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NASA’s first all-electric experimental airplane! Some primary goals the X-57 has include reducing the energy required in flight; Use existing state-of-the-art technology; Learn about the integration challenges of electric aircraft.
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In todays cost-constrained environment, NASA needs an X-Plane database and parametric cost model that can quickly provide rough order of magnitude predictions of cost from initial concept to first fight of potential X-Plane aircraft. This paper takes a look at the steps taken in developing such a model and reports the results. The challenges encountered in the collection of historical data and recommendations for future database management are discussed. A step-by-step discussion of the development of Cost Estimating Relationships (CERs) is then covered.
For a while, it seemed the series of experimental aircraft sponsored by the Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had run its course. Between the late 1940s and the late 1970s, almost thirty designations had been allocated to aircraft meant to explore new flight regimes or untried technologies. Then, largely, it ended. But there was a resurgence in the mid- to late-1990s, and as we enter the year 2000 the designations are up to X-45. Many have a misconception that X-Planes have always explored the high-speed and high-altitude flight regimes, something popularized by Chuck Yeager in the original X-1 and the exploits of the twelve men that flew the X-15. Although these flight regimes have always been in the spotlight, many others have been explored by X-Planes. The little Bensen X-25 never exceeded 85 mph, and others were limited to speeds of several hundred mph. There has been some criticism that the use of X designations has been corrupted somewhat by including what are essentially prototypes of future operational aircraft, especially the two JSF demonstrators. But this is not new-the X-11 and X-12 from the 1950s were going to be prototypes of the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile, and the still-born Lockheed X-27 was always intended as a prototype of a production aircraft. So although this practice does not represent the best use of X designations it is not without precedent. This document is an inventory of the experimental aircraft starting with the X-1 aircraft and ending with the X-45 aircraft.
The most recently designed X-30 (National Aerospace Plane) is described. The video feature also chronicles the development of the X-plane series, beginning with the X-1.
A look at the research aircraft flown by NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), since the 1940's reveals an evolution of wing designs. In fact, each of the first series of NACA experimental research aircraft ("X-planes") used different wing and tail configurations to tackle the problems of supersonic flight, These early jet aircraft had straight wings (X-1), wings that angled (swept) toward the tail (X-2), triangular (delta) wings (XF-92), and wings that could be moved in flight to change the angle of backward sweep (X-5). Each design added to our knowledge of high-speed flight.
This paper describes the development of a new high strength and Hydrogen Peroxide (HP) propellant compatible aluminum alloy for NASA Hyper-X vehicle's fuel tanks and structures. The tensile strength of the new alloy is more than 3 times stronger than the conventional 5254 alloy while it still maintains HP compatibility similar to 5254 (Class 1 category). The alloy development strategy consists of selecting certain rare earth and transition metals, with unique electrochemical properties, that will not act as catalysts to decompose liquid HP at the atomic level. Such elements will added to the aluminum alloy and the mixture will be cast and rolled into thin sheet metals. Test coupons are machined from sheet metals for HP long-term exposure testing and mechanical properties testing. In addition, the ability to weld the new alloy using Friction Stir Welding has also been explored. Currently, aluminum alloy 5254 is the state-of-the-art material for HP storage, but its yield strength is very low (420 ksi) and may not be suitable for the development of light-weight fuel tanks for Hyper-X vehicles. The new high strength and HP compatible alloy could represent an enabling material technology for NASA's Hyper-X vehicles, where flight weight reduction is a critical requirement. These X-planes are currently under studied as air-breathing hypersonic research vehicles featuring a lifting body configuration with a Rocket Based Combined Cycle (RBCC) engine system.
This DVD contains an introduction by Center Director Kevin Peterson, two videos on the history of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and a bibliography of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center publications from 1946 through 2006. The NASA Dryden 60th Anniversary Summary Documentary video is narrated by Michael Dorn and give a brief history of Dryden. The Six Decades of Flight Research at NASA Dryden lasts approximately 75 minutes and is broken up in six decades: 1. The Early X-Plane Era; 2. The X-15 Era; 3. The Lifting Body Era; 4. The Space Shuttle Era; 5. The High Alpha and Thrust Vectoring Era; and 6. The technology Demonstration Era. The bibliography provides citations for NASA Technical Reports and Conference Papers, Tech Briefs, Contractor Reports, UCLA Flight Systems Research Center publications and Dryden videos. Finally, a link is provided to the NASA Dryden Gallery that features video clips and photos of the many unique aircraft flown at NASA Dryden and its predecessor organizations.
