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NASA NTRS1996

The smart highway project: Smart highways, smart vehicles, smart engineering

The Smart Highway project is a six mile, limited access roadway being built between Interstate 81 and Blacksburg, Virginia. The initial construction segment will be two miles long and is designed to serve as a test bed and test track for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) research. The Center for Transportation Research (CTR) at Virginia Tech is developing three evaluation tools for its ITS research including DYNAVIMTS (a software framework), and the FLASH Lab (a 1/15th scale model highway and vehicle system). The Smart Highway rounds out the Center's evaluation methodology by allowing full scale operational tests, evaluations, and research under both experimental and conventional traffic conditions. Currently under development is a concept for a fully automated highway using a 'Cooperative Infrastructure Managed System' which involves ultra wide band communication beacons installed in the infrastructure with appropriate sensors, receivers and processors on board the vehicles. The project is part of the research program funded by the National Automated Highway System Consortium. The CTR hopes to develop the automated concept to prototype status by 1997. Other smart transportation and smart engineering concepts are proposed. This presentation will address the goals and objectives of the Smart Highway project, overview its status and importance to the region, and identify some of the transportation technology now under development and planned in the future.

Pethtel, Ray D.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Core Noise: Implications of Emerging N+3 Designs and Acoustic Technology Needs

This presentation is a summary of the core-noise implications of NASA's primary N+3 aircraft concepts. These concepts are the MIT/P&W D8.5 Double Bubble design, the Boeing/GE SUGAR Volt hybrid gas-turbine/electric engine concept, the NASA N3-X Turboelectric Distributed Propulsion aircraft, and the NASA TBW-XN Truss-Braced Wing concept. The first two are future concepts for the Boeing 737/Airbus A320 US transcontinental mission of 180 passengers and a maximum range of 3000 nm. The last two are future concepts for the Boeing 777 transpacific mission of 350 passengers and a 7500 nm range. Sections of the presentation cover: turbofan design trends on the N+1.5 time frame and the already emerging importance of core noise; the NASA N+3 concepts and associated core-noise challenges; the historical trends for the engine bypass ratio (BPR), overall pressure ratio (OPR), and combustor exit temperature; and brief discussion of a noise research roadmap being developed to address the core-noise challenges identified for the N+3 concepts. The N+3 conceptual aircraft have (i) ultra-high bypass ratios, in the rage of 18 - 30, accomplished by either having a small-size, high-power-density core, an hybrid design which allows for an increased fan size, or by utilizing a turboelectric distributed propulsion design; and (ii) very high OPR in the 50 - 70 range. These trends will elevate the overall importance of turbomachinery core noise. The N+3 conceptual designs specify the need for the development and application of advanced liners and passive and active control strategies to reduce the core noise. Current engineering prediction of core noise uses semi-empirical methods based on older turbofan engines, with (at best) updates for more recent designs. The models have not seen the same level of development and maturity as those for fan and jet noise and are grossly inadequate for the designs considered for the N+3 time frame. An aggressive program for the development of updated noise prediction tools for integrated core assemblies as well as and strategies for noise reduction and control is needed in order to meet the NASA N+3 noise goals. The NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program has the principal objective of overcoming today's national challenges in air transportation. The SFW Reduced-Perceived-Noise Technical Challenge aims to develop concepts and technologies to dramatically reduce the perceived aircraft noise outside of airport boundaries. This reduction of aircraft noise is critical to enabling the anticipated large increase in future air traffic.

Hultgren, Lennart S.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Quiet Cruise Efficient Short Take-off and Landing Subsonic Transport System

This NASA funded study conceived a revolutionary airplane concept to enable future traffic growth by using regional air space. This requires a very quiet airplane with STOL capability. Starting with a Blended Wing Body that is cruise efficient with inherent low noise characteristics from forward noise shielding and void of aft downward noise reflections, integration of embedded distributed propulsion enables incorporation of the revolutionary concept for jet noise shielding. Embedded distributed propulsion also enables incorporation of a fan bleed internally blown flap for quiet powered lift. The powered lift provides STOL capability for operation at regional airports with rapid take-off and descent to further reduce flyover noise. This study focused on configuring the total engine noise shielding STOL concept with a BWB airplane using the Boeing Phantom Works WingMOD multidisciplinary optimization code to define a planform that is pitch controllable. The configuration was then sized and mission data developed to enable NASA to assess the flyover and sideline noise. The foundational technologies needed are identified including military dual use benefits.

