Unmanned Craft Could Be the Edge Against Wildfires, FAA Permitting Page 28

June 2015

Unmanned craft could be the edge against wildfires, FAA permitting Page 28

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

NASA’s Shin on planes of the future/14 Solving sense and avoid /34

A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS 22–26 JUNE 2015 DALLAS, TEXAS

The global aviation ecosystem is broad, constantly Confirmed Speakers evolving, and a driver of economic growth. AIAA AVIATION 2015 will celebrate its diversity by engaging participants throughout the value chain—legislation, regulation, research, design, manufacturing, suppliers, and users—to explore topics that build on the theme: Pushing the Boundaries of the Imaginable: Leveraging the Aviation Ecosystem

Plenary and Forum 360 Programs William S. Ayer Charles F. Bolden Jr. • Globalization • NextGen • UAS in the NAS • Cybersecurity • Voice of the Customer • The 4-Year Airplane • Green Aviation, and more Edward L. Bolton Jr. Tom Enders Gregory J. Touhill

Technical Program More than 1,500 technical presentations from nearly 600 government, academic, and private institutions in 37 countries reporting on the latest in aviation and aerodynamic research.

Register Today! Premier Sponsor aiaa-aviation.org 15-642 Revised June 2015 DEPARTMENTS EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK 2 What would the Wright brothers do? INTERNATIONAL BEAT 4 Composites manufacturing; Galileo satellites; Iran and aviation IN BRIEF 8 Asteroid collection device; commercial satellite imagery Page 40 ENGINEERING NOTEBOOK 10 Roiling seas? No problem CONVERSATION 14 Airplanes guy at ‘space agency’ THE VIEW FROM HERE 18 Why astronauts train in planes CASE STUDY 20 Meet Lotus: Two aircraft in one Page 4 SCHOOL ZONE 24 Upside of Mars One venture

BOOKS 26 Page 34 Decloaking aviation’s famous duo OUT OF THE PAST 46 CAREER OPPORTUNITIES 48 Page 9 FEATURES FIRE DRONES 28 Unmanned planes have hunted terrorists for more than a decade. But these aircraft haven’t been widely enlisted in the battles against deadly wildfires. Some government managers and firefighters aim to change this. by Debra Werner VIEWPOINT: DON’T FEAR CYBER DISCLOSURE 32 Airlines should welcome, not squelch, responsible disclosure about potential security loopholes as a defense against future attacks. by Tim Erlin UNMANNED BUT NOT UNSEEING 34 The specter of an unmanned aircraft colliding with a passenger plane is driving sense-and-avoid research. by Henry Kenyon Page 20 ÜBER FLIGHT COMPUTER 40 The Germanwings crash has shone fresh light on the possibility of taking over an airliner via computer in an emergency. However, an all-powerful flight computer appears to be a long way off. Page 18 by Debra Werner BULLETIN AIAA MEETING SCHEDULE B2 AIAA NEWS B5 AIAA SPACE 2015 EVENT PREVIEW B13 AIAA COURSES AND TRAINING PROGRAM B15

ON THE COVER An MQ-9 Reaper on a runway with a super-imposed fire image. Photo illustration by Jane Fitzgerald

Aerospace America (ISSN 0740-722X) is published monthly by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. at 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, Va. 20191-4344 [703/264-7500]. Subscription rate is 50% of dues for AIAA members (and is not deductible therefrom). Nonmember subscription price: U.S., $200; foreign, $220. Single copies $20 each. Postmaster: Send address changes and subscription orders to address above, attention AIAA Customer Service, 703/264-7500. Periodical postage paid at Reston, Va., and at additional mailing offices. Copyright 2015 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., all rights reserved. The name Aerospace America is registered by the AIAA in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 40,000 copies of this issue printed. This is Volume 53, No. 6 ® is a publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Editor’s Notebook

Ben Iannotta Editor-in-Chief Kyung M. Song Associate Editor Greg Wilson What would the Wright brothers do? Production Editor Jerry Grey I haven’t read David McCullough’s book about the Wright brothers yet, but our Editor-at-Large review of it on page 26 got me wondering where the next aviation challenges Christine Williams might lie — and which of them the Wright brothers would choose to tackle if Editor AIAA Bulletin they were young professionals today. Some of the most challenging work won’t involve aerodynamic design break- Contributing Writers throughs like those the brothers achieved with their Flyer, and I bet the Wright Philip Butterworth-Hayes, Keith Button, Brothers would have embraced that fact and perhaps even chosen to work in areas Henry Canaday, Leonard David, other than aerodynamics. Kristin Davis, Tom Jones, Henry Kenyon, Top on the list would be control of unmanned aircraft. Whether a human flies Robert van der Linden, Samantha Walters, Debra Werner, Frank H. Winter the plane or it flies autonomously by computer, better awareness of the surrounding airpsace and detailed knowledge of the terrain will be necessities. Technologists Jane Fitzgerald aren’t yet close to achieving the awareness of a human in the cockpit, but our ar- Art Direction and Design ticle, “Unmanned — not unseeing,” on page 34, chronicles some of the early work in James F. Albaugh, President that direction. This technology will be required to clear the way for the low-altitude, James “Jim” Maser, President-Elect consumer aircraft that NASA’s Jaiwon Shin discusses in this month’s conversation Sandra H. Magnus, Publisher article on page 14. Craig Byl, Manufacturing and Distribution In “Über Flight Computer,” on page 40, we explore automated emergency take- STEERING COMMITTEE over of airliners as a way to improve safety. Debra Werner reported this story be- John Evans, Lockheed Martin; Steven E. fore the deadly Amtrak derailment outside Philadelphia in May, but news reports Gorrell, Brigham Young University; Frank Lu, about it made me wonder: If authorities are in the process of installing computers University of Texas at Arlington; David R. to keep train engineers from making grave mistakes like entering a corner too fast, Riley, Boeing; Mary L. Snitch, Lockheed which might have happened in this case, would it be so crazy to do something Martin; Panoptes Systems Annalisa Weigel, similar for airliners? The topic is a complicated one for airliners, partly because of EDITORIAL BOARD the oft-discussed cultural reasons, but also because of legitimate questions about Ned Allen, Jean-Michel Contant, computing power and the concept of operations that would be required. L.S. “Skip” Fletcher, Michael Francis, In “Roiling seas? No problem,” on page 10, we describe work to figure out the Cam Martin, Don Richardson, best kind of computer-assistance to help helicopter pilots land on ships. Douglas Yazell These issues are Wright brothers-worthy challenges, but that’s not to say there ADVERTISING aren’t amazing aeronautical breakthroughs ahead, too. Should all airliners be of the Joan Daly, 703-938-5907 tube-and-wing variety? Maybe not. Must aircraft have powerful combustion engines [email protected] to carry meaningful payloads? Almost certainly not. Pat Walker, 415-387-7593 In this month’s Case Study, “Lotus: Two aircraft in one,” on page 20, the plane’s [email protected] designer describes an electrically-powered vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft whose wingtips morph into propellers for cruise. The Lotus team is not the only LETTERS AND CORRESPONDENCE one vying to make an electric VTOL aircraft. A NASA team is working on a rival Ben Iannotta, [email protected] concept called the GL-10 or Greased Lightning, which has rotors arrayed across tilt- QUESTIONS AND ADDRESS CHANGES able wings. [email protected] It’s been nearly 112 years since Kitty Hawk, and there remains lots of drama ADVERTISING MATERIALS ahead, from whose electric aircraft concepts will win to how aviation authorities Craig Byl, [email protected] will settle the appropriate roles of computers on airliners.

June 2015, Vol. 53, No. 6 Ben Ianno tta Editor-in-Chief 2O15 27–29 JULY 2015 ORLANDO, FLORIDA

Energize Innovation. Boost Value. Propel The Future.

Propulsion and energy systems are at the very heart of aerospace, whether you are flying passengers to London or satellites to LEO. Every move forward in our exploration of the world, and the universe, is enabled by new technologies coming from the researchers and engineers who will assemble together at AIAA Propulsion and Energy 2015. Plenary and Forum 360 Program Technical Program

• Global Cooperation and • Government • 51st AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Economic Development Investments Enabling Conference • Cost and Affordability Advancement of In- • 13th International Energy Conversion of Future Systems Space Propulsion Engineering Conference • Technology • Infrastructure • 650 Papers Development and • Role of Bio-fuels in • ITAR Sessions Trends in Propulsion Future Aviation • 24 High-Impact Topics and Energy • Work/Life Balance • What Does the Future Challenges for the 21st • Presenters from 300 Institutions in 28 Propulsion and Energy Century Countries Workforce Look Like? • The Media and the • Aircraft Electric Engineering Profession Propulsion

15-694_Revised Europe seeking edge over Far East in composites manufacturing

The speed at which aerospace manu- stance, is working to produce com- upon layer to create a laminate in a facturers, particularly in the Far East, posite box structures — where the mold. This is then cured under high have gained expertise in manufactur- wings meet the fuselage — and wing- pressure in an autoclave to form the ing large composite structures has lets under a program called VIEWS, final structure. That’s expensive and forced research agencies in North for Validation and Integration of time consuming, so European re- America and Europe to work harder Manufacturing Enablers for Future searchers are testing a curing method to retain their competitive edge. Wing Structures. GKN and 13 part- that would bypass the autoclave. The West has historically sought ners aim to bring these components For the past four years, research- to develop tougher, lighter materials to market within two years and shave ers have been working under a Euro- that are ever simpler to manufacture. 20 percent off the cost of producing pean Union-funded research program Demand has been especially acute for a typical composite box structure or called INFUCOMP to infuse resin in alternatives to expensive, energy-hog- winglet. National and regional gov- the material after the dry fabrics have ging autoclaves, the electric compos- ernments have provided about half been assembled. This Vacuum Assisted ites-curing ovens. Western researchers the financial support for the $44 mil- Resin Infusion process requires only a are also pursuing technologies to lion (£30 million) program. simple set of tools to hold the part in more quickly spot faults, trim waste, VIEWS builds on theoretical place, while vacuum membranes are reduce parts and develop more mal- models that suggest, for example, used to solidify the composite, both re- leable structures. that it may be possible to produce a ducing manufacturing costs and in- A lucrative market is at stake. lighter winglet that will require 50 creasing material shelf life. The research firm Lucintel estimates percent fewer fasteners to assemble Other EU-funded researchers are aerospace composites will reach total and take 25 percent less time to at- developing a non-invasive method for sales of $5.9 billion by 2033. tach the wings to the fuselage. checking composites for defects. Later In Europe, teams of industry and Composite aircraft parts are usu- this year, they plan to demonstrate a academic bodies are collaborating on ally made using a tape-laying pro- scanning device that will transmit tera- composites research with govern- cess, in which sheets of pre-impreg- hertz electromagnetic waves into a ment funds. GKN Aerospace, for in- nated fiber-resin are placed layer composite material to produce high- resolution images. Terahertz waves range from the far-infrared to the mi- crowave region and can penetrate most non-metallic materials without contact- ing them. Researchers say the device, unlike some current methods, poses no health risks to system operators. One of the largest EU-funded aerospace research programs is called the Clean Sky Joint Technol- ogy Initiative. The hope is that adding graphene, a carbon material, to resin during the manufacturing process could make composite structures more damage resistant and much lighter. There still remain major outstanding issues for composite manufactur- ers to address — not the least being what to do with the material when the aircraft has reached its end of life, as burying or burning it will not be allowed in many parts of the world.

Boeing Philip Butterworth-Hayes Composites make up more than half of the fuselage weight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. [email protected]

4 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 Anxious months for Galileo project

By the end of June, satellites cording to the Global Navigation seven and eight of the European Satellite Systems Agency. Commission’s planned constella- “The program managers are tion of 30 Galileo navigation satel- under immense pressure to de- lites are scheduled to go into ser- liver this key European project,”

vice, according to the European ESA/CNES/Arianespace says David Gleave, an aviation Space Agency, which is testing safety technology expert in the and commissioning the satellites. U.K. “The longer that Europe re- Next year will be crucial for lies on pure GPS, then the greater Galileo and satnav services the foothold that U.S.-led compa- around the world. The constella- nies will gain in the general satel- tion is supposed to be filled out lite navigation and accurate tim- enough by end of 2016 to pro- ing business areas.“ vide more reliable coverage than But the European Commis- U.S.-based GPS in high-rise cities sion may have trouble meeting and in northern Europe. The its 2016 timetable because of an Galileo constellation will orbit at errant launch last August. A Rus- a higher altitude than GPS, giv- sian Fregat upper stage released ing each satellite a wider cone of satellites five and six into the coverage and increasing the wrong orbit. That left them in el- number of satellites that smart- liptical orbits where, at their high phones or other devices can con- point, the satellites were flying nect to. 25,900 kilometers above Earth Currently, the European but at their low point, just 13,713 Global Navigation Satellite Sys- kilometers, instead of circular or- tems Agency says more than 60 bit at an altitude of 23,222 kilo- percent of all receivers support a meters. The European Space minimum of two constellations. Agency’s ground staff have More than 20 percent support all nudged them back into the target four — the United States’ GPS, orbit by activating their hydra- Europe’s Galileo, Russia’s GLObal A Soyuz rocket carrying the Galileo satellites lifts off in March from zine thrusters so that they no NAvigation Satellite System and Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. longer dip into the Van Allen ra- China’s BeiDou network. diation belt, which can damage The European Commission sensitive on-board electronics. wants to have 14 Galileo satellites de- According to the 2015 GNSS Mar- With eight satellites in orbit and ployed by 2016. That should clear the ket Report, about 6 percent of Eu- four more planned for launch during way for a range of initial services, in- rope’s gross domestic product de- the rest of this year, program managers cluding free public services for vehicle pends on satellite navigation services. will have a much clearer understanding navigation and mobile-phone location Until now, those have been based on of how Galileo’s satellite navigation services, an encrypted, publicly-regu- the U.S. Department of Defense’s network likely will perform. lated service for government users, GPS. Galileo will guarantee Europe’s “With more satellites in view, you and a search-and-rescue service. Two governments and businesses a civil- will be able to derive a Galileo gener- other services will follow: an en- ian-controlled satellite navigation sys- ated position for more hours of the crypted, highly-accurate commercial tem that will provide coverage at lati- day. This will make it possible to gen- service and a safety-of-life service for tudes up to 75 degrees north, the erate the statistics to prove how close rail, marine and aviation network most northerly tip of Europe, that GPS the system performance is to the orig- management. These services will can’t always cover. It will also open inal design,” says Philip Church, prin- guarantee users a minimum standard way for European companies to com- cipal consultant with U.K. aviation of availability and accuracy, making pete in market for chip sets and re- consultants Helios. Galileo suitable, for instance, for air- lated software and hardware products Philip Butterworth-Hayes traffic management. now worth $250 billion annually, ac- [email protected]

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 5 Aerospace dollars, defense fears at stake in Iran nuclear talks

Photo by Adrian Pingstone Iran could be in the market for hundreds of new airliners if a nuclear accord lifts international sanctions on the Middle East’s second-largest economy.

