILS (Instrument Landing System) signals into a single picture on a small cathode ray tube (CRT) to give the pilot an integrated picture of the aircraft situation. The display is unique in that it presents the information on a CRT and gives quasi-command signals to the pilot. The particular display investigated was a preproduction version of the Kaiser Model FP-50 flight director. Approaches made with visual references only, with a conventional ILS displacement instrument, and with the CRT display were compared in terms of tracking performance and pilot workload. Tracking performance of three research pilots using the CRT display was superior to that using the conventional ILS instrument and comparable to that under VFR conditions. Pilot workload (based on pilot comments) was not clearly decreased.

Talbot, P. D.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Trajectory Prediction Accuracy and Error Sources for Regional Jet Descents: Results of a 2010 Flight Trial at Denver International Airport using SkyWest Revenue Flights - Part II

The Efficient Descent Advisor (EDA) controller automation tool generates trajectory-based speed, path, and altitude-profile advisories to facilitate efficient, continuous descents into congested terminal airspace. While prior field trials have assessed the trajectory prediction accuracy for large jet (i.e., Boeing and Airbus) types, smaller (i.e., regional and business) jet types present unique challenges involving different descent procedures and Flight Management System (FMS) capabilities. This paper quantifies the trajectory prediction accuracy for small jet revenue flight descents based on SkyWest Canadair Regional Jet 200, 700, and 900 aircraft arrivals to Denver in the fall of 2010. Post flight test data analysis and SkyWest pilot interviews uncovered unexpected variation between flight crews due to different interpretations of (1) which fixed flight path angle (FPA) to fly based on the flight trial procedure and (2) how to fly the descent to achieve the target FPA. Pilot reports were used to select a subset of flights where pilots indicated an FPA according to the flight trial procedure to remove the unexpected variation due to (1) to focus on (2). Results for the subset for en-route descents, from prior to top of descent to the meter fix 30 to 130 nmi downstream, indicate that aircraft arrived to the meter fix six seconds early with about a twelve second standard deviation. Large FPA errors up to one degree relative to the EDA flight trial procedure were detected after the flight trial as a characteristic of the unexpected variation. It is recommended that quantitative validation be performed during future flight trials so that experimental procedures can be adjusted if unexpected results are detected.

Field Test Results↗

NASA NTRS2002

Analysis of Small Aircraft as a Transportation System

An analysis was conducted to examine the market viability of small aircraft as a transportation mode in competition with automobile and scheduled commercial air travel by estimating the pool of users that would potentially switch to on-demand air travel due to cost/time savings. The basis for the analysis model was the Integrated Air Transportation System Evaluation Tool (IATSET) which was developed under contract to NASA by the Logistics Management Institute. IATSET is a macroeconomic model that predicts at a National level the mode choice between automobile, scheduled air, and on-demand air travel based on the value of a travelers time and monetary cost of the trip. A number of modifications are detailed to the original IATSET to better model the changing small aircraft environment. The potential trip market was modeled for the Eclipse 500 operated as a corporate jet and as an air taxi for the business travel market. The Cirrus 20R and a $80K single engine piston aircraft (based on automobile manufacturing technology) are evaluated in the pleasure and personal business travel market.

Dollyhigh, Samuel M.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Scuba Weights

The Attitude Adjuster is a system for weight repositioning corresponding to a SCUBA diver's changing positions. Compact tubes on the diver's air tank permit controlled movement of lead balls within the Adjuster, automatically repositioning when the diver changes position. Manufactured by Think Tank Technologies, the system is light and small, reducing drag and energy requirements and contributing to lower air consumption. The Mid-Continent Technology Transfer Center helped the company with both technical and business information and arranged for the testing at Marshall Space Flight Center's Weightlessness Environmental Training Facility for astronauts.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2003

Nanoscale Liquid Jets Shape New Line of Business

Just as a pistol shrimp stuns its prey by quickly closing its oversized claw to shoot out a shock-inducing, high-velocity jet of water, NanoMatrix, Inc., is sending shockwaves throughout the nanotechnology world with a revolutionary, small-scale fabrication process that uses powerful liquid jets to cut and shape objects. Emanuel Barros, a former project engineer at NASA s Ames Research Center, set out to form the Santa Cruz, California-based NanoMatrix firm and materialize the micro/nano cutting process partially inspired by the water-spewing crustacean. Early on in his 6-year NASA career, Barros led the development of re-flown flight hardware for an award-winning Spacelab project called NeuroLab. This project, the sixteenth and final Spacelab mission, focused on a series of experiments to determine the effects of microgravity on the development of the mammalian nervous system.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2001

Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Annual Report 1999

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located in the foothills near Pasadena, California, is the nation's lead center for the robotic exploration of space. Intense activity in space missions was the hallmark of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a new generation of smaller, less expensive spacecraft were sent out from Earth. From late 1998 to mid-1999, JPL launched a craft testing a futuristic ion engine, an orbiter and lander bound for Mars, a mission to fly by a comet and return a sample of its dust to Earth, a small infrared telescope, and an Earth-circling satellite that uses radar to gauge winds over the oceans. This unprecedented schedule resulted in spectacular achievements, tempered by highly visible mission losses. Weighed together, the successes and failures dramatically underscored the difficulty and risk involved in the unique business of space science and exploration. Among the achievements, the ion-engine-powered Deep Space 1, comet-bound Stardust and Earth-orbiting SeaWinds were joined by such ongoing missions as Mars Global Surveyor, Galileo and Cassini in delivering on their promise and, in some cases, providing surprising new views of space and Earth. At the same time, mission teams were disappointed by the losses of an orbiter and lander at Mars, as well as a small infrared telescope. JPL worked closely with NASA to learn from these experiences and build successful future missions. The Laboratory also achieved a key goal by winning the International Organization of Standards' 'ISO 9001' certification - a standard shared by the world's best engineering organizations. As the year rolled to a close, clocks rolled over from 1999 to 2000. Operations teams at JPL and NASA watched with satisfaction as a major campaign of Year 2000 readiness paid off with no problems among the thousands of computer systems that support the Laboratory's missions. With that auspicious beginning, JPL was positioned to step into the 21st century and embark on even yet unimagined future explorations.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)↗

NASA NTRS1974

Small V/STOL aircraft analysis, volume 1

A study has been made of the economic viability of advanced V/STOL aircraft concepts in performing general aviation missions. A survey of general aviation aircraft users, operators, and manufacturers indicated that personnel transport missions formulated around business executive needs, commuter air service, and offshore oil supply are the leading potential areas of application using VTOL aircraft. Advanced VTOL concepts potentially available in the late 1970 time period were evaluated as alternatives to privately owned contemporary aircraft and commercial airline service in satisfying these personnel transport needs. Economic analysis incorporating the traveler's value of time as the principle figure of merit were used to identify the relative merits of alternative VTOL air transportation concepts.

Smith, K. R., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Wake vortex encounter hazards criteria for two aircraft classes

An investigation was conducted using a piloted, motion-base simulator to determine wake vortex hazard criteria for two classes of jet transport aircraft. A light business jet and a large multiengine jet transport were represented respectively. The hazard boundaries were determined in terms of the maximum bank angle due to the vortex encounter. Upsets as small as 7 deg in bank angle were considered to be hazardous at breakout altitude (200 ft (61.0 m)) for Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) and at 50 ft (15.2 m) for Visual Flight Rule (VFR) for both aircraft classes. Proximity to the ground was the primary reason for a hazardous rating. This was reflected in the reduction in the maximum bank angle at the hazard boundary and in more consistent ratings as altitude was decreased.

Sammonds, R. I.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Visualizing Corridors in Terminal Airspace using Trajectory Clustering

Context: Advances in battery and automation technology have made routine air taxi and cargo transport in urban areas a business model that can be attained by emerging aviation innovators. The community vision and work to enable these novel operations is discussed using the term ‘Urban Air Mobility’ or UAM. Small, piloted, airspace vehicles that fly with a few passengers do operate in urban areas today, and these vehicles can be studied as an early proxy for this future UAM traffic. Aim: We seek to identify corridors already in daily operation and their properties. Method: We applied DBSCAN and HDBSCAN to Dallas Forth-Worth TRACON flight data to identify corridors in use, their density, and devised a method to annotate landing sites used in these corridors with site metadata. Results: While DBSCAN was unable to group similar trajectories, we we were able to successfully identify corridors using HDBSCAN, measure their density and annotate them. Conclusion: The applied method can successfully identify corridors in daily operation with additional metadata to help domain expert understand the intent of UAM corridors.