The U.S. X-Plane Program included the first-of-its-kind research in aerodynamics and astronautics with experimental vehicles, including the first aircraft to break the sound barrier; the first aircraft to fly in excess of 100,000, then 200,000, and then 300,000 feet; and the first aircraft to fly at three, four, five, and then six times the speed of sound. During the 1990s, NASA started developing a new thermal protection material to test on the X-33 and X-34 supersonic aircraft. The X-33 was intended to demonstrate the technologies needed for a new reusable launch vehicle and was projected to reach an altitude of approximately 50 miles and speeds of more than Mach 11. The X-34, a small, reusable technology demonstrator for a launch vehicle, was intended to reach an altitude of 250,000 feet and fly at speeds of Mach 8. As a result of its research and development efforts, NASA s Ames Research Center invented the Protective Ceramic Coating Material (PCCM). Applied to a surface, the thin, lightweight coating could protect the material underneath from extreme temperatures. The capability of the technology came from its emissivity, which radiated heat away from the surface it covered, thereby decreasing the amount of heat transferred to the underlying material. PCCM not only increased the capability of materials to withstand higher temperatures, it also exhibited impressive thermal shock, vibration, and acoustic performance. In addition, it proved to be resistant to abrasion and mechanical damage and was also environmentally safe, due to it being water-based and containing no solvents. Even though funding for the X-33 and X-34 ended in 2001, PCCM continued on a path of innovation.
This NASA SP will discuss the discovery of airflow compressibility and the early X-planes used to explore the phenomena, as well as other discoveries that paved the way for modern aircraft design.
The airspace is becoming more and more complicated, and will continue to do so in the future with the integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), autonomy, spacecraft, other forms of aviation technology into the airspace. The new technology and complexity increases the importance and difficulty of safety assurance. Additionally, testing new technologies on complex aviation systems & systems of systems can be very difficult, expensive, and sometimes unsafe in real life scenarios. Prognostic methodology provides an estimate of the health and risks of a component, vehicle, or airspace and knowledge of how that will change over time. That measure is especially useful in safety determination, mission planning, and maintenance scheduling. The developed testbed will be used to validate prediction algorithms for the real-time safety monitoring of the National Airspace System (NAS) and the prediction of unsafe events. The framework injects flight related anomalies related to ground systems, routing, airport congestion, etc. to test and verify algorithms for NAS safety. In our research work, we develop a live, distributed, hardware-in-the-loop testbed for aviation and airspace prognostics along with exploring further research possibilities to verify and validate future algorithms for NAS safety. The testbed integrates virtual aircraft using the X-Plane simulator and X-PlaneConnect toolbox, UAVs using onboard sensors and cellular communications, and hardware in the loop components. In addition, the testbed includes an additional research framework to support and simplify future research activities. It enables safe, accurate, and inexpensive experimentation and research into airspace and vehicle prognosis that would not have been possible otherwise. This paper describes the design, development, and testing of this system. Software reliability, safety and latency are some of the critical design considerations in development of the testbed. Integration of HITL elements in the development phases and veri cation/ validation are key elements to this report.
Integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), autonomy, spacecraft, and other aviation technologies, in the airspace is becoming more and more complicated, and will continue to do so in the future. Inclusion of new technology and complexity into the airspace increases the importance and difficulty of safety assurance. Additionally, testing new technologies on complex aviation systems and systems of systems can be challenging, expensive, and at times unsafe when implementing real life scenarios. The application of prognostics to aviation and airspace management may produce new tools and insight into these problems. Prognostic methodology provides an estimate of the health and risks of a component, vehicle, or airspace and knowledge of how that will change over time. That measure is especially useful in safety determination, mission planning, and maintenance scheduling. In our research, we develop a live, distributed, hardware- in-the-loop Prognostics Virtual Laboratory testbed for aviation and airspace prognostics. The developed testbed will be used to validate prediction algorithms for the real-time safety monitoring of the National Airspace System (NAS) and the prediction of unsafe events. In our earlier work1 we discussed the initial Prognostics Virtual Laboratory testbed development work and related results for milestones 1 & 2. This paper describes the design, development, and testing of the integrated tested which are part of milestone 3, along with our next steps for validation of this work. Through a framework consisting of software/hardware modules and associated interface clients, the distributed testbed enables safe, accurate, and inexpensive experimentation and research into airspace and vehicle prognosis that would not have been possible otherwise. The testbed modules can be used cohesively to construct complex and relevant airspace scenarios for research. Four modules are key to this research: the virtual aircraft module which uses the X-Plane simulator and X-PlaneConnect toolbox, the live aircraft module which connects fielded aircraft using onboard cellular communications devices, the hardware in the loop (HITL) module which connects laboratory based bench-top hardware testbeds and the research module which contains diagnostics and prognostics tools for analysis of live air traffic situations and vehicle health conditions. The testbed also features other modules for data recording and playback, information visualization, and air traffic generation. Software reliability, safety, and latency are some of the critical design considerations in development of the testbed.