If negotiators from six international Others see dollar signs too: “Iran tions problem by building its own air- powers can finalize a nuclear deal has incredible potential: A $500 bil- liners. Ukraine and Iran signed a deal with Iran by their self-imposed June lion economy that has been likened in 1995 in which Ukranian Antonov 30 deadline, one of the first priorities to Turkey with oil,” according to an AN-140 turboprops were produced for Iran after nuclear sanctions lift October 2014 report by the Sydney, under license in Iran by the Iran Air- could be to re-equip its government- Australia, based Centre for Asia Pa- craft Manufacturing Industrial Co. and privately run airlines with billions cific Aviation. and rebranded the IrAn-140. But the of dollars in new aircraft. But experts Iran is the Middle East’s second crash of the only airworthy IrAn-140 say revenue from new large oil ex- largest economy after Saudi Arabia. on take-off from Tehran in August ports could also enable Iran to rebuild Yet its airlines have struggled to mod- 2014, which killed 39 passengers and its military, including its tactical, bal- ernize and service their fleets in the crew, grounded the rest of the fleet. listic missile and unmanned air sys- two decades since U.S.-imposed sanc- Iran’s military aircraft operators tems programs. tions banned American trade with faced similar problems. The United For aviation companies, Iran’s Iran, including exports of spare parts States supplied the Shah of Iran with population of 80 million is an enticing and maintenance services for both over 500 variants of the Northrop market for civil and military aircraft Boeing and Airbus aircraft. With ne- Grumman F-5, 79 Grumman F-14A sales and new airport constructions. gotiations underway in April 2014, Tomcats and 193 McDonnell Douglas Iranian airlines will need between Boeing and Airbus were permitted to F-4s of varying types during the 100 and 500 new airliners over the provide a few essential supplies to 1970s. But after the Shah was ousted next few years, according to industry government-owned Iran Air — includ- in 1979 the supply of spare parts to estimates. These would replace aging ing airplane parts, manuals, drawings, support these types quickly dried up. airliners and help Iran meet an ex- service bulletins, and navigation Iran’s aerospace sector has focused on pected increase in international air charts and data — but no substantive developing replacement parts and travel once the United Nations Secu- supplies. Iran Air has acquired sec- modifying these old planes, describ- rity Council’s nuclear sanctions lift. ond-hand Airbus airliners since 2000 ing them as a new series of combat “Iran is poised to reinvest in a but a lack of spare parts has grounded aircraft based on F-14As and F-5s, new fleet after 20 years of austerity,” many planes in the 50-aircraft fleet, when in fact the airframes are modi- says Ian Lowden of the London-based which on average are 26 years old. fied rather than new. The one entirely aviation consultancy Infrata. “Its mar- The country has 75 airports but only new aircraft was supposed to be the ket position and large originating mar- 30 of these are regularly served, Qaher F-313 stealth fighter unveiled to ket make it one of aviation’s global mainly by Fokker F-100s. the public in February 2013. Most hot spots.” Iran attempted to solve the sanc- Western industry experts have written

6 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 it off as a propaganda exercise rather ing its own combat aircraft is a big and high altitudes. All these factors than a serious attempt at a fifth-gener- ask but Iran might do it in collabora- suggest that while countries in the ation fighter. tion with China or Russia.” region might welcome a reduction But looked at differently, Iran’s In the unmanned aircraft realm, in Iran’s nuclear threat, they might aerospace industry has managed to analysts say lifting trade sanctions also face an increasingly technolog- maintain a relatively large fleet of could give Iran access to more so- ically-capable conventionally-armed combat aircraft, transports and heli- phisticated sensors, which could ac- neighbor. copters, and Iran in March publicly celerate its ability to make a long- Philip Butterworth-Hayes displayed a cruise missile that has endurance aircraft for both medium [email protected] gotten the attention of Israel and the United States. “Iran’s aerospace engineers have become excellent at re-engineering equipment, turning surface-to-air mis- CELEBRATING AEROSPACE INNOVATIONS OF THE PAST... siles into effective surface-to-surface weapons, for example” says Paul Bea- ver, a defense consultant based in DISCOVER BETTER DESIGNS. London. “And they have kept a fleet of F-4s and F-14s up in the air, which FASTER. is quite an achievement, given the constraints under which they have FLOW − THERMAL − STRESS − EMAG − ELECTROCHEMISTRY − CASTING had to work.” OPTIMIZATION − REACTING CHEMISTRY − VIBRO-ACOUSTICS MULTIDISCIPLINARY CO-SIMULATION The unveiling of the Soumar long-range cruise missile in March 2015 could mark a step-change in PROVIDING SIMULATION TOOLS Iran’s ability to develop and manufac- FOR TOMORROW’S DISCOVERIES ture a long-range cruise missile, some industry experts say. The missile is modeled after Rus- sia’s Raduga Kh-55, known by NATO as the AS-15 Kent, says Douglas Bar- rie, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Lon- don. Nevertheless, the missile “shows the technical capacity and capability that Iran has built up over the last three decades,” he adds. The expertise extends beyond cruise missiles: “In the ballistic sphere, Iran has a rea- sonably capable domestic ballistic missile design and manufacturing infrastructure.” Many analysts are now looking at what impact an injection of funds and new components will have on the country’s military aerospace sector. One theory holds that Iran will re- member how its imported front-line combat aircraft were hampered by sanctions, and so it will try to develop new aircraft in partnership with allies, so that it does not have to rely on im- ports of spare parts. “Iran will want to play the role of the informed customer to understand [email protected] www.cd-adapco.com the technology, modify it and put its own weapons on it, play around with the software,” Barrie says. “Develop-

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 7

Aerospace America advert june 2015.indd 1 21/04/2015 16:46

• international beat.indd 5 5/18/15 12:09 PM In Brief

Driveway test paved way for asteroid sampler

The asteroid collection device to be installed in August on the OSIRIS- REx asteroid probe has a surprising backstory. This artist’s rendering depicts NASA’s About 10 years ago, Jim Harris, OSIRIS-REx ready to use its Touch-And-Go an engineer at Lockheed Martin Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) to gather an asteroid sample for shipment Space Systems Co., took part in an back to Earth. internal review focused on ideas about how to robotically grab material from an asteroid, stow it and carry it back to Earth. At the time, NASA had not yet selected the mission we know as OSIRIS-REx, short for the Origins- Spectral Interpretation-Resource Iden- tification-Security-Regolith Explorer. Lockheed engineers considered a variety of sample options for OSIRIS- REx: clam shells, augers, scoops, even propellers at the end of a tube. During Lockheed Martin the search, Ben Clark, a Lockheed space scientist, gave Harris a paper that NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona Clark had written in December 1986 as Lockheed Martin’s Jim Harris holds the a senior staff scientist at what was then OSIRIS-REx Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Martin Marietta. The document de- Mechanism, which was partly borne out of scribed how a pressurized gas might an experiment on his driveway. be released to lift particles off the surface of a celestial body and fluidize the accelerated out the side holes and fell used to show-off the ability of the as- particles into a gaseous mixture. Clark onto the paper for later measurement. teroid collection apparatus. thought this would be a good way to The test suggested that the technique “We’ve pretty much sampled just quickly obtain samples for onboard could be used to push particles into a about everything you could think of,” analysis, or to bring back samples to sample container. Harris said, such as lava rock, Mars Earth, without having to land on the as- “My son knew his dad was a lit- simulated soil, Styrofoam peanuts, teriod. Harris wondered if the method tle different. At the time, he was sur- real peanuts, vermiculite, even might be adapted to collect regolith — prised that I get paid to do this kind cheese whiz. surface dirt — from an asteroid for anal- of stuff,” Harris says. When OSIRIS-REx sidles up to as- ysis back on Earth. That’s when things Back at the office, Harris and his teroid Bennu in October 2019, TAGSAM took a creative, do-it-yourself turn. space engineering colleagues were in- will touch the collector head to the sur- Harris was anxious to give the tent on building the OSIRIS-REx’s face and spurt out a burst of pure nitro- method a quick trial. “It was just a ques- Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition gen gas to push surface regolith into tion of how to do it and how much [ma- Mechanism (TAGSAM), an articulated the sampler’s chamber. “It’s basically terial] could be collected,” he recalls. arm with a collection head at the end. over in two seconds,” Harris says. So one weekend, Harris and his Before settling on the TAGSAM de- The asteriod collection device will son, Jimmy, now a mechanical engi- sign, Harris and his co-workers built have three separate bottles of gas for neering student at the University of Col- several prototype collection heads. three sampling attempts. Harris is orado, went out to his rock-and-dust Sampling head testing was done banking that if the technique worked driveway. His father placed the hose within a closed container to hold sim- in his driveway and on the micrograv- outlet of a home-shop air compressor ulated asteroid material onboard a ity plane, and in extensive testing at the into a hole at the small end of the cup, NASA research aircraft — christened company, all will go well at Bennu. and Jimmy pressed the open end over a the Vomit Comet — to simulate micro- “Some people will be nail-biting circle Harris had cut in a large piece of gravity. Throughout the testing history but not me,” Harris says. “It’s going paper laid out on the driveway. When of TAGSAM, in place of asteroid bits to work.” Leonard David Harris flipped the switch, driveway dirt and pieces, all types of materials were [email protected]

8 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 U.S. intel agency to shift imagery buying plan

The world’s largest customer for commercial satellite imagery is signaling a major shift in purchasing strategy that could pose a challenge to the incum- bent supplier and benefit startup companies. The U.S. National Geo- spatial Intelligence Agency has been paying about $300 million a year to DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colorado, for imagery under an annually- renewed contract called En- hancedView, which includes options that run through 2020. NGA also gets priority in decisions about where to point DigitalGlobe’s satellites, and it directs some of the funds to

help maintain ground stations DigitalGlobe for fast data delivery. EnhancedView imagery View of the Gulf of Mexico taken by DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 satellite two months after the Deepwater typically forms the foundation for the Horizon oil spill in 2010. digital maps used by troops and intelligence operatives, while govern- care how you acquire the information looking for information.” Masback is ment-owned spy satellites zoom in we need. We just want to be the ben- also a former director of NGA’s Source on targets to deliver detail. eficiary,’” Cardillo said in the briefing. Operations Group, which matches im- Looking ahead, NGA Director NGA might, for example, ask for agery to national requirements. Robert Cardillo says the agency is help in understanding changing traffic NGA wants to learn what the likely to turn to a more varied group patterns at a foreign port or for daily fledgling space companies can do. of suppliers. images of the Horn of Africa, Cardillo The agency issued a request for infor- “We are not unhappy with En- said in the email. mation in May inviting companies to hancedView, but we do need to be NGA is positioning itself to take share their collection plans for 2017 prepared to think about what’s next,” advantage of a crowded field of start- and beyond. Cardillo, by email, said Cardillo said in a press briefing at the ups eager to sell imagery from sim- the new strategy likely would not end Space Symposium in Colorado Springs pler satellites built with miniaturized NGA’s work with DigitalGlobe. “I ex- in April. “I would find it not impossi- electronics and launched relatively pect they will continue to be an im- ble but hard to foresee us going down inexpensively. Planet Labs, a San portant part of this transformation.” that path again.” Francisco startup, aims to place 150 DigitalGlobe says it is making The EnhancedView contract cubesats in orbit. Google-owned changes. “We are unifying our unique comes up for its annual renewal in Skybox Imaging has launched two collection capabilities and information August but Cardillo, in an email re- small satellites so far to capture high- delivery infrastructure with new and layed by a spokesman, said he does definition still imagery and video. existing sources of commercial and not plan to end EnhancedView before UrtheCast, a Canadian company, has open-source data,” says DigitalGlobe 2020. “I see no changes to the current mounted two cameras on the outside spokesman Turner Brinton. “In addi- EnhancedView program,” he said. of the International Space Station. tion to delivering the highest resolu- Eventually, though, NGA is likely “It’s not just about the pixels any- tion, most accurate and complete to explain a goal or pose a question more,” says Keith Masback, chief ex- commercial satellite imagery, we pro- to vendors, rather than buying a set ecutive of the U.S. Geospatial Intelli- vide a range of value-added geospatial amount of imagery. gence Foundation, a not-for-profit and analytic products and services.” “We’ll end up writing our require- educational group allied with the in- Debra Werner ments in such a way to say ‘I don’t telligence community. “Rather, NGA is [email protected]

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 9 Roiling seas? No problem Landing a rotorcraft on a ship in rough seas is one of the trickiest feats in flying. Keith Button spoke to Pennsylvania State University researchers who are testing how best to split that potentially hazardous responsibility between pilot and computer.

For more than a year, Joe Horn has enlisted naval test pilots to find a potential solution to one of the hairiest tasks in flying — setting down a helicopter on the deck of a ship in rough waters. Specifically, Horn, an associate professor of aerospace engineering at Penn State, wants to pinpoint the optimal level of computer assistance for these landings. Today, only the most highly trained and skilled military pilots are allowed to perform these maneuvers, because they are done purely by hand. If Horn’s Navy-funded research succeeds, the Navy will have a better handle on the best type of computer-aided pilot controls to build into future helicopters. This could make landings at sea safer, smoother, less nerve-racking and possible for An MH-60 Seahawk takes off a wider range of pilots. Other from the flight deck of the amphibious service branches could apply assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard. the findings to tricky landing scenarios on terra firma, such as in dust clouds or gusting winds. U.S. Navy Computer-assisted pilot controls are standard technology on modern airliners and widespread among fixed- which is expected under the Penta- computer-assisted, fly-by-wire heli- wing military planes, but military heli- gon’s Future Vertical Lift program, the copters on ships. copters have been a bastion of non- controls will be connected electroni- Today, he says, “there’s many dif- digital flying. In most helicopters, the cally to the rotor’s gearboxes. ferent control movements you have to pilot controls the aircraft with a cyclic Computers could be programmed do to regulate the helicopter, and that’s stick, a collective stick and foot pedals to make the aircraft respond more all fine if you’re on a beautiful sunny that are mechanically connected to quickly or slowly to the pilot’s move- day and you have lots of room to ma- the rotors’ gearboxes through a series ments, to accentuate or mask vibra- neuver and you can see very well. But of cables, pulleys, levers, weights, tions or G-forces, or even override the if you get behind a ship and you’re try- push-and-pull rods and hydraulics. pilot’s inputs in certain situations. ing to do a very high precision task of Once the shift is made to computer- Horn wants to define the software landing within a small box on a ship, assisted, fly-by-wire helicopters, that would best assist pilots landing it’s much more difficult.”