UAM, Trajectory, TRACON, Clustering, DBSCAN, HDBSC↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Visualizing Corridors in Terminal Airspace Using Trajectory Clustering

UAM Trajectory, TRACON, Clustering, DBSCAN, HDBSCA↗

NASA NTRS2000

National General Aviation Roadmap for a Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS)

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Federal Aviation Administration, as well as state, industry, and academia partners have joined forces to pursue the NASA National General Aviation Roadmap leading to a Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS). This long-term strategic undertaking has a goal to bring next-generation technologies and improve air access to small communities. The envisioned outcome is to improve travel between remote communities and transportation centers in urban areas by utilizing a new generation of single-pilot light planes for personal and business transportation between the nation's 5,400 public use general aviation airports. Current NASA investments in aircraft technologies are enabling industry to bring affordable, safe, and easy-to-use features to the marketplace, including "Highway in the Sky" glass cockpit operating capabilities, affordable crash worthy composite airframes, more efficient IFR flight training, and revolutionary engines. To facilitate this initiative, a comprehensive upgrade of public infrastructure must be planned, coordinated, and implemented within the framework of the national air transportation system. State partnerships are proposed to coordinate research support in key public infrastructure areas. Ultimately, SATS may permit more than tripling aviation system throughput capacity by tapping the under-utilized general aviation facilities to achieve the national goal of doorstep-to-destination travel at four times the speed of highways for the nation's suburban, rural, and remote communities.

Holmes, Bruce J.↗

NASA NTRS2015

A Review of Head-Worn Display Research at NASA Langley Research Center

NASA Langley has conducted research in the area of helmet-mounted/head-worn displays over the past 30 years. Initially, NASA Langley's research focused on military applications, but recently it has conducted a line of research in the area of head-worn displays for commercial and business aircraft. This work has revolved around numerous simulation experiments as well as flight tests to develop technology and data for industry and regulatory guidance. The paper summarizes the results of NASA's helmet-mounted/head-worn display research. Of note, the work tracks progress in wearable collimated optics, head tracking, latency reduction, and weight. The research lends credence that a small, sunglasses-type form factor of the head-worn display would be acceptable to commercial pilots, and this goal is now becoming technologically feasible. The research further suggests that a head-worn display may serve as an "equivalent" Head-Up Display (HUD) with safety, operational, and cost benefits. "HUD equivalence" appears to be the economic avenue by which head-worn displays can become main-stream on the commercial and business aircraft flight deck. If this happens, NASA's research suggests that additional operational benefits using the unique capabilities of the head-worn display can open up new operational paradigms.

Arthur, Jarvis (Trey) J., III↗

NASA NTRS1992

A simulated annealing approach to schedule optimization for the SES facility

The Shuttle Engineering Simulator (SES) is a facility which houses the software and hardware for a variety of simulation systems. The simulators include the Autonomous Remote Manipulator, the Manned Maneuvering Unit, Orbiter/Space Station docking, and shuttle entry and landing. The SES simulators are used by various groups throughout NASA. For example, astronauts use the SES to practice maneuvers with the shuttle equipment; programmers use the SES to test flight software; and engineers use the SES for design and analysis studies. Due to its high demand, the SES is busy twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. Scheduling the facility is a problem that is constantly growing and changing with the addition of new equipment. Currently a number of small independent programs have been developed to help solve the problem, but the long-term answer lies in finding a flexible, integrated system that provides the user with the ability to create, optimize, and edit the schedule. COMPASS is an interactive and highly flexible scheduling system. However, until recently COMPASS did not provide any optimization features. This paper describes the simulated annealing extension to COMPASS. It now allows the user to interweave schedule creation, revision, and optimization. This practical approach was necessary in order to satisfy the operational requirements of the SES.

Mcmahon, Mary Beth↗

NASA NTRS2008

Civil Service Workforce Market Supply and the Effect on Cost Estimating Relationship (CERS) that May Effect the Productivity Factors for Future NASA Missions

The upcoming retirement of the Baby Boomers will leave a workforce age gap between the younger generation (the future NASA decision makers) and the gray beards. This paper will reflect on the average age of the workforce across NASA Centers, the Aerospace Industry and other Government Agencies, like DoD. This paper will dig into Productivity and Realization Factors and how they get applied to bi-monthly (payroll) data for true full-time equivalent (FTE) calculations that could be used at each of the NASA Centers and other business systems that are on the forefront in being implemented. This paper offers some comparative costs analysis/solutions, from simple FTE cost-estimating relationships (CERs) versus CERs for monthly time-phasing activities for small research projects that start and get completed within a government fiscal year. This paper will present the results of a parametric study investigating the cost-effectiveness of alternative performance-based CERs and how they get applied into the Center's forward pricing rate proposals (FPRP). True CERs based on the relationship of a younger aged workforce will have some effects on labor rates used in both commercial cost models and other internal home-grown cost models which may impact the productivity factors for future NASA missions.

Sterk, Steve↗