Kawai, Ron↗

NASA NTRS1990

Investigation of air transportation technology at Princeton University, 1988-1989

The Air Transportation Technology Program at Princeton University, a program emphasizing graduate and undergraduate student research, proceeded along several avenues during the past year. A study of optimal trajectories for penetration of microbursts when encounter is unavoidable was conducted. The emphasis of current wind shear research is on developing an expert system for wind shear avoidance. A knowledge-based reconfigurable flight control system that is implemented with the Pascal programming language using parallel microprocessors was developed. This expert system could be considered a prototype for a failure-tolerant control system that can be constructed using existing hardware. Development of a real-time cockpit simulator continued during the year. The simulator provides a single-person crew station with both conventional and advanced control devices; it currently is programmed to simulate the Navion single-engine general aviation airplane. Alternatives for the air traffic control system giving particular attention to the institutional structure of the FAA are analyzed. A simple numerical procedure for estimating the stochastic robustness of control systems is being investigated. The revitalization of the general aviation industry is also discussed.

Stengel, Robert F.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Metrics for Operator Situation Awareness, Workload, and Performance in Automated Separation Assurance Systems

A research consortium of scientists and engineers from California State University Long Beach (CSULB), San Jose State University Foundation (SJSUF), California State University Northridge (CSUN), Purdue University, and The Boeing Company was assembled to evaluate the impact of changes in roles and responsibilities and new automated technologies, being introduced in the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), on operator situation awareness (SA) and workload. To meet these goals, consortium members performed systems analyses of NextGen concepts and airspace scenarios, and concurrently evaluated SA, workload, and performance measures to assess their appropriateness for evaluations of NextGen concepts and tools. The following activities and accomplishments were supported by the NRA: a distributed simulation, metric development, systems analysis, part-task simulations, and large-scale simulations. As a result of this NRA, we have gained a greater understanding of situation awareness and its measurement, and have shared our knowledge with the scientific community. This network provides a mechanism for consortium members, colleagues, and students to pursue research on other topics in air traffic management and aviation, thus enabling them to make greater contributions to the field

Strybel, Thomas Z.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Combustion and Emissions Analysis of Alternatives

NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate requested an analysis of alternatives (AoA) study on the following three competencies in 2020: subsonic transport acoustics, combustion and emissions, and aircraft icing. This presentation will address details specific to the combustion and emissions analysis of alternatives study. The basic process used for during the AoA study in shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Flow chart of the Analysis of Alternative process used in this study. The combustion study team was multidisciplinary, including a wide range perspectives and areas of expertise. Inputs were collected from within NASA and a wide range of external stakeholders, including aircraft engine companies, aircraft airframe companies and other government agencies. Eight future realities for aviation were developed in preparation for the applying the AoA process, such as future realities with increased or decrease airline traffic, greater emissions stringency, or a revolution in energy infrastructure (such as hydrogen usage). Based on the inputs collected, over seventy technical elements applicable to combustion and emissions research were developed. To rank the importance of these technical elements for each future reality, a set of evaluation criterion were developed that can be generally characterized as environmental impacts, technologies enabling reduced fuel burn, and elements requiring significant NASA involvement or having significant industry pull. Using in-house codes to apply the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) methodology, as well performing consistency checks and other analysis by the study team, a ranked set of technical elements was generated. Several research needs were identified and analyzed to determine the highest priorities for potential research by NASA in the combustion and emissions area. Results from the study will be presented.

combustion↗

NASA NTRS2011

Full-Scale Turbofan-Engine Turbine-Transfer Function Determination Using Three Internal Sensors