10 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 Horn has been working on this problem since he joined Penn State’s faculty in 2000. In his latest research, Horn and graduate assistant Albert Zheng wrote software for different levels of computer-aided pilot controls and asked test pilots to test them on a simulator and rate which were the best. Pennsylvania State University Rotorcraft have lagged in com- Desktop simulation: Penn State engineering professor Joe Horn, wearing glasses, monitors a helicopter- landing simulation with graduate student Albert Zheng. puter assistance partly because of their complex cockpit layout and control surfaces. Pilots have found it hard technology with fixed-wing airplanes, that the pilot moves the cyclic stick, to trust the computer’s ability to con- which in his view has driven the level and then stop that horizontal move- trol aircraft that require precise, con- of acceptance among pilots to a “6, 7, 8 ment when the pilot returns the stick tinuous, coordinated adjustments to level,” on a theoretical scale of 1 to 10. to center position. execute even a basic hover maneuver. Schrage headed a U.S. Army pro- In contrast, a pilot flying in the Among U.S. military rotorcraft, gram in the 1980s that tested digital- equivalent mechanical-only mode, only the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor flown by optical control systems, a kind of fly- called rate command, would move the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force by-wire system that would use fiber the cyclic stick in one direction to tilt is considered a fly-by-wire aircraft. The optic wire instead of electrical-only the aircraft in that direction and the V-22 operates in a computer-assisted connections. The idea was to weigh angle of tilt would continue to in- mode in which the pilot maintains a set inclusion of the technology on the crease, along with an ever-increasing angle of pitch or roll without having to Sikorsky-Boeing RAH-66 Comanche horizontal speed in that direction, un- make constant adjustments for wind helicopters. The Army decided not to til the pilot moved the stick back to gusts or other factors. do that due to cost considrations, but center. The angle of tilt and horizontal The Pentagon plans to shift to fly- the Comanche program was cancelled speed would stay at those settings un- by-wire and computer assistance for anyway by the Army in 2004. In til the stick was moved in the oppo- rotorcraft under the Future Vertical Schrage’s view the Army’s hesitation site direction, which would require Lift program, in which new helicop- to invest in a fly-by-wire system for many more stick movements during a ters will be built for each of the ser- helicopters was a big mistake. ship’s deck landing — accounting for vices. The Office of Naval Research, The brighter outlook for fly-by- the ship’s velocity, direction and rock- which is funding Horn’s research, has wire could open the door to possible ing movements. made shipboard landings and fly-by- adoption of Horn’s computer-assisted “We did find that we could im- wire controls a priority as well. landing technology. prove the handling characteristics Technologists say helicopter pilots In April, after more than a year where they could land in a simulator are starting to warm to computer-as- of evaluations, five Naval Reserve on fairly high sea states, in difficult sisted control. It’s only a matter of time and former Navy pilots gave top conditions, with a lot less workload before “fly by wire is going to be seen marks to a level of computer-assisted and a lot more accuracy, for certain as the way to go,” says professor Dan- control called translational rate com- modes,” Horn says. At the same time, iel Schrage, director of the Center for mand. This mode was the second- “we found that you have to make the Aerospace Systems Engineering at most-automated among the four helicopter respond a lot more quickly Georgia Institute of Technology. He modes defined by Horn and other than was customarily done in earlier says the shift is driven by the wide- researchers. The helicopter will [control] designs.” spread use of computer-aided-flight move horizontally in the direction Horn plans to continue the re-

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 11 A Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey lands on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard. The Osprey is notable U.S. Navy for its computer-assisted controls. search in 2016, but in May he and handle tricky maneuvers, Horn says. The researchers used Simulink Zheng presented a paper on their “The really good pilot will always software to create the different per- findings to date. The paper, “Investiga- be able to fly these maneuvers using mutations of control algorithms that tion of Bandwidth and Disturbance the mechanical controls on an air- they would test, designing and writing Rejection Properties of a Dynamic In- craft. They’re very well trained. But if complicated block diagrams with the version Control Law for Ship-Based you go into the fleet and you get software and then linking those dia- Rotorcraft,” was presented at an Amer- thousands of pilots coming through, grams together. They tested 20 differ- ican Helicopter Society conference. are you going to expect all of them to ent variations — with a variety of pa- Pilots landing on ships face a be good enough to do these really, re- rameters for responsiveness and other common, but dangerous, problem: ally hard things on the aircraft? The factors — before narrowing them The rocking motion of the deck gives thinking now is: ‘No,’” Horn says. down to the control schemes that the false visual cues. If the pilot looks at Horn’s test pilots flew a flight sim- pilots tested, Horn says. the horizon, the aircraft seems stable, ulator with a 10 foot-by-15 foot diam- The Simulink programs were but if he or she looks at the deck, then eter cylindrical screen, mimicking loaded into the flight simulation sys- the aircraft may seem to be rolling. landing on a U.S. Navy FFG 7 class tem, run on GenHel software, which Horn and Zheng address that frigate. The simulator used the cockpit interfaces with X-Plane flight simula- problem through the computer-aided of a Bell XV-15 experimental tilt rotor tion software to create the graphics controls, which allow the pilot to fo- aircraft, which has a cyclic control viewed by the test pilots. cus just on the direction of the heli- stick similar to that of an SH-60 Se- All five test pilots were former copter’s movement, not whether and ahawk and a UH-60 Black Hawk. Navy pilots or current Navy Reserve how much the aircraft may be tilted. “We really wanted to be able to pilots; three of them graduated from Pilots “don’t have to worry so have these pilots fly and switch be- the Navy test pilot school. much about stabilizing the aircraft’s at- tween these different modes in kind “It’s kind of a grueling process to titude because the controller does that of a seamless way, so the control algo- go through, and we spend a whole for them. They just direct the velocity rithms become pretty complicated day doing this,” Horn says. “They’ll fly of the aircraft around,” Horn says. pretty quickly,” Horn says. “Just set- this maneuver over and over again, Adding levels of automation to ting up all that software to rapidly and we just keep giving them differ- helicopter flight controls could make it evaluate the different configurations ent configurations — some of them possible for a wider range of pilots to was a big challenge.” bad, some of them good.”

12 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 specifications for the mode. “We found the results were very sensitive to that — how you set the speed of Levels of automation responsiveness,” Horn says. Researchers needed a common language to describe the increasing levels If the responsiveness was too of computer-aided flight they are testing. They came up with four levels of slow, in some cases the pilots rated increasing automation, ordered here from least to highest: the controls as bad as the mechanical system. Rate command: Provides the pilot with the equivalent of direct me- • Some of the Penn State research- chanical control. Moving the stick away from center causes the aircraft to ers’ ideas failed to pan out. One was start rolling or pitching. Moving the stick back to center stops it, but main- a hybrid mode between attitude com- tains the helicopter’s attitude at that tilted angle. The pilot has to move the mand and translational rate com- stick in the opposite direction to roll or pitch the helicopter back down to a mand, with the control stick smoothly level position. Once the helicopter tilts, the helicopter starts moving, and shifting from one mode to the other the pilot has to tilt the helicopter back the other way to make the helicopter depending on how much the pilot stop moving. moved the stick. Researchers figured the hybrid mode would offer pilots •Attitude command: This is actually a group of flight control modes. both the perceived responsiveness of When the pilot moves the stick, the aircraft banks relative to the stick dis- the attitude command and the stabil- placement — the greater the stick movement, the steeper the angle. When ity of the translational rate. The hy- the pilot moves the stick back to center, the helicopter automatically rolls or brid mode worked. Pilots, however, pitches back to level again. rejected it because they say it was too vague; they preferred knowing that •Translational rate command: The pilot adjusts the angle of pitch or they were working in only one mode. roll to control horizontal movement or speed. Moving the stick left auto- The ship-landing research proj- matically moves the helicopter in that direction. The larger the stick move- ect is scheduled to continue to 2016. ment, the higher the speed. Moving the stick back to center halts the heli- Among the next steps, Horn says, the copter to a hover. The pilot no longer must stabilize the aircraft’s attitude or Penn State researchers will look at angle of tilt. Some pilots may perceive the stability of the aircraft as slug- forms of translational rate command gishness compared to mechanical controls. mode landings that can match the aircraft’s speed and direction with •Translational rate command with position hold: All the capability the ship’s, without any signals re- of translation rate command, plus the pilot can make the helicopter hover quired from the ship. above a point on the ground by leaving the stick in the center position, and Horn started another project last the computer automatically adjusts the helicopter’s position if winds knock year to take helicopter deck-landing the aircraft off that spot. automation to the next step: the pilot would simply push a button and the aircraft would land automatically. Software would predict when the deck will be level for a touchdown. “We add in this ship-motion pre- To test extreme conditions, re- the deck landings. This form — be- diction algorithm, so that it would searchers cranked up the simulation sides responding more quickly to pilot take the aircraft in, and it would look to 6 on the Beaufort Wind Scale with input than a typical translational rate at the deck motion, and try to time winds of up to 31 miles per hour and command mode — also had the heli- the final descent to landing so that waves up to 13 feet. That translates copter locking on to the speed and you get a nice match on the deck to a ship’s deck rolling by as much as direction of the ship when it flew over when you settle down,” Horn says. 30 degrees. the deck, leaving the pilot to concen- That software would assume that The Beaufort scale ranges from trate on controlling the aircraft’s some kind of signaling of the deck’s zero, indicating mirror-smooth ocean, movements relative to the deck. motion would be sent to the aircraft. to 12, referring to hurricane-force Though the test pilots liked the The project, however, doesn’t involve winds and huge waves. helicopter’s the translational rate com- figuring out how such a sensor sys- The test pilots rated a form of the mand mode, researchers found they tem would work. translational rate command mode as had to speed up the aircraft’s respon- Keith Button the sweet spot for automation with siveness beyond current military [email protected]

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 13 Conversation

Jaiwon Shin is NASA’s longest-serving associate administrator for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and the 32nd to oversee NASA Aeronautics since the agency was created in 1958.

14 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 Interview by Kyung M. Song [email protected] Airplanes guy at

Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator ‘space agency’ for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

You’re 55. What do you think air benefit for lowering fuel consump- While many of his colleagues at NASA travel is going to be like when tion and also noise reduction. your grandchildren are your age? peer into deep space and plot inter- It’s hard to predict but probably Is it in the realm of the possibility planetary travel, Jaiwon Shin is focused even 30 years out, we will still see in your lifetime? on the skies closer to Earth. the current tube-and-wing [configu- I would like to think so. I need to The South Korean native leads the ration]. Boeing and Airbus, they’re live a little bit longer (he chuckles). still producing a lot [of] tube-and- But here’s a little bit of dilemma that smallest of NASA’s four mission director- wing aircraft. But we could be seeing Boeing and Pratt & Whitney and GE ates — but still arguably the world’s lead- very different segment that probably have, in that their orders are all the ing public aeronautics research and devel- occupies a different altitude, not just way out to probably 10 years based always 35,000 feet and above. It on current configuration and certain opment body. Shin commands a budget could be much lower altitude. It state-of-the-art technologies. The 737 of $651 million (including an extra $100 could be autonomous aircraft, MAX is a classic example in that million from Congress in this fiscal year). smaller unmanned aerial systems op- rather than changing the configura- That’s less than 5 percent of NASA’s total erated by companies like Amazon or tion, [Boeing decided on] swapping Google. Who knows, maybe Pizza the engines with much more fuel-ef- budget and equal to what Boeing spends Hut even could operate a small UAS. ficient engines and also doing some on R&D in two months. structural improvements. Airlines op- Nonetheless, Shin and his researchers These airplanes you’re talking erate airplanes 20-plus years. So how have a big job: advancing technologies about 30 years out, would they be do you insert a completely new con- largely recognizable to people to- figuration? That’s a big decision. that would enable revolutionary changes day? in air travel. That might mean airliners It could be different because what Is that a decision for NASA to pur- that burn half the fuel or fly twice as you see is small UAS with the sort of sue? quadcopters that take off vertically Our role is not to really develop fast as those in the air today. Or it could and fly at a decent speed. That kind all the technologies to make this air- mean a new breed of air-transport of technology could improve quite a plane but rather we develop the key vehicles, manned or unmanned. It could bit in the future. One area that people technologies and lower the risk so even mean preventing foul weather are talking about is air taxi kind of that the industry can enter into that idea. In huge metropolitan areas like type of investment when they think from stranding millions of air passengers. New York and the Bay Area, it’s plau- the market is ready. A compact man with a vigorous sible that autonomous, small air vehi- handshake, Shin says his job leaves little cles could operate like taxis. You When you’re working on the en- time for other passions. He’s a sports press the button, it takes off vertically abling technology, don’t you have and goes to the destination and lands. some vision of what kind of air- car buff; he drives a 2003 Acura NSX, plane that’s going to lead to? which is becoming a collector’s item. What about the flying wing design We have what we call generations Kyung M. Song spoke to Shin in his that you’ve talked about? of technologies. If we call the cur- That’s a different kind of large rent technology generation N, we office at NASA headquarters. transport category. We call it hybrid have N+1, N+2, N+3. So the industry wing body. That type of a configura- knows where NASA is providing tion really promises tremendous these next generation technologies.

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 15 That hybrid wing-body configuration you talked about, we classify that as NASA’s Jaiwon Shin N+2. It’s not N+1 generation like a Associate administrator, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate 737 MAX, which stays with the cur- since February 2008 rent configuration but employs a lot of new technologies. Age: 55 Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea So, if we’re going to have some kind of a game-changing redesign Education: Ph.D., Virginia Tech; masters, Cal State Long Beach; bachelor’s of airliners, is that likely to come Yonsei University, Seoul (all in mechanical engineering). from NASA, or from Boeing or Air- Previously: Deputy associate administrator, Aeronautics Research Mission bus researchers? Directorate (2004-2008); chief of Aeronautics Projects Office, NASA Glenn We develop technologies. We’re not developing airplanes. That’s in- (2002-2004); chief of Aviation Safety Program office and deputy program dustry’s role. We develop technolo- manager for NASA’s Aviation Safety Program and Airspace Systems gies and transfer those technologies Program (1998-2002) to companies like Boeing or U.S. avi- Residence: Oakton, Virginia ation companies in general. And then they will make their own invest- Family: Wife, Bongok Paik ments. The best example [would be Notable quote: “What keeps me going are two things: my faith in God and something] like winglets. That idea my love for NASA.” came from NASA researchers. But we didn’t go out and install these winglets on the existing airplanes. I don’t wantto see that (he Where do you think the line So NASA research is shared fully laughs). I want our researchers to be should be between public and pri- and completely with Boeing? excited for the national priority, not vate investment in pursuing some Not just Boeing but a broad spec- just their own interest. The new of these revolutionary technolo- trum of the U.S. aviation industry. strategy is not just setting [a] new gies? We don’t target a certain company to strategy but it involves cultural I think a public organization like just help a certain company. That’s changes as well. For example, if NASA should go after really high- an important point, because we you’re a CFD [computational fluid risk, revolutionary, game-changing have been embroiled in this World dynamics] person, you’re not only ideas. The industry worries about Trade Organization dispute that the looking at your own discipline but their bottom line so sometimes they European Union is subsidizing its you work with materials and struc- cannot justify investing heavily on aviation industry. tures and also engine disciplines and this very high-risk research. That’s so on, and try to come up with sys- where government research comes Talk about the restructuring tems-level solutions. in. That hybrid wing body is a classic you’ve initiated the last couple of example. They’re not ready to start years. If the focus is really trying to align building this aircraft as yet, but who It was our effort to set the ground- the research priorities with na- knows? In 20 years out, that may be work for NASA aeronautics to stay as tional priorities, where does that a really, really viable concept. world leader for conducting aeronautics leave room for long-shot ideas R&D for the next 100 years. I believe that may or may not pan out? You believe the U.S. is still No. 1? we are still the leading public R&D or- National priorities are not short- I believe so. That’s not to mini- ganization in the world. But we don’t term or near-term goals. National pri- mize the international capabilities. want to be complacent. We want to [be] orities could be like enabling UAS in- Combine that with the strength that agile in capitalizing on what’s happen- tegration into NAS [National Airspace the U.S. industry has. For example, ing even outside aerospace sectors. The System]. Another is reducing fuel con- Boeing’s new 787, the order on the tremendous advances in information, sumption from aviation. Airlines and books is well over 1,000 aircraft. communication and automation. So we the military combined, we are spend- Why is that? Because that aircraft want to make sure that we are address- ing like $80 billion annually on fuel. consumes some 20 percent less fuels ing the right national needs. And fuel consumption takes up to 40 than the class it’s replacing. Many of to 50 percent of airlines’ operating the airline executives told me that if Give me an example of a kind of a cost. So, reducing fuel consumption is they can save even 1 or 2 percent on project that might get your re- a huge national priority. Protecting the fuel from their fleet, they will be go- searchers really excited but might environment around the airport, local ing out on the street and dancing. not be something that ranks very community noise and emissions, that’s But there are a lot of emerging chal- high as a national priority. another national priority. lenges coming at us. Both Boeing

