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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 199 records · Page 11
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NASA NTRS1991

The development test flight of the flight telerobotic servicer

The Development Test Flight (DTF-1) is the first of two shuttle flights to test operations of the Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS) in space and to demonstrate its capabilities in performing tasks for Space Station Freedom. The DTF-1 system, which Martin Marietta Astronautics Group is designing and building for the Goddard Space Flight Center, will be flown in December, 1991, as an attached payload on the shuttle. The design of the DTF-1 system, the tests to be performed, and the data to be gathered are discussed.

Andary, J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Overview of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility aeronautical flight projects

Several principal aerodynamics flight projects of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility are discussed. Key vehicle technology areas from a wide range of flight vehicles are highlighted. These areas include flight research data obtained for ground facility and computation correlation, applied research in areas not well suited to ground facilities (wind tunnels), and concept demonstration.

Meyer, Robert R., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Overview of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility aeronautical flight projects testing

Several principal aeronautics flight projects of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility are discussed. Key vehicle technology areas from a wide range of flight vehicles are highlighted. These areas include flight research data obtained for ground facility and computation correlation, applied research in areas not well suited to ground facilities (wind tunnels), and concept demonstration.

Meyer, Robert R., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Flight crew sleep during multiple layover polar flights

This study investigated changes in sleep after multiple transmeridian flights. The subjects were 12 B747 airline pilots operating on the following polar flight: Tokyo (TYO)-Anchorage (ANC)-London (LON)-Anchorage-Tokyo. Sleep polysmonograms were recorded on two baseline nights (B1, B2), during layovers, and, after returning to Tokyo, two recovery nights were recorded (R1, R2). In ANC (outbound), total sleep time was reduced and, sleep efficiency was low (72.0 percent). In London, time in bed increased slightly, but sleep efficiency was still reduced. On return to ANC (inbound), there was considerable slow wave sleep rebound and multiple awakenings reduced sleep efficiency to 76.8 percent. Sleep efficiency on R2 was significantly lower than on B1 but not different from R1. To sum up, sleep of aircrews flying multiple transmeridian flights is disrupted during layovers and this effect persists during the two recovery nights. As a result, there is a marked cumulative sleep loss during multilegs polar route trip in comparison to single leg flights. These findings suggest that following such extensive transmeridian trips, crews should have at least three nights of recovery sleep in their home time zone before returning to duty.

Sasaki, Mitsuo↗
NASA NTRS1993

Preliminary flight test results of a fly-by-throttle emergency flight control system on an F-15 airplane

A multi-engine aircraft, with some or all of the flight control system inoperative, may use engine thrust for control. NASA Dryden has conducted a study of the capability and techniques for this emergency flight control method for the F-15 airplane. With an augmented control system, engine thrust, along with appropriate feedback parameters, is used to control flightpath and bank angle. Extensive simulation studies have been followed by flight tests. This paper discusses the principles of throttles-only control, the F-15 airplane, the augmented system, and the flight results including landing approaches with throttles-only control to within 10 ft of the ground.

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Preliminary Flight Results of a Fly-by-throttle Emergency Flight Control System on an F-15 Airplane

A multi-engine aircraft, with some or all of the flight control system inoperative, may use engine thrust for control. NASA Dryden has conducted a study of the capability and techniques for this emergency flight control method for the F-15 airplane. With an augmented control system, engine thrust, along with appropriate feedback parameters, is used to control flightpath and bank angle. Extensive simulation studies were followed by flight tests. The principles of throttles only control, the F-15 airplane, the augmented system, and the flight results including actual landings with throttles-only control are discussed.