Existing NASA/Honeywell EVNERT full-scale static engine test data is analyzed by using source-separation techniques in order to determine the turbine transfer of the currently sub-dominant combustor noise. The results are used to assess the combustor-noise prediction capability of the Aircraft Noise Prediction Program (ANOPP). Time-series data from three sensors internal to the Honeywell TECH977 research engine is used in the analysis. The true combustor-noise turbine-transfer function is educed by utilizing a new three-signal approach. The resulting narrowband gain factors are compared with the corresponding constant values obtained from two empirical acoustic-turbine-loss formulas. It is found that a simplified Pratt & Whitney formula agrees better with the experimental results for frequencies of practical importance. The 130 deg downstream-direction far-field 1/3-octave sound-pressure levels (SPL) results of Hultgren & Miles are reexamined using a post-correction of their ANOPP predictions for both the total noise signature and the combustion-noise component. It is found that replacing the standard ANOPP turbine-attenuation function for combustion noise with the simplified Pratt & Whitney formula clearly improves the predictions. It is recommended that the GECOR combustion-noise module in ANOPP be updated to allow for a user-selectable switch between the current transmission-loss model and the simplified Pratt & Whitney formula. The NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program has the principal objective of overcoming today's national challenges in air transportation. The Subsonic Fixed Wing Project's Reduce-Perceived-Noise Technical Challenge aims to develop concepts and technologies to dramatically reduce the perceived aircraft noise outside of airport boundaries. The reduction of aircraft noise is critical to enabling the anticipated large increase in future air traffic.

Hultgren, Lennart S.↗

NASA NTRS1992

TBD(exp 3)

When asked by the Aeronautical Engineering staff to design a viable supersonic commercial transport, most of the students were well aware that Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and other aircraft companies had been studying a cadre of transports for more than 30 years and had yet to present a viable aircraft. In the spirit of aviation progress and with much creative license, the TBD design team spearheaded the problem with the full intention of presenting a marketable high speed civil transport in spring of 1992. The project commenced with various studies of future market demands. With the market expansion of American business overseas, the airline industry projects a boom of over 200 million passengers by the year 2000. This will create a much higher demand for time efficient and cost effective inter-continental travel; this is the challenge of the high speed civil transport. The TBD(exp 3), a 269 passenger, long-range civil transport was designed to cruise at Mach 3.0 utilizing technology predicted to be available in 2005. Unlike other contemporary commercial airplane designs, the TBD(exp 3) incorporates a variable geometry wing for optimum performance. This design characteristic enabled the TBD(exp 3) to be efficient in both subsonic and supersonic flight. The TBD(exp 3) was designed to be economically viable for commercial airline purchase, be comfortable for passengers, meet FAR Part 25, and the current FAR 36 Stage 3 noise requirements. The TBD(exp 3) was designed to exhibit a long service life, maximize safety, ease of maintenance, as well as be fully compatible with all current high-traffic density airport facilities.

Baughan, Jim↗

NASA NTRS2008

Aircraft System Analysis of Technology Benefits to Civil Transport Rotorcraft

An aircraft systems analysis was conducted to evaluate the net benefits of advanced technologies on two conceptual civil transport rotorcraft, to quantify the potential of future civil rotorcraft to become operationally viable and economically competitive, with the ultimate goal of alleviating congestion in our airways, runways and terminals. These questions are three of many that must be resolved for the successful introduction of civil transport rotorcraft: 1) Can civil transport rotorcraft actually relieve current airport congestion and improve overall air traffic and passenger throughput at busy hub airports? What is that operational scenario? 2) Can advanced technology make future civil rotorcraft economically competitive in scheduled passenger transport? What are those enabling technologies? 3) What level of investment is necessary to mature the key enabling technologies? This study addresses the first two questions, and several others, by applying a systems analysis approach to a broad spectrum of potential advanced technologies at a conceptual level of design. The method was to identify those advanced technologies that showed the most promise and to quantify their benefits to the design, development, production, and operation of future civil rotorcraft. Adjustments are made to sizing data by subject matter experts to reflect the introduction of new technologies that offer improved performance, reduced weight, reduced maintenance, or reduced cost. This study used projected benefits from new, advanced technologies, generally based on research results, analysis, or small-scale test data. The technologies are identified, categorized and quantified in the report. The net benefit of selected advanced technologies is quantified for two civil transport rotorcraft concepts, a Single Main Rotor Compound (SMRC) helicopter designed for 250 ktas cruise airspeed and a Civil Tilt Rotor (CTR) designed for 350 ktas cruise airspeed. A baseline design of each concept was sized for a representative civil passenger transport mission, using current technology. Individual advanced technologies are quantified and applied to resize the aircraft, thereby quantifying the net benefit of that technology to the rotorcraft. Estimates of development cost, production cost and operating and support costs are made with a commercial cost estimating program, calibrated to Boeing products with adjustments for future civil production processes. A cost metric of cash direct operating cost per available seat-mile (DOC ASM) is used to compare the cost benefit of the technologies. The same metric is used to compare results with turboprop operating costs. Reduced engine SFC was the most advantageous advanced technology for both rotorcraft concepts. Structural weight reduction was the second most beneficial technology, followed by advanced drive systems and then by technology for rotorcraft performance. Most of the technologies evaluated in this report should apply similarly to conventional helicopters. The implicit assumption is that resources will become available to mature the technologies for fullscale production aircraft. That assumption is certainly the weak link in any forecast of future possibilities. The analysis serves the purpose of identifying which technologies offer the most potential benefit, and thus the ones that should receive the highest priority for continued development. This study directly addressed the following NASA Subsonic Rotary Wing (SRW) subtopics: SR W.4.8.I.J Establish capability for rotorcraft system analysis and SRW. 4.8.I.4 Conduct limited technology benefit assessment on baseline rotorcraft configurations.