16 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 and Airbus are projecting that there problem is they have to fly at least space, whereas in aeronautics it’s will be close to 34,000 new airplanes 10-plus hours to get to any place. only a developer. needed by 2033. That’s why China is People eventually will start demand- working to produce [a] direct coming shorter flying time. But there are Americans might be wondering petitor to the Boeing 737 class. There all kinds of technical barriers to that. whether we can have both a are a lot of countries like this. China, The FAA now has a ban on civil su- manned mission to Mars and also Russia. Japan is building regional jets personic flight over land because of not have all these planes canceled to compete with Brazil and Canada. the sonic boom issue. It could rattle whenever there is a thunder- And Brazil and Canada are already windows and break windows. You storm. very well equipped and capable of can’t fly supersonically over land, so (Laughs) We are doing a lot of air sizing up their regional jets to be why build a supersonic aircraft? So traffic management research and we more like 737s. NASA has been working on technolo- transferred our many tools to the gies to develop the shape that will FAA in the past four years, which So do you not expect this Boeing- minimize the sonic boom intensity. If will certainly optimize the terminal Airbus duopoly for large jetliners we successfully do that, then I think area, meaning where all the choking to survive? there are U.S. companies that are points are. Over time, there will be a third very much interested in building su- block. It could be combination of personic airplanes. How diverse is you research and China, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Canada. engineering staff at NASA? Or, it could be India. All these coun- Is there a scientific consensus on We’ve come a long way, I think, tries could form another block to what is acceptable or tolerable compared to when I started back in compete with Airbus and Boeing. level of sonic boom? 1989. The leadership here, from Boeing actually made a comment at Yeah. We tested a lot at about 85 [NASA Administrator] Charlie Bolden the AIAA SciTech [forum] back in decibel — perceived decibel level. on down, diversity and inclusion is a January that they’re already thinking Our researchers told me that’s like big emphasis for the agency. that duopoly is over. your alarm clock going off next to your bedside. I actually have been in Are you concerned about the But this is happening at the time simulated chamber with that, about quality of STEM education in this when the market is also expand- 85 decibels. It’s very acceptable. country and what that means for ing though. recruiting in the future? Very good point. The Asia Pacific traffic is primar- I’m not concerned about the qual- ily over water, so how does a ity, but there is a little bit of trend What’s the threat then, really, for sonic jet help with that? people worry about that a lot of us? Our continent is huge, from L.A. young students are interested in sort The threat is there may be enough to New York. It doesn’t make any of becoming rich quickly. opportunity to go around, but that sense for us to operate these super- will come to an end at [a] certain sonic airplanes only from the coasts. And that’s gonna not happen at point. That’s why we’ve been work- And there aren’t many populated city NASA? ing on [the] hybrid wing body con- pairs along the coastlines that’s go- (Laughs) I’m not a millionaire. It’s cept along with few other concepts ing to make the airlines profitable for more of a sense of duty for the coun- as well that could reduce fuel con- operating supersonic airplanes. try. The challenge in science and en- sumption by 40 to 50 percent, not 20 Countries like China and Russia are gineering is how do you compete in percent. So, that could be one new the same situation. You have to fly this era of tremendously exciting IT capability or it could be supersonic over land at some point. and computer world [of] Google? At flight or it could be all types of UAS. many of the leading institutions in Aeronautics research is a tiny this country, a big percentage of Talk about the supersonic tech- portion of NASA. You’ve said you graduate student population is inter- nology. What is the promise are fine with that. But do you national students. I was one of them. there? think that ratio is reflective of I came to this country to study and Growth in air travel is shifting, our national priorities? get my advanced degree, but I was and has been shifting, to Asia Pacific I wouldn’t call it tiny (he laughs). given an opportunity to stay in the region. You’re originally from Korea, But it is a small portion of the agency country. too, right? budget. I think we are hovering around 4 percent now. But the space You mean that wasn’t your origi- Right. side requires a large sum of money. nal plan? So we know how long it takes to Developing rockets and any kind of I thought I was going back to Ko- fly to Korea from here. China alone spacecraft is several hundred million rea after I finish my Ph.D. But I was will add about 200 million passen- dollars. NASA is also both a devel- given an opportunity to work at gers between 2011 and 2016. The oper and operator when it comes to NASA, and I’m still here.

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 17 Why astronauts train in planes Veteran astronaut and pilot Tom Jones explains how a fleet of decades old jets continues to prepare astronauts for that moment when a spaceflight suddenly goes from smoothly on plan to a life-and-death test of teamwork.

I was a member of a National Re- the upper atmosphere, “down-moded” stead, she stayed in the game as flight search Council panel that in 2011 ex- to a steeper and hotter ballistic reen- engineer and helped the Soyuz com- amined NASA’s post-shuttle astronaut try that subjected the crew to more mander get the crew down safely. training needs. One day, Peggy Whit- than 8 Gs. Smoke entered the cabin Fortunately for Whitson and her son, who was then NASA’s chief astro- and the crew executed the electrical astronaut colleagues, the T-38s today naut, came to speak to us. She told us fire checklist to power down most of are still serving as the principal tools about her hair-raising, 2008 reentry their flight instruments. High winds in for Spaceflight Readiness Training after commanding Expedition 16 crew Kazakhstan then rewarded the crew (SFRT), despite the end of the shuttle on the International Space Station. An with a hard landing. Whitson, a Ph.D. era and constant pressure on NASA’s explosive bolt failure caused her biochemist before she came to NASA, budget. Astronauts routinely take the crew’s Soyuz TMA-11 service module told us flatly that without her flight ex- T-38 to altitudes above 40,000 feet to separate late from the descent mod- perience in NASA’s T-38 jet trainers, and cruise close to the speed of sound ule. The flight computer, unable to fly the rapid-fire chain of emergencies to conduct aerobatic training or com- the planned lifting reentry through might well have overwhelmed her. In- plete the SFRT syllabus. Such training NASA NASA’s T-38N trainer jet cockpit displays don’t look like that of any particular spacecraft. But its modern display technology is similar to those on the upgraded Soyuz capsules and new commercial space transports.

18 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 NASA’s T-38N supersonic jet is used to train astronauts for spaceflight.

is an excellent analog to spaceflight, and is especially relevant to NASA’s recruitment of more engineering and NASA science astronaut candidates, with lit- T-38’s exact simulation tle or no flight experience. They will of a spacecraft’s controls. In work on ISS, and many will also have fact, the T-38 cockpit displays don’t to master the forthcoming commercial mimic any particular spacecraft’s space transports and the Orion deep- panel, although they use modern space multipurpose crew module. technology similar to those of the Decision-making in new commercial space transports space closely mimics the fast- High-altitude classroom and the upgraded Soyuz capsules. paced thinking needed in aviation, Designed for training new Air Force What T-38 training does deliver is where multiple factors like weather, pilots, the T-38s have front and rear a dynamic environment that teaches fuel state, systems malfunctions and cockpits with duplicate controls. astronauts to make good decisions, to converging traffic must be weighed NASA instructors or test-pilot-quali- coolly respond to deteriorating situa- quickly to accomplish the mission. fied astronauts fly the plane from the tions, and to operate as a team even While flying, there’s no turning back front cockpit, but non-test-pilot astro- under stress. A 2008 study by the Air- from the consequences of your deci- nauts must ride in the rear, sharing craft Operations Division and the As- sion: Unlike in a simulator, what you duties with the front-seater. For exam- tronaut Office at Johnson Space Cen- decide can have a real impact on ple, I was an ex-Air Force pilot, once ter concluded that the T-38s effectively your safety or survival. qualified in T38s and B-52s, when I instill discipline, prioritization, crew The physical sensations experi- became a shuttle astronaut. But as a coordination, communication, deci- enced in a T-38 — vibrations, G-forces, mission specialist astronaut without sion-making, and space flight envi- lowered cabin pressure and even the test flying credentials, at NASA I flew ronment adaptation. weight and smell of a parachute and in the rear cockpit, splitting hands-on Prioritization and discipline, in oxygen mask — help prepare an astro- flying time, navigation, and radio particular, are keys to flight safety. As- naut for the unfamiliar sensory envi- work with my front-seat colleague. tronauts must identify the most critical ronment of spaceflight. During the shuttle era, T-38 train- tasks in flight and stay focused on ing honed the critical skills pilots solving them despite competing NASA’s White Rocket needed to bring an orbiter to a safe stresses and sensory distractions. The Northrop T-38 Talon first flew in landing in Florida (or California) after Story Musgrave, my crew mate on Co- April 1959. The world’s first super- two or more weeks in space. There is lumbia’s STS-80 mission in 1996, told sonic trainer, it could reach speeds of less piloting to do in the wingless a NASA interviewer that when you Mach 1.3, and in 1962, a T-38A set Soyuz and commercial crew trans- soar aloft in a T-38, “you’re in a differ- world time-to-climb records to 3,000, ports when things go normally. But as ent world, a dynamic world — it 6,000, 9,000 and 12,000 meters. Pilots Whitson’s story shows, in spaceflight doesn’t matter whether it’s a space- called it “the white rocket.” the situation can change quickly. craft or a T-38. It’s understanding the In the late 1980s, NASA began NASA doesn’t want to put its astro- rules, how to live within the rules.” upgrading its T-38s to better meet nauts in those vehicles without having Communication and crew coordi- specific astronaut training needs. The them first gain experience in dynamic nation go hand-in-hand, as crewmem- Aircraft Operations Division at NASA flight using its fleet of T-38N Talons. bers share information and failure as- Johnson executed a phased aircraft The value of Spaceflight Readi- sessments and then work smoothly ness Training does not stem from the together to handle in-flight emergencies. continued on page 23

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 19 Case Study

Lotus: Two aircraft in one

A V-22 tiltrotor can take off Electric propulsion sets aircraft can place the propulsion system in and land vertically but it can’t designers free to explore many cre- locations that people haven’t been ative and innovative aircraft con- able to look at before. loiter for long. A Global Hawk figurations that were never possible On the Lotus, we have a motor in with traditional combustion power. each wingtip to enable our wingtip can stay up for 32 hours, but We don’t have to consider the con- propeller configuration. The wingtip it needs a runway. One of straints of combustion engines, surfaces scissor into two-blade pro- which are large, heavy and relatively pellers during VTOL flight and fold aviation’s great remaining feats maintenance-intensive. At the same back to become the wingtips during would be to make one aircraft time, because this technology has cruise, increasing the wing area by only recently advanced to a level 21 percent. A single tail rotor pro- that can do VTOL – vertical where these new configurations vides forward propulsion. As far as takeoff and landing – and also may be practical, we have virtually we know, no one’s ever done this no historical data to draw on, which before. This design would be im- provide long endurance. Among required conducting lots of analyses practical with traditional combustion those chasing this dream are and simulations. engines, because you would have to Such has been the case with drive the wingtips by either a com- the engineers at Joby Aviation our Lotus, a 55-pound scale proto- plex transmission connected to a fu- in Santa Cruz, California. With type unmanned aircraft we’ve been selage-mounted engine, or by placing working on at Joby Aviation in Santa an engine at each wingtip. funds from NASA, they are about Cruz since March 2013 under a NASA On top of that, instead of simply contract. Joby specializes in electri- controlling the propeller revolutions to fly a subscale unmanned cal vertical takeoff and landing, or per minute to vary thrust, a complicated plane called Lotus whose VTOL, aircraft, which is the basis collective pitch-control mechanism of our Lotus design. There are only would likely be required. Our power wingtips can morph into a few locations where combustion comes from a single pack of lithium- propellers. The plane’s chief engines can be practically located ion battery cells like those in a Tesla on an airframe. Once you go elec- car. The pack is located in the fuselage designer, Alex Stoll, describes tric, you can propel the aircraft with and delivers electricity via lightweight the innovations behind this small, lightweight motors connected cables to each wingtip motor and to a by wire to a power source (typically motor at the tail rotor. We run the mo- unusual aircraft. a bank of lithium ion batteries) any- tors at 48 volts. where in the aircraft. Suddenly, you Even before Lotus, NASA engi-

Lotus viewed in a computational fluid dynamics simulation produced by STAR-CCM+ software. Blue areas on the aircraft’s surface represent lower pressure and yellow depicts higher pressure. The colorful streams in the aircraft’s wake and beyond its wingtips are vortices. Joby Aviation

20 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 neers saw the potential for wings to transform into propellers as a solu- Wingtip anatomy tion to the long-endurance VTOL problem. On a traditional helicopter, Engineers needed to make the Lotus’ wingtips transformable the rotors are a very inefficient way to create lift at cruise speed. A bet- into spinning propellers. The key components are shown ter lift to drag ratio can be achieved here with the carbon composite wing depicted with a fixed wing. The V-22 tiltrotor partially addresses this problem by as translucent. tilting the engine nacelles up during VTOL and level for cruise, relying on a fixed wing to create lift during that mode. Since the same propellers are used for VTOL and for cruise, 2. Electric motor their design is a compromise and the Turns the propeller blades 3. Carbon spars maximum cruise efficiency is limited. and is bonded to a Provide structural By transforming VTOL propellers low-drag carbon fiber support for the wings. into wingtips in cruise, a separate fairing that forms and more efficient cruise propeller the outer mold line can be used. of this portion At first, NASA suggested that we of the wing. develop a concept, initially described in 2009, called Dos Samara. This design called for wingtips that would each transform during VTOL into a single-bladed rotor. We saw significant disadvantages to this approach. The thrust of this blade is not centered 1. Linkage assembly about the motor, resulting in substan- Tilts the wingtips forward or backward tial cyclic loading during VTOL. Also, for yaw control in hover or forward the single blade requires a coun- to improve performance during terweight to balance the rotor. This acceleration to cruise. counterweight travels through the air Source: Joby Aviation in opposite directions in the VTOL and cruise configurations, meaning its shape is an aerodynamic compromise, ternate approach to the long-endur- are largely applicable to new aircraft. which significantly reduces efficiency ance VTOL problem. This aircraft is We had to start from scratch. Specifi- in VTOL and/or cruise. By using a called the GL-10 Greased Lightning. cally, we needed to maximize the ef- two-bladed propeller, we all but elim- Lotus and Greased Lightning are de- ficiency of the wing tip surfaces, the inate these two issues. signed for the same mission but have drag produced by our split-wingtip de- The Lotus wingtip propellers are completely different configurations. sign. We analyzed dozens of different driven by custom electric motors. The Greased Lightning has tiltable wings versions of the tips using CD-adapco’s propellers are scissored closed for with many small, electrically driven computational fluid dynamics simula- cruise flight by the same motors, pro- propellers along them. tion software, called STAR-CCM+. We ducing a clean, low-drag wing shape. We prefer our split wingtips, which simulated different wingtip dihedrals This design results in an unusual split have the potential to provide better loi- (meaning the up-and-down angles rela- wingtip, because it would have been ter performance. When we started work tive to the fuselage); pitch angle, taper, impractical to split the tip and retain on Lotus in 2013, one of our first tasks twist and sweep, as well as different an aerodynamic shape for both the was to evaluate this configuration’s airfoil choices. We chose the combina- wingtip and the rotor blades. aerodynamic tradeoffs.This would not tion that gave us the best performance NASA funded us to create Lotus, be like designing a new helicopter, in in forward flight without sacrificing the while a NASA team developed an al- which design trends from earlier aircraft performance of these surfaces when

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 21 Case Study

VTOL Cruise Joby Aviation

Transitioning from hover to fixed-wing flight they’re operating as propeller blades. produces more lift and the tip section blade than the root section. In short, Our greatest challenge was to take is less important. When the blades are we optimized the tip section to have into account this dual function. We ta- spinning as rotors, the tip section is good performance as a rotor blade, pered the blades so the root section actually moving through the air much and then optimized the root section to has a larger chord than the tip section. faster than the root section, so the tip have good performance as a wing. When the blades are operating as a section is actually much more impor- So far, we’ve been testing Lotus on wing, the root section’s longer chord tant to the performance of the rotor our Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck rigged with an instrumented test mount ahead of the cab that allows the mount- ing of wings, propellers or aircraft. On the tight budget of this program, this is הטכניון – טכנולוגימכון לישראל a much more effective way to test the הפקולטה להנדסת אוירונוטיקה וחלל performance than traditional wind tun- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Faculty of Aerospace Engineering nel tests. We are planning to conduct our first flight test this year and we’re Meir Hanin International Memorial Prize currently assessing test site options. If things go as well as our analysis The Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the Technion announces the Meir suggests, we’ll have some exciting de- Hanin International Memorial Prize of US$10,000 from the Hanin cisions ahead. We may put Lotus into Endowment, in memory of Prof. Meir Hanin, a prominent researcher in production at the current 55-pound theoretical aerodynamics and member of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering size instead of, or in addition to, our from 1955 to 1999. planned 275-pound version that will have a hybrid powertrain in which a The prize is awarded once every two years for substantial scientific and/or small gas engine produces electric- technological achievements in aerospace sciences. Nominees from any country, ity for the electric motors. It has the regardless of religion, race, sex, or nationality, must have some association with potential to become the first VTOL the Technion and can only be nominated by the following: Technion faculty aircraft with true 24-hour endurance members, previous Hanin Prize winners, members of the Israel Academy of with a usable payload. Science, Presidents and Members of the Board of Institutes of Higher Learning, QQQ and CEOs of companies specializing in aerospace products. Alex Stoll is an aeronautical Nominations, together with all relevant supporting material, should be sent to engineer at Joby Aviation Prof. Jacob Cohen, Dean of Aerospace Engineering, Technion – IIT, Haifa and the chief designer of 32000, Israel ([email protected]) by July 30, 2015. the Joby Lotus. He earned The prize will be awarded in March 2016 at the Israel Annual Conference a Master of Science degree in aeronautics and astronautics from on Aerospace Sciences, which the winner must personally attend. In addition, Stanford in 2010 and an engineering he/she will give at least two public lectures at the Technion. degree in 2012. He graduated from (The Hanin Endowment will cover the winner's accommodation and travel Rice University in 2008 with a Bach- expenses.) elor of Science degree in mechanical engineering.