Following a more than a century of scientific aircraft and ballooning there is a sense that a renaissance of sorts is at hand in the aviation industry. The advent of incredibly miniaturized autopilots, inertial navigation systems, GPS antennae, and payloads has sparked a revolution in manned and unmanned aircraft. Improved SATCOM and onboard computing has enabled realtime data processing and improved transfer of data on and off the aircraft, making flight planning and data collection more efficient and effective. Electric propulsion systems are scaling up to larger and larger vehicles as evidenced by the NASA GL-10, which is leading to a new X-plane and is leading to renewed interest in personal air vehicles. There is also significant private and government investments in the development of High Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft. This presentation will explore how such developments are likely to improve our ability to observe earth systems processes from aircraft by providing an overview of current NASA Airborne Science capabilities, followed by a brief discussion of new technologies being applied to Airborne Science missions, and then conclude with an overview of new capabilities on the horizon that are likely to be of interest to the Earth Science community.
This presentation covers the status of the low boom x-plane effort and increase awareness.
Following a more than a century of scientific aircraft and ballooning there is a sense that a renaissance of sorts is at hand in the aviation industry. The advent of incredibly miniaturized autopilots, inertial navigation systems, GPS antennae, and payloads has sparked a revolution in manned and unmanned aircraft. Improved SATCOM and onboard computing has enabled realtime data processing and improved transfer of data on and off the aircraft, making flight planning and data collection more efficient and effective. Electric propulsion systems are scaling up to larger and larger vehicles as evidenced by the NASA GL-10, which is leading to a new X-plane and is leading to renewed interest in personal air vehicles. There is also significant private and government investments in the development of High Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft. This presentation will explore how such developments are likely to improve our ability to observe earth systems processes from aircraft by providing an overview of current NASA Airborne Science capabilities, followed by a brief discussion of new technologies being applied to Airborne Science missions, and then conclude with an overview of new capabilities on the horizon that are likely to be of interest to the Earth Science community.
In 2016, NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate announced the New Aviation Horizons Initiative with a goal of designing/building several X-Planes, including a Low Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD). That same year, NASA awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin (LM) to advance the LBFD concept through preliminary design. Several configurations of the LBFD aircraft were analyzed by both LM engineers and NASA researchers. This presentation focuses on some of the CFD simulations that were run by NASA Glenn researchers. NASA's FUN3D V13.1 code was used for all adjoint-based grid refinement studies and Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model was used during adaptation. It was found that adjoint-based grid adaptation did not accurately capture inlet performance for high speed top-aft-mounted propulsion.
I am delighted to present this report of accomplishments at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center. Our dedicated innovators possess a wealth of performance, safety, and technical capabilities spanning a wide variety of research areas involving aircraft, electronic sensors, instrumentation, environmental and earth science, celestial observations, and much more. They not only perform tasks necessary to safely and successfully accomplish Armstrong's flight research and test missions but also support NASA missions across the entire Agency. Armstrong's project teams have successfully accomplished many of the nation's most complex flight research projects by crafting creative solutions that advance emerging technologies from concept development and experimental formulation to final testing. We are developing and refining technologies for ultra-efficient aircraft, electric propulsion vehicles, a low boom flight demonstrator, air launch systems, and experimental x-planes, to name a few. Additionally, with our unique location and airborne research laboratories, we are testing and validating new research concepts. Summaries of each project highlighting key results and benefits of the effort are provided in the following pages. Technology areas for the projects include electric propulsion, vehicle efficiency, supersonics, space and hypersonics, autonomous systems, flight and ground experimental test technologies, and much more. Additional technical information is available in the appendix, as well as contact information for the Principal Investigator of each project. I am proud of the work we do here at Armstrong and am pleased to share these details with you. We welcome opportunities for partnership and collaboration, so please contact us to learn more about these cutting-edge innovations and how they might align with your needs.
One of NASA’s six Strategic Thrusts for aeronautics is “Innovation in Commercial Supersonic Aircraft,” with a vision of fast air travel widely available to the traveling public. Future supersonic aircraft will be efficient, affordable, and environmentally responsible, generating an acceptable level of en-route noise (sonic booms). The first major step is the ongoing construction of the new X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology X-plane to demonstrate technologies that reduce sonic booms to gentle thumps. By using highresolution Cart3D computational fluid dynamics simulations, the shape of the aircraft can be designed to control the non-linear interactions of shock waves to reduce the sonic boom noise on the ground to within outdoor ambient levels, thereby enabling supersonic overland flight.