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Vertical flight training: An overview of training and flight simulator technology with emphasis on rotary-wing requirements

The principal purpose of this publication is to provide a broad overview of the technology that is relevant to the design of aviation training systems and of the techniques applicable to the development, use, and evaluation of those systems. The issues addressed in our 11 chapters are, for the most part, those that would be expected to surface in any informed discussion of the major characterizing elements of aviation training systems. Indeed, many of the same facets of vertical-flight training discussed were recognized and, to some extent, dealt with at the 1991 NASA/FAA Helicopter Simulator Workshop. These generic topics are essential to a sound understanding of training and training systems, and they quite properly form the basis of any attempt to systematize the development and evaluation of more effective, more efficient, more productive, and more economical approaches to aircrew training. Individual chapters address the following topics: an overview of the vertical flight industry: the source of training requirements; training and training schools: meeting current requirements; training systems design and development; transfer of training and cost-effectiveness; the military quest for flight training effectiveness; alternative training systems; training device manufacturing; simulator aero model implementation; simulation validation in the frequency domain; cockpit motion in helicopter simulation; and visual space perception in flight simulators.

Alderete, Thomas S.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Women in Flight Research at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center from 1946 to 1995: Monographs in Aerospace History - Number 6

This monograph discusses the working and living environment of women involved with flight research at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The women engineers, their work and the airplanes they worked on from 1960 to December 1995 are highlighted. The labor intensive data gathering and analysis procedures and instrumentation used before the age of digital computers are explained by showing and describing typical instrumentation found on the X-series aircraft from the X-1 through the X-15. The data reduction technique used to obtain the Mach number position error curve for the X-1 aircraft and which documents the historic first flight to exceed the speed of sound is described and a Mach number and altitude plot from an X-15 flight is shown.

Powers, Sheryll Goecke↗
NASA NTRS1998

Recent Flight Test Results of the Joint CIAM-NASA Mach 6.5 Scramjet Flight Program

Under a contract with NASA, a joint Central Institute of Aviation Motors (CIAM) and NASA team recently conducted the fourth flight test of a dual-mode scramjet aboard the CIAM Hypersonic Flying Laboratory, 'Kholod'. With an aim test Mach 6.5 objective, the successful launch was conducted at the Sary Shagan test range in central Kazakstan on February 12, 1998. Ground-launch, rocket boosted by a modified Russian SA5 missile, the redesigned scramjet was accelerated to a new maximum velocity greater than Mach 6.4. This launch allowed for the measurement of the fully supersonic combustion mode under actual flight conditions. The primary program objective was the flight-to-ground correlation of measured data with preflight analysis and wind-tunnel tests in Russia and potentially in the United States. This paper describes the development and objectives of the program as well as the technical details of the scramjet and SA5 redesign to achieve the Mach 6.5 aim test condition. An overview of the launch operation is also given. Finally, preliminary flight test results are presented and discussed.

Roudakov, Alexander S.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Performance Modeling of a Pilot in a Free Flight Mode: A Free Flight Self-Separation Cancellations Due to the Requirement for Procedural Intervention - 1

Developments are being made that allow pilots to have more flexibility over the control of their aircraft. This new concept is called Free Flight. Free Flight strives to move the current air traffic system into an age where space technology is used to its fullest potential. Self-separation is one part of the Free Flight system. Self-separation provides pilots the opportunity to choose their own route to reach a specified destination provided that they maintain the 'minimum required separation distance between airplanes. In the event that pilots are unable to maintain separation, controllers will need to have the aircraft separation authority passed back to them. This situation is known as a procedural intervention point. This project attempted to examine and diagnose those particular situations in an effort to avoid reaching a procedural intervention point in the near future. Crews that reached procedural intervention points were compared with crews that made similar maneuver types in the same scenario, but did not reach procedural intervention points. Results showed that there were no significant differences between crews in a high-density acute angle flight conditions. However, significant differences in maneuver times, following the detection of an intruder aircraft and following the time the intruder aircraft came into view, were found in a low-density, acute angle scenario.