22 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 continued from page 19 avionics upgrade program, giving this ings, equipment in- improved T-38N a weather radar, spections, checklists, flight management computer, and pri- radio discipline and mary flight instruments displayed on handling emergencies. “glass” cathode ray tubes. To improve To get its new, non- crew safety, NASA in 2001 began in- aviator astronauts up stalling new Martin Baker US16LA the learning curve ejection seats. These zero-zero seats even more quickly, [capable of a safe ejection even at NASA sends them to zero speed and zero altitude] broad- the Navy’s flight ened the escape envelope and eased school at Naval Air the dangers the old seat posed for the Station Pensacola in shortest and lightest members of the Florida for a six-week, astronaut corps. back-seat introductory Externally, the Talon received course in basic flying. modified engine inlets and ejector Astronaut pilots fly nozzles to improve high-density-alti- 12-15 hours a month to tude takeoff and cruise performance. maintain front-seat Those modifications have reduced the proficiency, while T-38’s supersonic capability, but that back-seat crewmem- speed regime is incidental to astro- bers aim for 6 hours naut training. per month. Astronauts NASA began a second cockpit not assigned to a mis- upgrade program in 2006. “The way sion spend about 10 we went with our upgrade was more percent of their train- an advanced biz-jet mentality, suited ing time in the T-38, to our flying cross-country missions while assigned crew- and dealing with bad weather,” recalls members, with many Richard N. “Dick” Clark, who until last competing training de- November was chief of the Aircraft mands, log just 5 per- Operations Division in Houston. cent cockpit time. The NASA added a weather data link to goal is to get experi- complement the existing weather ra- enced military pilots dar; a GPS-based flight management and astronaut candi- system; and switched to large, flat- dates fresh to aviation panel displays. “It’s a much more ca- to perform as a capa- NASA pable and effective airplane today,” ble, qualified T-38 Clark says. crew, accumulating NASA has upgraded its T-38N jets with Martin Baker US16LN ejection seats NASA has reduced the size of the “classroom” time aloft. to lessen danger to astronaut trainees. The seats can safely eject occupants T-38 fleet to match the reduction in the The National Re- even at zero altitude and zero airspeed. astronaut corps from 150 fliers 10 years search Council panel ago to 50 or 55 today. NASA now main- confirmed the need for continuing ronment of spaceflight. There are oth- tains 18 operational jets and two Spaceflight Readiness Training. Our ers that we have used or evaluated: the spares. In the last decade, the budget 2011 report, “Preparing for the High National Outdoor Leadership School, for the Aircraft Operations Division has Frontier,” found that SFRT provided the underwater habitat, and submarine declined by half. astronauts with training “that cannot damage control training, to name three. NASA and its aviation mainte- be duplicated by current...or pro- But exposing future spacecraft crew- nance contractor, DynCorp Interna- jected alternative techniques or tech- members to the aviation environment, tional, prepare seven aircraft and two nologies.” The NRC recommended where things happen fast, where the spares for daily operations. Twelve to that “to ensure continued safety and crew needs to think and react quickly, 15 sorties launch from Ellington Field mission success, NASA should main- and where the decisions they make can in Houston each weekday, totaling tain a spaceflight readiness training mean the difference between success about 4,000 flight hours per year. program that includes high perfor- and failure in a personally mortal mance aircraft.” sense, is the best way to help them be From Wings to Rockets Retired chief astronaut Ken Cock- successful in space.” The T-38 exposes trainees who rell, my commander on two shuttle Tom Jones are new to aviation to spaceflight-re- missions, says “aviation is certainly the [email protected] lated activities such as preflight brief- closest analog to the operational envi- www.AstronautTomJones.com

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 23 The School Zone

Samantha Walters [email protected]

Upside of Mars One venture ZA Architects

A rendering by the German firm ZA Architects shows how robots may dig underground caves — similar to basalt caves on Earth — for human inhabitants on Mars.

Like many aerospace engineers just technology of the Apollo era and the portant lessons in the Mars One saga, beginning their careers, I yearn for founding of the Mars Society advo- regardless of the controversy swirling another “giant leap for mankind,” cacy group in 1998, arguably the around it. One of my classmates ap- specifically one on Mars. I don’t mean most public interest in sending hu- parently heard about Mars One in the to belittle the scientific achievements mans to Mars was generated in the media, but when she brought up the and benefits to international coopera- last three years by two Dutch entre- topic in class, she confused this tion from the International Space Sta- preneurs. Bas Lansdorp and Arno startup advocacy group with NASA. tion. I also recognize the knowledge Wielders in 2012 announced plans for I was troubled to hear such a gained by NASA’s space telescopes Mars One, a non-profit organization garbled version of reality, but I real- and robotic missions. But there is no based in the Netherlands aiming to ized that it was the first time I’d heard achievement like sending human ex- send humans on a one-way trip to anyone outside my engineering class plorers beyond Earth’s orbit, some- Mars to establish a permanent settle- mention space exploration. The posi- thing humanity hasn’t done since ment by 2027 and beam home videos tive aspects of Mars One are that it Apollo 17 in 1972. for a reality TV show. has created buzz outside the science Plans for exploration of the Mar- I’ll leave it to others to assess the community, and its organizers have tian surface have been in the works technical and financial merits of the demonstrated the potential of build- since at least 1952, when Wernher Mars One proposal and the ethics of ing public support. von Braun published “The Mars Proj- sending people on a one-way trip. In just three years, Mars One says ect,” the first serious technical study Still, a recent exchange in my creative it convinced more than 200,000 peo- of how that might be done. Yet de- writing class at the University of Mary- ple from around the globe to sign up spite the mind-boggling leapfrogs in land showed me there might be im- for a flight to Mars with no return date.

24 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 It also has raised almost $800,000. That dollar figure, of course, is nowhere enough to get to Mars. But it Mars One proves people are genuinely excited enough about the idea to put their money in it. Imagine what might happen if NASA, with its years of technical expertise and laboratory infrastructure, could get people as excited about a Mars One’s timeline envisions first humans landing on Mars Mars mission as the Mars One orga- by 2027, 16 years after the Dutch project’s founding. nizers did with its applicants. As engineers, we tend to hide in our isolated, jargon-filled bubble, something that everyone can compre- QQQ with little thought to sharing the cool hend and get excited about. Mars Samantha Walters is a senior at the stuff we do with the wider public. We One has sparked that excitement University of Maryland majoring in have watched the nation’s fervor for once again by making space feel ac- aerospace engineering with a focus in space exploration during the 1960s cessible to the average person. It’s space systems. After graduating in Au- diminish to something few people to- now up to NASA and the rest of the gust, she will work in engineering op- day think about and even fewer peo- world’s aerospace leaders to use that erations at the NASA Jet Propulsion ple understand. spark to ignite a legitimate mission Lab, where she interned for the past The will to explore, however, is to Mars. two summers.

News From Intelligent Light

Reduce Data Three Orders of Magnitude while Retaining Full Fidelity Interaction between turbines in a wind farm may lead to a loss of energy. Researchers at Penn State University simulated an array of ﬁ ve NREL 5-MW turbines calculating 10 full rotor revolutions. This created 10 terabytes of CFD data, far exceeding the storage capacity of their compute cluster. Using FieldView XDB workﬂ ows reduced the data by three orders of magnitude while retaining full resolution of the original volume grid.

Quantitative Results Made Possible via XDBs The XDB surfaces were trimmed in FieldView based on wake expansion and then used to integrate ﬂ uxes of mass, momentum, power density, and Turbulent Kinetic Energy in cross planes above and below hub height. The result: a better understanding of atmospheric boundary layer interaction and its effect on power generation.

FieldView15 Advancing CFD, Advancing You. For More: www.ilight.com Intelligent Light

Image produced by Intelligent Light via XDBs from “Turbulence Transport Phenomena in the Wakes of Wind Turbines”, Jha et al, AHS 70th Annual Forum, Montreal Quebec, 2014.

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 25 Decloaking aviation’s famous duo The Wright Brothers Reviewed by Kristin Davis

The sons of a traveling preacher, Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, preferred the shadows of ob- scurity, remaining enigmatic even as the world eventually came to track their every move. “The Wright Brothers,” by Pulit- zer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, sweeps away any trace National Archives The Wright brothers test fly their aircraft — the world’s first military plane — in September 1908 of that enigma. McCullough culled in Fort Myer, Virginia. The plane stayed aloft 71 seconds the first time, but crashed the second flight. thousands of pages of letters, diaries, that first quiet flight in Kitty Hawk, When the brothers shifted their flights data books and other documents to North Carolina, in 1903, a highly-pub- to the farm fields outside Dayton to paint an intimate portrait of the licized, taxpayer-funded attempt by cut costs, they constructed a catapult brothers. The book vividly illustrates Samuel Langley had failed miserably. to compensate for the less windy con- how the brothers attacked one of hu- Many people insisted powered ditions. It was over those fields that manity’s greatest technical challenges flight was impossible. And yet the in- they flew not feet but miles, creating — powered flight — not with ad- side story of the Wright brothers and at last a Flyer suitable to introduce to vanced degrees or government back- the force of family behind them re- the world. When their own govern- ing but with ingenuity and grit. minds us that perhaps anything is ment ignored or rejected outright their The Wright brothers were never achievable with the right mindset and overtures, they went abroad, to France ordinary. Wilbur seemed destined for strategy. The odds against Orville and and England and Germany. It was in Yale when a hockey injury “changed Wilbur seemed incalculable as they Europe — and France in particular — the course of his life” and left him pushed through accidents, including that the Wright brothers became last- plagued with depression for the next one that claimed a life and nearly ingly linked with the birth of the air- three years. In high school, Orville took Orville’s. plane. started a print shop behind the family The brothers were singularly For those in search of a human home with “discarded tombstone, a driven. They wanted to study every- story of aviation, “The Wright Broth- buggy spring and scrap metal.” thing written in English about flight, ers” does not disappoint. The book Both were avid so they wrote to the also provides a layman’s glimpse into readers, especially Smithsonian for a how the Wrights, through trial and er- after Wilbur’s injury reading list. When ror and the study of birds and the fail- left him homebound they wanted to find ures of those before them, at last and Orville was a windy place to cracked the code of powered flight. struck by typhoid in test their first glider, “Before trying to rise to any dan- 1896. These turns of they wrote to the gerous height a man ought to know misfortune jump- weather bureau. that in an emergency his mind and started the brothers’ When the time muscles will work by instinct rather study of aeronautics came to motorize than conscious effort. There is no — and their dogged their invention, time to think,” Wilbur Wright told a pursuit of what the they consulted car crowd of engineers in Chicago before greatest minds of engine manufactur- making the first flight at Kitty Hawk. their time had failed ers. Finding noth- Later, after honing the Flyer 3 that to achieve. Once ing suitable, they made them famous, the brothers they began, nothing turned to the bril- would write: “The best dividends on would stop them. liant mechanic em- the labor invested have invariably And there was ployed at their bi- come from seeking more knowledge plenty that might cycle shop, and rather than more power.” have. Months before together the trio Kristin Davis Orville Wright made built their own. [email protected] Simon & Schuster 26 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 New Releases in AIAA’s Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics

Turbine Aerodynamics, Heat Transfer, Materials, and Mechanics Tom I-P. Shih and Vigor Yang An introduction to turbines in the context of fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and materials. Read about major considerations in the design of turbines, from aerodynamics to turbine cooling, seals, and clearance control for efficiency and performance; details of turbine cooling; super alloys, thermal barrier coatings, and mechanisms; and challenges that arise from burning alternative fuels and operating in dusty environments. AIAA MEMBER PRICE: $89.95 LIST PRICE: $129.95 ISBN: 978-1-62410-263-9

Computational Intelligence in Aerospace Sciences Massimiliano Vasile and Victor M. Becerra This book introduces the fundamental concepts and methods used in single and multi-objective optimization, game theory, and uncertainty quantification before detailing techniques across robotics, multidisciplinary design, aerodynamics, and space. Get an overview of different computational intelligence techniques with aerospace applications. Newcomers to this field of research will get fundamental information with advanced examples. AIAA MEMBER PRICE: $94.95 LIST PRICE: $134.95 ISBN: 978-1-62410-260-8

Check out AIAA’s Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics Publications Now! arc.aiaa.org

15-656-A Fire drones Unmanned planes have hunted terrorists and insurgents abroad for more than a decade. Debra Werner set out to find out why these aircraft haven’t been widely enlisted in the battles against deadly wildfires. With the U.S. fire season about to heat up, she discovered that some government managers and firefighters aim to change this.

28 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 Copyright 2015 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics irefighters in Western Australia flew Lockheed Martin’s 2.2 kilogram Ind- Fago quacopter earlier this year to gather nighttime imagery of a wildfire burning near Perth. Pictures from the craft’s electro-optical and infrared cameras may have helped save as many as 100 homes, Australia officials say. Indago is not the first unmanned aircraft tried for firefighting. Versions of the Predators built by General Atomics Aero- nautical Systems have been tested, too. Be- tween 2006 and 2009, NASA and the U.S. Forest Service flew NASA’s Predator B-based Ikhana research plane over South- ern California wildfires. NASA equipped Ikhana with a 16-channel multispectral camera, image processor and a satellite data link to send maps of the fire area to incident command centers on the ground. A few years later, Cal Fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, borrowed a Predator B from the California National Guard to map the Rim Fire that ravaged Yosemite National Park in 2013. The National Guard Predator watched the fire for 20 hours at a time from an altitude of 23,000 feet, using infrared cameras to capture detailed imagery that helped firefighters pinpoint the hottest areas, identify where vegetation already had been scorched and spot nearby brush that threatened to feed the flames, says Travis Alexan- der, Cal Fire battalion chief. Firefighters in Australia and the U.S. want more eyes in the sky because wildfires are getting bigger on average, possibly due to climate change. In the U.S., for example, fires are penetrating suburban areas more so than in the past. Managers wonder if unmanned aircraft — even small ones like the quadcopter in Australia — might help them tame fires more quickly. Although the demonstrations in Australia and the U.S. have gone well, incorporating unmanned planes into regular operations is tricky. Smoky, windy skies above fires are already NASA has tested the ability of unmanned aircraft crowded with planes and helicopters drop- to map wildfires by installing a multispectral camera on its Ikhana research plane. Ikhana is a ping retardant, surveying the scene and di- version of the MQ-9 Predator B built by General recting aerial firefighting operations. Atomics Aeronautical Systems. “There’s a lot of potential but there’s by Debra Werner also a lot of complications because fire- NASA [email protected]

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 29 As valuable as the quadcopters and Predator versions might prove to be, they can merely watch fires, not put them out. Firefighters do that in part by dropping thousands of gallons of retardant from large airtankers, cordoning off the fires until they burn out. For the foreseeable future, unmanned aircraft are unlikely to supplant these airtankers. Firefighters don’t have the dollars to develop their own unmanned airtanker. They would have to adapt a military drone, but right now the military doesn’t fly a drone capable of carrying 3,000 gallons of retardant like the Forest Service airtankers. Even the optionally-piloted KMAX helicopter, which was flown extensively in Afghanistan to