Wilkerson, Joseph B.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Designing for Advanced Aerial Mobility: Human-Autonomy Teaming and In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance

The continued growth of aviation shall require new innovative technologies and operational concepts to meet the ever-increasing demands on air transportation. The NASA Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) project focuses on emerging aviation markets, such as Urban Air Mobility (UAM). UAM is defined as “...a safe and efficient system for air passenger and cargo transportation within an urban area. It is inclusive of small package delivery and other urban unmanned aerial system services and supports a mix of onboard/ground-piloted and increasingly autonomous operations” ([1]). The AAM project emphasizes technology development and validating system-level concepts and solutions in coordination with other NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) projects to enable UAM metro- and micro-plex vertiport and airspace concepts of operations. The NASA AAM research portfolio includes the concepts of Remote Supervisor-in-Command (RSC) and Fleet and Airspace Manager (FAM) as possible human roles for consumer fleet providers. NASA research in RSC is focused on development of guidelines and standards for remote pilots/operators passively and actively controlling a large fleet of autonomous aircraft. For FAM, flight and ground system concepts and technologies to enable high density homogeneous operations at increased scale from vertiport(s), and coordination with other humans in the systems (e.g., UAM urban airspace manager, Air Traffic Control) are key research areas. The envisioned UAM operations are posited to require autonomous systems to enable functions ranging from fleet and resource management to vehicle control. Although automation has become increasingly sophisticated and ubiquitous in civil aviation, autonomy represents a significant evolution in automation, which has generally been limited in functional scope and capability. As autonomy takes on increasing responsibilities, humans and machines will be required to work together in new and different ways [2], rather than traditional design approaches focused on how machines (i.e., autonomy) can do the work of people. The emerging field of human-autonomy teaming (HAT) represents a comprehensive and prioritized research-driven approach to enable the success of future emerging aviation market applications through capabilities and principles that facilitate humans and machine working and thinking better together. The NASA Transformational Tools and Technologies (TTT) Autonomous System (AS) Sub-project was created to assist with the transition into higher levels of autonomy to enable new modes of air transportation, such as UAM. TTT-AS has identified HAT as a key research need to enable UAM while maintaining today’s ultra-safe aviation system safety levels. The latter challenge has been taken up by the NASA System-Wide Safety (SWS) Project, which recognizes that aviation safety, as it evolves, shall require new ways of thinking about safety to include integration of a wide-range of existing and new safety systems and practices, enhanced tools and technologies, increased access to data and data fusion, improved data analysis capabilities, enhanced in-time risk monitoring and detection, hazard prioritization and mitigation, safety assurance decision-support, and in-time integrated system analytics [3].The operational concept of UAM represents a variety of work that has been termed, “work-as-imagined” to characterize the idea that how people think that work is done and how work is actually done are often not the same [4]. To ensure design success and system safety, looking at “work-as-done” provides a comparative approach toward UAM concept and technology design through examination of corresponding analogs found today in aviation (e.g., on-demand operations) and other transportation domains (e.g., port operations). The paper shall discuss various alternative applications with specific focus on airline operation center (AOC) operations, and unmanned aerial system (UAS) command-and-control to inform scaled-versions of FAM and RSC, respectively, and with consideration of the national airspace system contextual environment. The tenets and principles of the HAT field and current NASA research efforts under the TTT-AS sub-project shall also be described. Finally, the SWS sub-project efforts to develop In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) and In-Time Safety Management Systems (IASMS) are discussed in terms of how “in-time” safety assurance may be conceptualized for the on-demand mobility air taxi “work-as-imagined” operational concept [5]. As part of this effort, concepts from the emerging field of resilience engineering, are being studied. Traditional approaches to aviation safety have focused on what can go wrong and how to prevent it. Another approach to thinking about system safety should reflect not only “avoiding things that go wrong” (protective safety) but also “ensuring that things go right” (productive safety), that enables a system to exhibit the resilient performance [6] necessary for the success of the future aviation system emerging concepts of operations. The paper shall describe efforts focused on how productive safety and resilience may enable a more complete approach to system safety thinking and design of ISSA and IASMS for UAM. Future directions and research needs shall also be discussed.