Ntuen, Celestine A.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Flight Control Overview of STS-88, the First Space Station Assembly Flight

When the Space Shuttle Endeavour undocked from the Zarya/Unity configuration on STS-88 it marked the completion of the most challenging shuttle mission to date and the beginning of an enormous task of assembling the International Space Station. The flight offered an array of complex dynamics and control related challenges to mate the American module 'Unity' to the Russian module 'Zarya'. Capability demonstrated on the flight included closed-loop thruster control in the presence of low frequency structural dynamics and mated-vehicle translational maneuvers in the presence of structural loads and thruster hardware constraints. The flight was a complete success from all aspects. This paper will give an overview of the flight control challenges encountered and the actual control performance observed for the on-orbit operations. Included will be the shuttle analysis and filtering strategies to ensure control system stability in the presence of low frequency flex-body dynamics.

Hall, Robert↗
NASA NTRS2001

Data Mining of NASA Boeing 737 Flight Data: Frequency Analysis of In-Flight Recorded Data

Data recorded during flights of the NASA Trailblazer Boeing 737 have been analyzed to ascertain the presence of aircraft structural responses from various excitations such as the engine, aerodynamic effects, wind gusts, and control system operations. The NASA Trailblazer Boeing 737 was chosen as a focus of the study because of a large quantity of its flight data records. The goal of this study was to determine if any aircraft structural characteristics could be identified from flight data collected for measuring non-structural phenomena. A number of such data were examined for spatial and frequency correlation as a means of discovering hidden knowledge of the dynamic behavior of the aircraft. Data recorded from on-board dynamic sensors over a range of flight conditions showed consistently appearing frequencies. Those frequencies were attributed to aircraft structural vibrations.

Butterfield, Ansel J.↗
NASA NTRS2001

A Post-Flight Comparison Between GPS Signal Generator and On-Orbit Testing Results from the STS-101 and STS-106 SOAR Shuttle Flight Experiment

The use of a GPS Signal Generator (GPSSG) prior to launch for verification of a GPS subsystem and GN&C system on a spacecraft is becoming a very common practice. The level of confidence in the verification created by running a receiver with a GPSSG can greatly impact both schedule and cost of spacecraft development. This paper addresses the comparison of the Space Shuttle STS-101 and STS-106 Space Integrated GPS/INS (SIGI) Orbital Attitude Readiness (SOAR) flight experiments on-orbit performance with the performance from the same receiver on a Global Simulation Systems (GSS) GPSSG. The SOAR flight experiment was designed to demonstrate on-orbit performance of the International Space Station Force-19 GPS receiver. This paper discusses the process involved in getting the post-flight Best Estimate of Trajectory and Best Estimate of Attitude into the GPSSG such that the Force-19 receiver will experience the same trajectory and environmental conditions as observed during the SOAR flight experiment. Results of the comparison conclude with recommendations of how better to construct and interpret results from receiver tests using a GSS GPSSG.

Simpson, James↗
NASA NTRS2000

Flight-Test Validation and Flying Qualities Evaluation of a Rotorcraft UAV Flight Control System

This paper presents a process of design and flight-test validation and flying qualities evaluation of a flight control system for a rotorcraft-based unmanned aerial vehicle (RUAV). The keystone of this process is an accurate flight-dynamic model of the aircraft, derived by using system identification modeling. The model captures the most relevant dynamic features of our unmanned rotorcraft, and explicitly accounts for the presence of a stabilizer bar. Using the identified model we were able to determine the performance margins of our original control system and identify limiting factors. The performance limitations were addressed and the attitude control system was 0ptimize.d for different three performance levels: slow, medium, fast. The optimized control laws will be implemented in our RUAV. We will first determine the validity of our control design approach by flight test validating our optimized controllers. Subsequently, we will fly a series of maneuvers with the three optimized controllers to determine the level of flying qualities that can be attained. The outcome enable us to draw important conclusions on the flying qualities requirements for small-scale RUAVs.