NASA transport cargo, can carry only 680 gallons NASA’s Predator B drone Ikhana at a time. took this infrared thermal image fighting with aircraft is very dangerous,” Instead, firefighters are evaluating in 2007 of the Harris fire near the California-Mexico border. says Jim Williams, manager of the FA A’s whether unmanned aircraft built to trans- The black area is the El Capitan unmanned aircraft systems integration of- port cargo or capture imagery for military Reservoir and the reddish area fice. “Intermixing unmanned aircraft into forces and police departments can be de- indicates where the fire has burned or is still smoldering. firefighting has to be done carefully so it ployed in supporting roles, such as map- does not increase the risk of an already ping fire areas, moving supplies, relaying risky operation.” communications and dropping water or re- Firefighters worry unmanned aircraft tardant in smaller quantities. could get in the way of the piloted airtank- One way to do that without threaten- ers that drop retardant or cause a crash. ing piloted aircraft would be to fly un- For that reason, firefighting agencies are manned aircraft over fires when darkness working with the FAA to establish rules or smoke prevents manned aircraft from outlining how and when these flights can flying near a blaze. That’s what Mark Bath- be conducted. The hope is to make un- rick and Bradley Koeckeritz of the U.S. In- manned flights a regular part of the fire- terior Department are proposing. Bathrick, fighting business. That would mean end- a former U.S. Navy aviator and test pilot, ing today’s requirement to seek special directs the department’s Aviation Services permission from the FAA for each set of Office; Koeckeritz is the unmanned air- unmanned fire flights. There can be other craft specialist there. complications, too. Cal Fire needed the They note that in January, the FAA and U.S. defense secretary to sign off on its Interior Department signed a memorandum use of the California National Guard’s of understanding allowing Interior to use Predator during the Rim Fire. unmanned aircraft weighing 55 pounds or less and flying below 400 feet to monitor natural resources and to conduct search and rescue missions on the agency’s land. Interior personnel can now fly unmanned

Lockheed Martin aircraft after submitting a special type of COAs — Certificates of Waiver or Authoriza- tion — to the FAA, called a COA by notifica- tion. Unlike traditional COAs, the Interior Department’s enables it to file flight plans and fly immediately without waiting for the FAA to approve the plan. Eye in the sky in minutes: That ‘s the firefighting advantage Lockheed Martin sees for its vertical-takeoff-and-landing Koeckeritz and Bathrick want to estab- Indago VTOL Quad Rotor. lish a similar policy to test unmanned or optionally piloted planes against fires. They

30 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 “If a pilot could fly the aircraft during the day and operate it remotely at other times, that could make a substantial impact on our ability to contain and eventually extinguish fires.” BRADLEY KOECKERITZ, United States Department of the Interior

know that it could take years before the FAA establishes rules to allow manned and unmanned aircraft to operate in the same

airspace at the same time. Hence their pro- Lockheed Martin posal to fly unmanned at night in the mountains or through smoke to ferry food, water, fuel, chainsaws and other supplies to firefighters. Piloted planes would be nowhere around in those situations. A K-MAX helicopter — with a safety pilot On a good day, when conditions per- on board but solely controlled by a ground mit, manned aircraft typically support fire- operator — douses flames in a demonstration fighters for about eight hours. “With option- last November by Lockheed Martin and Kaman, the K-MAX manufacturer. ally piloted aircraft, we have the potential A 2.2-kilogram Lockheed Martin Indago to more than double those hours,” Koecker- quadcopter (not shown) identified hot spots itz says. “If a pilot could fly the aircraft for the ground operator. during the day and operate it remotely at other times, that could make a substantial impact on our ability to contain and eventually extinguish fires.” Last November, Lockheed Martin and Kaman Aerospace demonstrated that unmanned aircraft could put out a small fire. In flights conducted at the New York Un- manned Aerial System Test Site at Griffiss International Airport, the Lockheed Mar- tin-Kaman team used an Indago to pinpoint the location of a fire. Indago transmitted the fire’s precise location to a ground station, which shared the data with the operator of a remotely-controlled K-MAX helicopter. The K-MAX conducted a series of flights, dumping more than 2,880 gallons of water on the fire in multiple drops, delivering supplies weighing more than 2,000 ki- lograms to four separate locations and gathering electro-optical and infrared imagery. This year, the Interior Department would like to conduct further testing on its own property, flying one or more unmanned aircraft beyond the view of oper- If successful, this type of demonstra- ators but within the Temporary Flight Re- tion could pave the way for additional trials striction boundaries that prohibit normal and, eventually, routine flights of un- air traffic near fires to protect civilian and manned aircraft to fight fires. firefighting aircraft. The unmanned air- “When folks see the capability of un- craft, which have not yet been selected, manned aircraft and how they can help could perform various tasks critical to fire- protect the landscape, save money and po- fighting, including reconnaissance, map- tentially lives, I believe they will want to ping and data relay. use them,” Bathrick says.

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 31 New risk: Passengers love Wi-Fi, but cybersecurity experts see it as a possible avenue into Emirates Airline an aircraft’s computers.

Don’t fear cyber disclosure

Airlines should Americans have become ac- growing that airlines and federal customed to seemingly-cease- VIEWPOINT agencies must better prepare for welcome, not by Tim Erlin less warnings about potential [email protected] such attacks. squelch, responsible cyberattacks that could breach The title of a recent Gov- electronic medical records, ernment Accountability Office disclosure about steal bank and credit-card information, and (GAO) report captured this urgency: “Air potential security disrupt the nation’s electric power grid. traffic control: FAA needs a more compre- The aviation industry, however, has hensive approach to address cybersecurity loopholes as largely escaped scrutiny about its security as agency transitions to NextGen.” Modern a defense against vulnerabilities. Airlines arguably have been aircraft, the GAO notes, are increasingly more resistant than retailers, insurers and fi- connected to the Internet, bringing risk of future attacks nancial institutions in accepting public dis- “unauthorized remote access to aircraft closure of security flaws as a tool for pre- avionics systems.” venting future breaches. Indeed, the Security researchers already have advocacy group Electronic Frontier Founda- demonstrated theoretical attacks on aircraft tion said a cybersecurity researcher was de- and aircraft systems, such as accessing tained in April by FBI agents after his United flight control systems via the in-flight enter- Airlines flight landed in Syracuse, New York, tainment system. Rather than acknowledg- because he tweeted a joke on board about ing the security gaps and developing a plan hackers deploying oxygen masks. to fix them, regulators and airlines seem That case highlights a tension between more intent on squelching the information. regulators and information-security profes- Nonetheless, many industries have come to sionals about whether publicly exposing po- realize that suppressing security research tential paths for cyberattacks helps reduce leads to less effective response and patch- the risk of future strikes or actually paves the ing. Very simply, the reality of eventual way for more attacks. public disclosure puts pressure on vendors The aviation industry — with the lives of to develop and deploy fixes. of passengers at stake — is particularly sensitive to acknowledging security weaknesses, The threats targeting aviation lest hackers exploit them. Yet awareness is Given all the technologies that enable modern

32 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 Copyright 2015 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics air travel, it might seem that one of the avia- tack surface — they also are easier to secure tion industry’s highest priorities would be to because security architects can use much of defend against highly-sophisticated attacks. the host company’s existing IT technology. But in reality, lack of attention to basic, best- On the air-traffic control side, it’s practices guidelines is the biggest danger. worth noting that the impact of an individ- That’s especially true as once-closed ual security in- networks are modernized and connected to cident can be *OYPZ9VILY[Z':PKYHNVU°Ç°(WY other networks. While there is not a direct vast. Someone -PUKT`ZLSMVUH SL[ZZLL)V_0-, link between air traffic control and the In- who is intent 0*,:(;*64&:OHSS^LZ[HY[WSH`PUN^P[O ternet today, the distance between these on causing a systems continues to decrease. An example significant air ,0*(:TLZZHNLZ& 7(::6?@.,565 of this intersection of old and new is the traffic incident (U`VUL&! recent introduction of Wi-Fi on planes, has different which some researchers say creates an eas- motivations ier avenue for attackers to someday hack an than someone The tweet that got cybersecurity airliner’s flight control system, either by who is trying to steal money. These two at- advocate Chris Roberts detained by the FBI. masquerading as an innocent passenger or tackers will take different risks and typi- by working remotely from the ground. cally have different resources. While some steps, like a basic firewall, have been put in place to separate these systems, Building a threat model attackers have been circumventing firewalls Effective aviation cybersecurity requires or- in other industries for many years. ganizations to build threat models that de- If those vulnerabilities are ever ex- scribe the attacks that could compromise ploited in a real attack, the consequences safety or put customer data and financial in- could be catastrophic. formation at risk. A reasonable threat model The risk isn’t limited to aircraft alone. is the first step toward establishing sufficient The aviation sector as a whole has to worry defenses. Security managers should begin by about how to collectively manage informa- attempting to understand who the potential tion security issues in adjacent parts of the threat actors are, and what they might want business. Threats to air traffic control and to accomplish. Once this is understood, it’s passenger reservation and transaction sys- possible to build layers of defense designed tems are numerous. to thwart the most likely attack scenarios. With the air traffic control systems, the A starting point must be a willingness to primary concern is flight safety. The GAO disclose information about potential cyberat- questioned the FA A’s strategy for cybersecu- tacks through responsible partnerships be- rity around NextGen, the GPS-based replace- tween researchers and the various affected ment for today’s radar-based air-traffic con- vendors. Such partnerships allow researchers trol system. NextGen is another example of to discover new vulnerabilities, report them new technology being introduced into a field to affected vendors first, then ultimately pub- that has traditionally been closed. The num- lish them publicly after enough time has ber of people who are familiar with and elapsed for the vendor to address the issue. have access to radar equipment is relatively Most security researchers believe this is the small, but millions of people use GPS on a best approach for minimizing the risk of daily basis. publication and maximizing the effectiveness Then there is the major risk of financial of response. This approach has produced fraud. Airlines, booking agents and ulti- measurable gains in other industries, and mately consumers use a limited number of should be used in aviation as well. Global Distribution Systems to book tickets and manage reservations around the globe. QQQ Because an airline’s GDS network handles Tim Erlin is director of IT security and transactions not just between banks and air- risk strategy at Tripwire, a security lines but consumers as well, the threat model software and consulting firm. He is a is substantially broader than with say, member of the Information Systems air-traffic control systems. Though GDS sys- Security Association and frequently advises tems are harder to secure in one sense — corporations and government agencies on their scope means they present a bigger at- cloud-security management.

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 33 The specter of controlling NASA’s Ikhana unmanned re- A pilotsearch plane from a ground station saw an icon pop up on his display indicating another aircraft approaching on a an unmanned aircraft collision course. He modified his flight path and avoided the other plane. If he hadn’t done so, software on the plane would have made the evasive flying blind to the maneuver for him. This test, described to Aerospace America by participants, is one in a series carried out beginning last November by the FAA, surrounding airspace NASA and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. The encounters targeted a glaring shortcoming of today’s unmanned and colliding with planes: Even the most sophisticated of them leave their ground pilots with huge blind spots in the a passenger plane surrounding airspace. For this reason, the FAA has has prompted the FAA fended off pressure to let unmanned to restrict where these planes fly beyond the physical view of their operators or craft can fly. anywhere close to airliners or other Henry Kenyon examines passenger planes. A technical solutions to the sense-and-avoid problem.

Unmanned by Henry Kenyon [email protected]

34 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 Copyright 2015 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics plethora of close calls back up the FA A’s concerns. FAA reported 175 incidents of unmanned aircraft entering restricted airspace in 2014, 25 of which resulted in near-collisions between an unmanned plane and another aircraft. The job for Ikhana last November was to demonstrate a possible solution. General Atomics equipped this research version of the MQ-9 Predator B with an experimental radar to scan the surrounding test range; an antenna to receive GPS-locations that might be broadcast by other aircraft; and a transponder to interrogate their collision-avoidance transponders. The tests demonstrated re- dundancy — if a nearby plane wasn’t broadcast- ing GPS coordinates or didn’t have a collision transponder, it would still be de-

NASA’s Ikhana unmanned research plane is equipped to test several methods to detect surrounding air traffic.

NASA not unseeing

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 35 General Atomics General Atomics, which manufactures the Predator and Reaper unmanned aircraft, is testing a prototype sense-and-avoid technology that allows unmanned aerial vehicles to avoid collisions in the sky.

tected by the radars. If the radar were by the systems. You’re not allowed to oper- blocked by ground clutter, the pilot would ate in environments that are not prescribed be alerted by the GPS or collision avoidance in your COA [Certificate of Waiver or Au- detections. NASA officials probably had this thorization],” says Smith, whose company kind of experiment in mind in 2006 when makes small unmanned aircraft. they acquired the MQ-9 and named it FAA shows signs of bending on the Ikhana, the Choctaw word for intelligence. sense-and-avoid question, but only a little. Putting sense-and-avoid equipment on In May, it announced a research initiative a Cessna-sized unmanned plane like to explore expanding unmanned flights in Ikhana is one thing. Figuring out how to some cases. BNSF Railroad will examine do that on a smaller unmanned aircraft how unmanned planes might be com- such as the 44-pound Boeing Insitu Scan- manded to fly beyond the view of their Eagle or even tiny quadcopters — the kind operators to inspect railroad tracks and that are driving much of the commercial bridges in rural or isolated areas. Drone interest in drones — will be quite another. maker PrecisionHawk of Raleigh, North Current anti-collision technology is Carolina, will explore flying unmanned “too large and heavy” for small unmanned planes outside the pilot’s view in rural ar- planes, defined as under 55 pounds, FAA eas to monitor crops and guide application says in its proposed rules released in Feb- of water, fertilizer and pesticides. CNN ruary. Until “this equipment is miniatur- will look at how unmanned planes might ized,” ground operators must physically be used for news gathering in urban areas, watch their craft at all times, a process although still with visual line of sight be- called see and avoid, or file paperwork tween plane and operator. The FAA ex- with the FAA requesting exemptions. pects each participant to introduce new Existing FAA regulations restrict oper- sensor and navigation technologies, but ations in a way that executives like W. how those technologies fit into existing Hulsey Smith, CEO of Aero Kinetics in regulations will be worked out during Fort Worth, Texas, find onerous. The rules safety assessments, says FAA spokes- allow firms to request waivers to operate woman Alison Duquette. in civilian airspace for limited and very Even if that research pans out, industry specific purposes such as cinematography. experts say the only way to fully open the “You’re not allowed to operate over airspace to legions of small drones will be to personnel or property that can be damaged equip them to spot air traffic. A host of com-

36 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 panies, including General Atomics, have Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. taken up the miniaturization challenge. Suc- But Schaeffer also notes a disadvantage: cess could help clear the way for unmanned Without an on-board radar or other sense- aircraft to satisfy the exploding demand for and-avoid electronics, the plane can only agricultural flights, surveillance and scientific fly where there is radar coverage. This may missions, consumer package-delivery and be adequate for flights over urban areas or even movie stunts. As things stand, operators well-traveled flight corridors, but not for can only do those things legally through the rural Alaska and other remote regions. FA A’s exemption process. Today, when the military wants to fly Today, military and government-oper- unmanned aircraft through commercial ated unmanned planes are equipped with airspace, the FAA requires the plane’s op- video cameras, but these are meant for erator to follow it with conventional planes watching people or vehicles on the ground, or station human observers along its flight not for spotting other planes. The growing path. The Air Force avoided this require- numbers of smaller craft flown by hobby- ment in one location by erecting ground ists, businesses and law enforcement agen- radars to create a safe corridor between cies have smaller cameras that deliver even Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico less situational awareness. and nearby restricted military airspace. Pi- lots can see the locations of other aircraft ONBOARD OR ON GROUND? on their navigation screens as they steer So far, industry and government engineers their craft through the corridor. The FAA are working on two main types of sense- approved these radars and displays in and-avoid technologies: 1. Ground radars, April 2014. which transmit radio waves into the air- Still, ground radars will always be con- space to detect planes, and 2. Electronics strained by their limited ranges. Schaeffer that can be installed on unmanned planes would rather install cameras or radars on to sense other aircraft. planes and display the views to pilots on An advantage of the ground approach the ground. is its reliance on existing FAA radars, “This solution is elegant in that it pro- meaning there is no need to modify the vides the ability to fly wherever required, aircraft, says Paul Schaeffer, program man- untethered by earthbound radar coverage ager for sense-and-avoid technology at the limitations as the sensors go where the air- Air Force Research Laboratory at craft goes,” Schaeffer says.