resilience↗

NASA NTRS2020

UAM Vision Concept of Operations (ConOps) UAM Maturity Level (UML) 4

This Vision ConOps is intended as a foundation to engage members of the UAM community and provide a consensus on the future vision of UAM operations. It provides a concept for more detailed discussion and a basis for the exploration of ideas using a common framework to inform the continued development and integration of UAM as part of the broader transportation system. Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) encompasses a range of innovative aviation technologies (small drones, electric aircraft, automated air traffic management, etc.) that are transforming aviation’s role in everyday life, including the movement of goods and people. Urban Air Mobility (UAM) represents one of the most exciting and complex AAM concepts with highly automated aircraft, providing commercial services to the public over densely populated cities. This concept has generated tremendous interest and industry investment. UAM envisages a future in which advanced technologies and new operational procedures enable practical, cost-effective air travel as an integral mode of transportation in metropolitan areas. It represents one of the most exciting and complex AAM concepts with highly automated aircraft providing commercial services to the public over densely populated cities. For this reason, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) selected UAM as the initial goal of its AAM efforts and the focus of this Vision Concept of Operations (ConOps) document. UAM Community Vision ConOps: This Vision ConOps effort was led by experts from NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Deloitte’s Ecosystem Advisory Group (a cohort of advisers with aviation, aerospace, and regulatory expertise). To develop this Vision ConOps, NASA, FAA, and Deloitte built upon the current body of aeronautical research and consulted with more than 100 stakeholder organizations. This UAM community includes entities ranging from legacy aviation leaders to innovators and new market entrants. Stakeholders consulted included the federal government, state and local government, aerospace original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), local transportation organizations, prospective UAM operators, academia, industry standards-setting bodies, airports, service suppliers, and others (as described in Appendix G). This input was captured through the following methods: • A series of more than two dozen interviews with industry experts, federal regulators, state and local governments, and industry trade groups provided insight into the challenges of UAM integration into the National Airspace System (NAS), as well as technology developments and a variety of perspectives as to how UAM systems will integrate. • A series of two-day community workshops enabling active, detailed engagement of nearly 100 industry, academic, federal, and state stakeholder individuals. These workshops, hosted by NASA and Deloitte, explored UAM concepts in detail, and stakeholders were invited to collaboratively analyze and propose solutions to some of the greatest conceptual challenges behind UAM at an intermediate state. • A review of more than 160 sources of UAM literature from across government, industry, and academia, which are listed in Appendix H. • The public sharing of workshop input and document drafts for review and input across the UAM community. Feedback in the form of more than 1,000 comments and inputs on the document was received from industry groups, individual companies, academia, and government (federal, state, and local), among others. Although effort was made to incorporate inputs from across the UAM stakeholder group, not all comments could ultimately be incorporated in this version. The team resolved conflicting comments or ideas while maintaining consistency with the known direction of regulators and ensuring the document was coherent and consistent. It is recognized that this is a rapidly evolving area and that concepts will likely change over time; as such, this Vision ConOps is a living document and is expected to evolve as concepts mature. The ConOps does, however, provide a vision of UAM concepts and solutions based on the broad insights from across the UAM stakeholder community at the time of its publication and is intended to serve as a UAM North Star for continued research and development of UAM. As a broad Vision ConOps, is not a detailed engineering document; rather, it focuses primarily on outlining a broad, high-level vision across all aspects of a UAM transportation system.

Urban Air Mobility↗