Mettler, Bernard↗
NASA NTRS2004

Flight Test Results for the F-16XL With a Digital Flight Control System

In the early 1980s, two F-16 airplanes were modified to extend the fuselage length and incorporate a large area delta wing planform. These two airplanes, designated the F-16XL, were designed by the General Dynamics Corporation (now Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems) (Fort Worth, Texas) and were prototypes for a derivative fighter evaluation program conducted by the United States Air Force. Although the concept was never put into production, the F-16XL prototypes provided a unique planform for testing concepts in support of future high-speed supersonic transport aircraft. To extend the capabilities of this testbed vehicle the F-16XL ship 1 aircraft was upgraded with a digital flight control system. The added flexibility of a digital flight control system increases the versatility of this airplane as a testbed for aerodynamic research and investigation of advanced technologies. This report presents the handling qualities flight test results covering the envelope expansion of the F-16XL with the digital flight control system.

Stachowiak, Susan J.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Flight Simulator Evaluation of Synthetic Vision Display Concepts to Prevent Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT)

In commercial aviation, over 30-percent of all fatal accidents worldwide are categorized as Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) accidents, where a fully functioning airplane is inadvertently flown into the ground. The major hypothesis for a simulation experiment conducted at NASA Langley Research Center was that a Primary Flight Display (PFD) with synthetic terrain will improve pilots ability to detect and avoid potential CFITs compared to conventional instrumentation. All display conditions, including the baseline, contained a Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS) and Vertical Situation Display (VSD) enhanced Navigation Display (ND). Each pilot flew twenty-two approach departure maneuvers in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) to the terrain challenged Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE) in Colorado. For the final run, flight guidance cues were altered such that the departure path went into terrain. All pilots with a synthetic vision system (SVS) PFD (twelve of sixteen pilots) noticed and avoided the potential CFIT situation. The four pilots who flew the anomaly with the conventional baseline PFD configuration (which included a TAWS and VSD enhanced ND) had a CFIT event. Additionally, all the SVS display concepts enhanced the pilot s situational awareness, decreased workload and improved flight technical error (FTE) compared to the baseline configuration.

Arthur, Jarvis J., III↗
NASA NTRS2005

The X-43A Hyper-X Mach 7 Flight 2 Guidance, Navigation, and Control Overview and Flight Test Results

The objective of the Hyper-X program was to flight demonstrate an airframe-integrated hypersonic vehicle. On March 27, 2004, the Hyper-X program team successfully conducted flight 2 and achieved all of the research objectives. The Hyper-X research vehicle successfully separated from the Hyper-X launch vehicle and achieved the desired engine test conditions before the experiment began. The research vehicle rejected the disturbances caused by the cowl door opening and the fuel turning on and off and maintained the engine test conditions throughout the experiment. After the engine test was complete, the vehicle recovered and descended along a trajectory while performing research maneuvers. The last data acquired showed that the vehicle maintained control to the water. This report will provide an overview of the research vehicle guidance and control systems and the performance of the vehicle during the separation event and engine test. The research maneuvers were performed to collect data for aerodynamics and flight controls research. This report also will provide an overview of the flight controls related research and results.

Bahm, Catherine↗
NASA NTRS2006

Lessons Learned and Flight Results from the F15 Intelligent Flight Control System Project

A viewgraph presentation on the lessons learned and flight results from the F15 Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) project is shown. The topics include: 1) F-15 IFCS Project Goals; 2) Motivation; 3) IFCS Approach; 4) NASA F-15 #837 Aircraft Description; 5) Flight Envelope; 6) Limited Authority System; 7) NN Floating Limiter; 8) Flight Experiment; 9) Adaptation Goals; 10) Handling Qualities Performance Metric; 11) Project Phases; 12) Indirect Adaptive Control Architecture; 13) Indirect Adaptive Experience and Lessons Learned; 14) Gen II Direct Adaptive Control Architecture; 15) Current Status; 16) Effect of Canard Multiplier; 17) Simulated Canard Failure Stab Open Loop; 18) Canard Multiplier Effect Closed Loop Freq. Resp.; 19) Simulated Canard Failure Stab Open Loop with Adaptation; 20) Canard Multiplier Effect Closed Loop with Adaptation; 21) Gen 2 NN Wts from Simulation; 22) Direct Adaptive Experience and Lessons Learned; and 23) Conclusions

Bosworth, John↗