The Due Regard Radar from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems scans the airspace in under a millisecond using two phased-array antennas (the long boxes on the left and right). The radar fits into unmanned aircraft where a mechanically steered radar would not. General Atomics

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 37 When combined with an on-board computer, the technology also would provide a degree of autonomy, so that if a PrecisionHawk’s Low Altitude Tracking and Avoidance System plane were to lose its communications link uses cellular telephone networks with the ground-control station it could to navigate and transmit keep flying without risk of colliding with the aircraft’s position. The PrecisionHawk company says this will enable other aircraft. The drawback to airborne ra- small unmanned aircraft to safely dars is that they perform poorly at very low fly in commercial airspace. altitudes — 550 feet or below — due to the boxes: two with antenna arrays and one “clutter” or interference from objects such unit housing the radar’s electronics. The as power lines and buildings. primary engineering challenges are power and weight, Estrada says. The radar’s range AIRBORNE RADAR is limited to 30 nautical miles or less — de- General Atomics wants to scale down the pending on the size of the object. But Es- airborne equipment it tested at Armstrong trada notes that should be enough buffer into a version for smaller aircraft like the to avoid a collision. The radar is useful for ScanEagle with its 10-foot wingspan, which detecting “non-compliant” targets — small poses size, weight and power challenges. aircraft not equipped with ADS-B or Traf- This work focuses on the larger half of the fic Collision Avoidance Transponders or small drone category, not very small aircraft wildlife such as large birds. such as quadcopters. The version tested on The drone’s flight computer collects the the MQ-9 drew 1,800 watts, and program airborne radar data and aircraft position in- manager Ramon Estrada says a 650-watt formation and fuses it using software devel- version will be required for smaller aircraft, oped by Honeywell. This single picture of something he says is achievable. Ultimately, the local airspace is then transmitted to the his team wants to shrink the mass and vol- ground and shown to the pilot via the ume by half, and combine the equipment ground control system’s Conflict Prediction in one box. and Display system. The company calls the technology a If another plane is detected, FAA- Due Regard Radar in reference to the FAA funded software called ACAS-Xu, for Air- requirement that all aircraft must maintain borne Collision Avoidance System for Un- a safe separation or “due regard” to avoid manned Aircraft, warns the pilot to evade, collisions. Two electronically scanned radar either by climbing, descending or turning arrays sweep across an area and focus on a away. The message is stored in the flight target in a fraction of a millisecond, Estrada computer, and if the pilot fails to respond, explains. The equipment contains more the aircraft automatically takes evasive ac- than radar electronics. The package tested tion. The pilot can also manually override on NASA’s Ikhana includes a radio to this auto-evade function, if necessary, ex- broadcast GPS coordinates and receive plains Brandon Suarez, the General Atomics them from other planes. The FAA, under its lead project engineer for sense and avoid. NextGen air-traffic-control system, has or- ACAS-Xu can be programmed to main- dered that all planes flying in U.S. airspace, tain a set distance from other aircraft. “We including small unmanned ones, must have don’t want to trigger anyone else’s collision Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broad- avoidance system,” Suarez says. cast radios by 2020. Work on the radar system began in The radar is a smaller and less power- 2010, when the company’s Pentagon cus- ful version of the radars aboard larger tra- tomers asked for on-board sensors to op- ditionally-piloted military aircraft. Cur- erate their unmanned aircraft in commer- rently, Due Regard Radar consists of three cial airspace.

38 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 General Atomics plans to conduct an ad- getting FAA exemptions to use small un- ditional series of flight tests this year on its manned aircraft to monitor crops and con- own Predator B test aircraft, with follow-on duct geological surveys. Those often fly at tests set for early 2016 aboard NASA’s Ikhana. very low altitudes, usually no higher than 500 feet, which makes them a potential SMALL AIRCRAFT collision hazard near airports for passen- Unlike their larger counterparts, small un- ger planes that are taking off and landing. manned aircraft represent a new challenge PrecisionHawk, one of the companies because until very recently, their size in the new FAA initiative, wants to avoid made it difficult to fit them with radar or the challenge of squeezing lots of new other types of sensors for sense-and-avoid communications equipment on aircraft by systems. Small drones, from hand- using cellular telephone networks to send launched hobbyist toys to aircraft used for and receive guidance and navigation data. law enforcement and scientific research, PrecisionHawk’s Low Altitude Tracking are supposed to be flown under tight lim- and Avoidance System, or LATAS, uses its, but some operators ignore the rules. software and a navigation chip installed in The FAA restricts craft weighing less than the aircraft’s flight control computer to 55 pounds to flying under 500 feet in day- connect to a ground controller’s tablet light and in line of sight of their operators. computer or smartphone via a commercial The FAA, NASA and private industries are cellular network. The aircraft operator working on new technologies for the would view detailed digital maps depict- smallest unmanned aircraft to potentially ing fixed obstacles such as power lines. allow them to fly beyond the view of their The obstacles could be geofenced in ad- operators. vance, meaning the operator would be Experts from the University of North alerted if the craft approaches a boundary, Dakota, NASA, Mitre and Rockwell Collins and if the craft crossed the “fence” it could are trying to miniaturize ADS-B transpon- be programmed to turn around or auto- ders to fit into unmanned aircraft includ- matically land, says Tyler Collins, Preci- ing the ScanEagle, says Al Palmer, the uni- sionHawk’s director of business develop- versity’s director of unmanned aircraft ment and the developer of LATAS. systems research. Besides geofencing, LATAS will also Operators would control the drones allow pilots to file flight plans with the from smartphones, laptops or tablets, and FAA from their laptops or smartphones, they would see the locations of ADS-B which fits with requirements to include equipped aircraft in their vicinities, Palmer all types of drones into the overarching explains. national airspace monitoring system tak- “All you need is a video screen,” he says. ing shape. The university and its partners are The technology is still in the testing working with Appareo Systems, a Fargo, and development phase. Over the next six North Dakota-based electronics firm, to months PrecisionHawk will test and vali- make ADS-B or a similar type of sense- date cellular networks across the U.S. and and-avoid electronics small enough to fit Canada to ensure that LATAS-using drones inside small drones. can operate across most of North America. The University of North Dakota and PrecisionHawk is also working with NASA Mitre engineers have test flown prototype to ensure that the system fits into next gen- miniaturized electronics on a piloted NASA eration airspace navigation plans. test aircraft standing in for a drone. Rock- However the regulatory process plays well Collins is helping to develop a com- out, unmanned aircraft are swiftly joining mand and control system that will allow the nation’s skies. Technologies that allow operators to see a picture of the airspace their safe operation in commercial airspace around the plane that extends beyond line will open new markets across the econ- of sight, Palmer explains. omy, notes Aero Kinetics CEO W. Hulsey Smith. “We have not seen any single indus- LOW ALTITUDES try in the United States that could not ben- At the same time, a growing number of efit from some sort of application of small agricultural and oil exploration firms are unmanned aircraft systems,” he says.

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 39 The U.S. Air Force so far has updated the software on 482 F-16 fighter jets with Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System developed in part by Lockheed Martin. NASA

eep inside a U.S. F-16 fighter high G forces of a tight turn will be con- jet, computer software conscious again. The Office of the Secretary stantly compares the air- of Defense credits the Automatic Ground craft’s path to the terrain Collision Avoidance System, which was depicted in digital maps developed by NASA, Lockheed Martin uploaded from the National Skunk Works and the Air Force Research GeospatialDIntelligence Agency. If the Lab, with saving at least two pilots and software decides the plane is about to two F-16s since the Air Force began in- crash into the side of a mountain or valley stalling it in 2010. floor, a digital beep warns the pilot The F-16’s collision avoidance soft- through his or her headset. If the pilot fails ware is a long way from the velvet-voiced, to change course, the software takes over, misanthropic HAL 9000 computer depicted rolling the wings level and ascending with in author Arthur C. Clarke’s 1968 classic, a force of 5 to 6 Gs per second until the jet “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The new soft- clears the terrain. ware cannot land the plane nor do any- by Debra Werner The hope is that by then, a pilot who thing more complicated than direct it away [email protected] might have lost consciousness due to the from the ground.

The Germanwings crash has shone fresh light on the possibility of taking over an airliner via computer, if necessary, in an emergency. Debra Werner reports that despite interesting technical work, an all-powerful flight computer appears to be a long way off — perhaps for good reason.

Despite its limits, the new collision versity’s Eagle Flight Research Center in avoidance technology is one of the innova- Daytona Beach, Florida. tions aviation experts cite most often when NASA engineers have begun to mod- asked about possible technical solutions for ify collision avoidance software to deter- cases like the Germanwings crash in March mine when an airliner comes dangerously or EgyptAir in 1999, in which pilots inten- close to hitting the ground and to include tionally crashed their planes. The German- airports in its digital maps so the warning wings crash has prompted experts to take a does not go off with each landing. They close look the F-16 technology. Yet so far, have not yet begun the more difficult task the deeper they look, the more challenges of redesigning autopilot systems to enable they see, prompting even one advocate to passenger planes to make aggressive, eva- say that such a system is at best years away. sive maneuvers rather than the slow, Putting the equivalent of the F-16’s steady ascent and descent they currently collision avoidance system on commercial favor. Even then, it would take years to airliners would be “a slam dunk technolo- prove to the FAA that the new technology gy-wise,” says Richard “Pat” Anderson, di- wouldn’t cause more problems than it rector of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Uni- solves. Anderson knows it would take

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 41 possibility right now. It’s more of a political issue than a technology issue.” If there is any common consensus among experts, it is this: the Germanwings scenario would be all but impossible to prevent by technology alone. Even the most advanced autopilot system could not solve the entire problem. It would have to be paired with policies to protect passengers from pilots who become incapaci- tated by physical or mental illness. “We all know how difficult it is to protect any machine against an attacker,” says David Mindell, an aeronautics and astronautics professor at MIT. “But to protect it against a user who turns into an attacker,

NASA that’s extraordinarily difficult.” With technology NASA is testing, a drone operator would see visual aids superimposed on the terrain ahead. The current flight path is shown in black; red and yellow indicate collision courses with the Locking out the pilot terrain; green shows the only safe course. In 2010, Lockheed Martin began updating the software on F-16 fighters with the Auto- matic Ground Collision Avoidance System, years to prove to the FAA that these modi- and so far has installed 482 of them. Advo- fications were worthwhile, but he still sees cates had to convince the pilots who domi- great potential for them to contribute. nate the Air Force leadership that the sys- Advocates like Anderson nonetheless tem would help them, not steal their may find it difficult to swing the discussion authority. Designers knew they had to in their direction. One expert at NASA – avoid impeding a pilot’s ability to carry out which studies automated flight – says pro- a mission. Accuracy was paramount, be- graming in a collision avoidance feature cause pilots will become frustrated by false would definitely be doable, but he ques- alarms and simply turn the system off. In tions the value. flight, Air Force pilots have discovered they “Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance can still “push as hard as they want,” An- System technology could be adapted to derson says. “The airplane knows exactly work on a single airliner,” says Mark Skoog, where the ground is and how at the last chief engineer for collision avoidance tech- second to pull out if the pilot doesn’t do it.” nology at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Anderson is confident that in the com- Center. To be widely used, however, that mercial passenger realm, flight control soft- system would need to make its way through ware on airliners could someday be pro- the airworthiness review and certification grammed to do even more than avoid process, which could be an uphill battle collisions. It could take control of the air- since engineers would need to prove to the craft for good if it determined that a pilot’s FAA that giving increased authority to auto- actions threatened flight safety. pilots could not do more harm than good. In such a scenario, “the flight control Plus, a mentally-ill pilot could take computer will have to have the final say,” down an airliner in many more ways than Anderson says. The airplane would take steering it into the French Alps, as in the charge and broadcast a message, saying, Germanwings flight. He or she could “I’ve taken control of this airplane and I’m dump the plane’s fuel or shut off power to going to land at Frankfurt at 10:30.” its engine. Experts are wrestling with the question “This is a slippery slope,” Anderson ac- of whether ceding control to an über com- knowledges. “When you’ve identified that puter might actually add danger, as Arthur the human is trying to do something bad, C. Clarke seemed to suggest with his depic- then you have to let the computer lock out tion of the HAL 9000. the pilot and land somewhere by itself, “These days, we tend to think technol- which is not out of the realm of scientific ogy can solve problems,” says Amy Pritch-

42 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 ett, an associate professor of aerospace en- Remote control gineering at the Georgia Institute of The Germanwings crash also prompted Technology. “But the technology itself adds public discussion of whether someone on failure modes, cost, safety concerns and se- the ground could take control of an aircraft curity concerns.” to prevent a collision. Some aviation ex- She points to Air France flight 447, an perts scoff at the idea. Airbus A330 that crashed into the Atlantic “I don’t think people have thought that Ocean off Brazil in 2009 after ice crystals through,” Mindell of MIT says. “Who gets to lodged in the Pitot tubes that gauge air- decide when to take over? What do you do speed near the nose of the craft. When air- when communication links are broken? speed data no longer matched airspeed How do you secure communication links?” data from static-pressure sensors on board the aircraft, the plane’s autopilot system switched off, leaving the flight crew to sort The modified DROID unmanned matters. That confusion was a contributing aircraft was used in developing factor in the accident, according to the July an autonomous ground collision 2012 report by BEA, the French air accident avoidance system that is being integrated into the U.S. Air Force’s investigation agency. fleet of F-16 fighter jets. What’s interesting, Pritchett says, is that Flight 447 was not the only time the Pitot tubes froze. In at least two prior incidents, ice clogged the tubes of Airbus aircraft, causing incorrect airspeed measurements. In those cases, pilots realized their airspeed indicators were not working properly, turned off the autopilot and flew the aircraft manually until their airspeed sensors worked again. That’s just one example of the limit of autopilots on today’s aircraft. “We still have not gotten to the point where autonomous decision making, processing and computational capability can match the sensing and computational capability of the human brain,” says retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who ran the service’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance shop from 2006 to 2010, during a spike in drone pa- trols in Iraq and later in Afghanistan. “You can’t anticipate everything that could happen and artificial intelligence only knows what it’s been programmed to know,” adds Deptula, now dean of the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. An analysis of flight data recorders shows that autopilot systems malfunction in about 20 percent of all flights. Many of those malfunctions are small. For example, a pilot might need to turn off autopilot for a minute while the co-pilot resets a circuit breaker. “The times when autopilot fails and pilots step in far outnumber the times a pilot intentionally or unintentionally flies an airplane into the ground,” Pritchett says. NASA

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 43 A human factors engineer at Rockwell Collins’ Advanced Technology Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, tests a simulator for use in a NASA study about the viability of a single pilot controlling an airliner.

Rockwell Collins

Even before the Germanwings crash, co-pilots is probably years away, Clamann however, the possibility of remote control says, but could save carriers billions of came up frequently when engineers dis- dollars annually. cussed whether it would be safe to let air- But before then, engineers need to im- lines fly large passenger planes with a sin- prove the safety of autonomous flight con- gle pilot. Researchers at the NASA Ames trol systems and the security of communi- Research Center since 2012 have been cation links between the air and the studying whether single pilot operations ground. The improved communication would be feasible. Last May, NASA picked links would be needed to avoid hacking Rockwell Collins to lead a team of indus- and because airlines are likely to want a try and university partners to study issues pilot on the ground who could intervene related to a single-pilot cockpit, including should the airborne pilot suffer a heart at- ways to reduce the pilot’s workload tack, stroke or even food poisoning. through automation and ground support. “If you move to single-pilot operations, The Germanwings accident under- you are inherently asking for some kind of scores the need for improved autonomous alternative control of the plane,” Clamann systems and remote operations for when says. In theory, he says, the same type of a lone pilot is granted control of a pas- remote operation needed for single pilot senger plane, says Michael Clamann, flights could save passengers from a pilot postdoctoral associate at Duke University intentionally trying to crash a jetliner. Pratt School of Engineering’s Humans Remote control systems, like the ones and Autonomy Lab. Eliminating onboard used by the U.S. Defense Department to

44 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 operate unmanned aircraft, are not yet safe to use the restroom, and so an obvious step enough for passenger jets. In June 2014, a was to require two crew members in the Washington Post investigation revealed that cockpit at all times. Air Canada, Air Berlin military drones around the world crashed and Norwegian Air Shuttle quickly an- 400 times between September 11, 2001 and nounced plans to do so. Under FAA regula- December 2013. tions, U.S. carriers already were required to “That’s a crash approximately every have two people on the flight deck. For three weeks in a fairly small fleet,” Pritch- planes with a two-member cockpit crew, ett says. “If a fairly small fleet is crashing that means whenever one of the pilots every three weeks, imagine what would leaves the cockpit, a flight attendant or happen with the huge volume of air trans- other crew member must enter the cockpit port flights.” and remain there until the pilot returns, al- Approximately one quarter of the though it is unclear how a non-pilot could crashes counted by the Post involved lost save the plane. communications links between the aircraft The Germanwings crash also sparked and the ground stations. Maintaining se- calls for better mental-health screening of cure and reliable communications links pilots. Soon after the March crash, could pose similar problems for remote op- Lufthansa, the parent company of Ger- erators of passenger jets. A danger is that manwings, confirmed news reports that someone seeking to divert a plane could the co-pilot of the A320 had informed the jam communications or provide faulty navi- company in 2009 about an episode of se- gation information. vere depression. Airlines and government “One really scary notion is being able aviation authorities began reviewing pro- to play with the GPS signal by sending false cedures to screen pilots. In the U.S., air signals or modulating the signal so that transport pilots under the age of 40 re- what the ground controllers think is hap- ceive annual medical evaluations, which pening in the sky is not what’s actually are designed to spot physical and mental happening,” Pritchett says. “The notion of problems. Pilots 40 and older must renew being able to control aircraft from the their medical certificates with a trip to the ground to prevent a bad act in the air, has doctor every six months. some fairly obvious flaws in terms of some- “The system needs to acknowledge that one sabotaging that ground control take- pilots have inner lives and they’re human over mechanism.” beings and not machines,” Mindell says. “I To prevent sabotage, airlines would think the American system has been better need to ensure ground control facilities at that than the European system.” were extremely secure, much safer even As an example, Mindell points to the than existing air traffic control centers. In FA A’s decision in 2010 to begin allowing pi- September 2014, thousands of flights into lots who receive a special medical certificate and out of Chicago airports were diverted to continue flying even if they take medica- when a contract employee allegedly set fire tion to treat depression. “That was a step to- inside an air traffic control facility in Au- ward acknowledging pilots are human be- rora, Illinois. ings like everyone else,” Mindell says. “That Air Traffic Control center was al- Screening is important, Pritchett says, ready considered a secure facility,” Pritchett but it raises additional questions. If a pilot says. “Imagine the level of hardening we reports severe depression, for example, do would need on a facility where a number you prevent the pilot from flying, or would of airplanes could be flown in a way that that discourage further reporting? No sys- could lock a pilot out.” tem can identify every dangerously ill pilot, nor can autonomous control technolo- Human solutions gies completely replace human pilots. Rather than turning to remote operations or Automated systems might help save lives, autonomous flight to prevent rare pilot sui- though, if the F-16 is any indication. cides, airlines are gravitating toward “No Air Force pilots looked on automatic non-technical solutions. collision avoidance technology with favor 25 The Germanwings co-pilot was given or 30 years ago,” Skoog says. “We are the controls when the pilot left the cockpit stunned by the way it has been accepted.”

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 45 25 Years Ago, June 1990 Siddeley Aviation Co. The New York Times, June 11, 1965. June 1 West Germany’s Rosat satellite is launched by a U.S. Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Rosat, named after the famous German scientist Wilhelm June 12 Canada’s solid-propellant Roentgen, who discovered X-rays in 1895, is designed to take photos in extreme Black Brant 5B sounding rocket makes ultraviolet light to gather data on intergalactic gases, black holes and other objects its first launch at Fort Churchill, on the edge of the universe. Flight International, June 13-19, 1990, p. 29. Manitoba, Canada. Missiles & Rockets, June 28, 1965, p. 11. June 7 Europe’s first test firing of a liquid-hydrogen-fueled ramjet is made at MBB’s site at Munich, Germany, toward June 14 The Early Bird communications the development of the Sänger space plane, although satellite successfully transmits, on an the Sänger is later canceled. The Sänger design, named experimental basis, an electrocardiogram in honor of the early Austrian pioneer of the space plane of a passenger on the S.S. France concept, Eugen Sänger, is a two-stage vehicle in which ocean liner, 2,000 miles at sea, to his the first stage is initially propelled by a turbojet and then physician in Paris. The Washington a turbo-ramjet to bring it up to Mach 6.6. The reusable Post, June 15, 1965, p. A14. Horus upper stage then takes off with its cryogenic rocket engine. Flight International, September 19-25, 1990, p. 26 14 June Carl Norden, the Dutch-born inventor of the famous bombsight Also in June 1990 Sabena becomes the first named after him, dies at age 55 in civilian airlines to use satellite communications Zurich, Switzerland. He emigrated to data for air traffic control during scheduled the United States in 1904, and in 1920, operations in a trial experiment with the started work on the Norden U.S. Navy Inmarsat satellite. Sabena’s Airbus A310-300 bombsight that was was produced in is used in the test. Flight International, 1927. It was an analog computer and June 20-26, 1990, p. 5. was further developed and used by Army Air Force B-17s and other bombers 50 Years Ago, June 1965 during World War II. The New York June 3-7 The Gemini 4 mission is carried out, using a two-stage Titan 2 booster that Times, June 16, 1965, p. 43. carries astronauts James McDivitt and Edward White. Their spacecraft achieves 62 Earth orbits in 97 hours 56 minutes at 17,567-mph at an apogee of 174.8-miles and June 15 In a surprise appearance, perigee of 100-miles. During the second orbit, White, equipped with a tether, emerges the Soviet Union’s An-22 aircraft, the from the spacecraft for a space walk. The astronauts also perform medical and world’s largest plane, lands at the scientific experiments during the flight. Their capsule reenters the Earth’s atmosphere International Air Show at Le Bourget, on June 7 and is recovered in the Atlantic Ocean by a helicopter and taken to the France. The AN-22 is said to be able recovery ship, the carrier USS Wasp. The New York Times, June 9, 1965, pp. 1, 22. to carry 720 passengers or 80 tons of cargo and weighs 250 tons with June 8 The USSR launches its 3,179-pound Luna 6 space probe toward the Moon. maximum cargo. Designed by Oleg But the probe misses the Moon by almost 100,000 miles. due to an unsuccessful Antonov mid-course maneuver when an engine used to adjust the spacecraft’s trajectory and cannot be switched off. Tass releases, June 8, 1965, and June 10, 1965. called the Antaeus, June 10 The first computer landing of an airliner is made with fare-paying passengers the aboard, when a British European Airways Trident touches down in London. The aircraft is powered by four turboprop Trident is the first civil aviation engines, each with twin propellers. The aircraft certified to use the range with maximum load is 3,100 automatic-landing system miles at a cruising speed of 420-mph. known as Autoflare that was Aviation Week, June 21, 1965, p. 24. developed by Smith & Sons, Ltd., a British aviation June 16 Dr. Werner R. Kirchner, of engineering company, in Aerojet-General Corp., receives the partnership with Hawker James H. Wyld Propulsion Award from

46 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 the American Institute of Aeronautics June 12 The first and Astronautics (AIAA). He is cited production-built for “outstanding contributions to solid helicopter, the Focke rocketry,” including his development Achgelis Fa 223 Drache, of the thrust-vector control and thrust completes its initial reverser that made possible the use of flight. It is powered large, solid-propellant rocket motors by a single 1,000-hp in ballistic missiles such as the Polaris. BMW Bramo radial The New York Times, June 17, 1965. engine that drives two rotors mounted June 21 The 1.5-million-pound thrust outboard of the F-1 rocket engine completes its 1,000th fuselage. Only 20 are test firing. A cluster of five of the built. David Baker, engines is to provide 7.5-million Flight and Flying: A pounds of thrust for the first stage Chronology, p. 253. of the Saturn 5 to take men to the Moon. Marshall Space Flight Center June 18-19 The first large-scale air raid on Great Britain is undertaken by a hundred Release 65-154. or more German Heinkel 111 bombers. Although they mainly attack RAF air stations, some of the bombs fall on two-story houses in a working-class district June 27 Six scientist-astronauts of Cambridgeshire, killing about a dozen civilians. The air station attacks are selected for the Apollo manned unsuccessful — six of the bombers are shot down by Spitfire fighters and one by Moon-landing program are announced. antiaircraft gunfire. Flight, June 27, 1940, p. 559. They are: Owen Garriott, associate professor of physics; Edward Gibson, June 26 Congress authorizes construction of the NACA’s third research lab near senior research scientist; Duane E. Cleveland, Ohio. Initially called the Aircraft Engine Research Lab, in 1948 it is renamed Graveline, fight surgeon; Lt. Cmdr. the Lewis Flight Propulsion Lab after George W. Lewis, who served as the NACA’s Joseph Kerwin, USN, staff flight director of aeronautical research from 1924 to 1947. Upon the founding of NASA surgeon; Frank Michel, assistant in 1958, it is transferred into this organization and becomes the Lewis Research professor of space sciences; and Harri- Center. E.M. Emme, ed., Aeronautics and Astronautics 1915-60, pp. 40, 99. son Schmitt, astrogeologist. The Washington Post, June 27, 1965. June 28 Italian Air Marshal Italo Balbo is allegedly killed in an aerial engagement with British aircraft over Tobruk, June 28 The Early Bird 1 communica- Libya. Born in 1896, Balbo was an early leader in Benito tions satellite begins commer- Mussolini’s Fascist movement and through political means c al operations when gained his role in the Italian Air Ministry. It is claimed by resident Lyndon Johnson some that Balbo was actually murdered on Mussolini’s formally inaugurates orders because he represented a political threat to his telephone service via leadership. Interavia, June 29, 1940, p. 1. the satellite in a 25- minute, six-nation 100 Years Ago, June 1915 conference call with European leaders. The New June 7 The German Zeppelin L.Z. 37 is shot down by an incendiary bullet later York Times, June 29, 1965, p. 12. known as the Brock bullet, after its inventor, British scientist Frank Brock. Brock bullets are used thereafter and bring down 12 of the 17 Zeppelins shot down. 75 Years Ago, June 1940 Al n St. H. Brock, A History of Fireworks, p. 26. June 10 Italy enters the war on the side of the Axis powers. Upon Italy’s June 8 Pioneering American aviator Glenn Curtiss is awarded entry in the conflict, the British a patent for his development of the stepped fuselage for flying Overseas Airways Corp. services to boats. This revolutionary invention places a step approximately Italy are eliminated and all British halfway along the underside of the fuselage to help break the Empire air services are suspended. urface tension of the water, allowing the aircraft to take off Interavia, June 14, 1940, p. 11. more easily. David Baker, Flight and Flying: A Chronology, p. 78.

AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 47 Career Opportunities Penn State | Online

Online Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering Advance Your Career Gain a quality education in a convenient online format Build a professional network with classmates Become a leader in your organization

Tailor the program to suit your educational goals, based on the course offerings.

Apply Now – worldcampus.psu.edu/PSUAA

U.Ed.OUT 15-0174/15-WC-0204bkh/bjm

Space Policy/Law Ten ur e Track Faculty Position The Department of Space Studies in the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota invites applications for the position of assistant/associate professor in the field of space policy/law. Candidates must have an earned doctorate or an equivalent. The responsibilities include teaching graduate and undergraduate level courses, research, guiding and mentoring graduate student research, and service. A broad insight into the interdisciplinary nature of space activities and significant ongoing contacts with the space community is highly desirable. A strong, demonstrated interest in developing collaborative research projects with external funding as they relate to use, development and exploration of space, is expected. A detailed job announcement is found at www.space.edu.

Salary will be competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience. Send a letter of application, CV, teaching and research statements, names and contact information for three references to: Dr. Santhosh Seelan, Distinguished Professor and Chair, Dept. of Space Studies, University of North Dakota, 532 Clifford Hall Stop 9008, Grand Forks, ND 58202-9008. Email: [email protected].

UND is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer.

48 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2015 AIAAAIAABulletinBulletin JUNE 2015 AIAA Meeting Schedule B2 AIAA News B5 AIAA SPACE 2015 B13 Event Preview AIAA Courses and Training B15 Program

Members of AIAA’s University of Texas (UT) in Austin’s Student Chapter, along with members of UT’s Sigma Gamma Tau, volunteered at the 14th Annual Women in Engineering Program, known as Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (Girl Day) where over 1,600 elementary and middle school students were introduced to engineering. (See the full article on page B9.)

AIAA Directory

AIAA HeAdquArters To join AIAA; to submit address changes, mem- 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Suite 500 ber inquiries, or renewals; to request journal fulfill- Reston, VA 20191-4344 ment; or to register for an AIAA conference. www.aiaa.org Customer service: 800/639-AIAA†

Aerospace America / Greg Wilson, ext. 7596 • AIAA Bulletin / Christine Williams, † U.S. only. International callers Other Important Numbers: should use 703/264-7500. ext. 7575 • AIAA Foundation / Karen Thomas, ext. 7520 • Book Sales / 800.682.AIAA or 703.661.1595, Dept. 415 • Communications / John Blacksten, ext. 7532 • Continuing Education / Megan Scheidt, ext. 3842 • Corporate Members All AIAA staff can be reached by / Tobey Jackson, ext. 7570 • Editorial, Books and Journals / Heather Brennan, ext. 7568 • Exhibits and Sponsorship email. Use the formula first name / Tobey Jackson, ext. 7570 • Honors and Awards / Carol Stewart, ext. 7623 • International Affairs / Betty Guillie, ext. last [email protected]. Example: [email protected]. 7573; Emily Springer, ext. 7533 • Journal Subscriptions, Member / 800.639.AIAA • Journal Subscriptions, Institutional / Online Archive Subscriptions / Michele Dominiak, ext. 7531 • Media Relations / Duane Hyland, ext. 7558 • Public Policy / Addresses for Technical Steve Sidorek, ext. 7625 • Section Activities / Chris Jessee, ext. 3848 • Standards, Domestic / Hilary Woehrle, ext. 7546 • Committees and Section Chairs can be found on the AIAA Web Standards, International / Nick Tongson, ext. 7515 • Student Programs / Rachel Andino, ext. 7577 • Technical Committees site at http://www.aiaa.org. / Betty Guillie, ext. 7573 We are frequently asked how to submit articles about section events, member awards, and other special interest items in the AIAA Bulletin. Please contact the staff liaison listed above with Section, Committee, Honors and Awards, Event, or Education information. They will review and forward the information to the AIAA Bulletin Editor. DATE MEETING LOCATION ABSTRACT (Issue of AIAA Bulletin in DEADLINE which program appears)

2015 4 Jun Aerospace Today ... and Tomorrow—An Executive Symposium Williamsburg, VA 16–19 Jun† 7th International Conference on Recent Advances in Istanbul, Turkey (Contact: Capt. M. Serhan Yildiz, +90 212 Space Technologies – RAST 2015 6632490/4365, [email protected] or [email protected]) 20–21 Jun Optimal Design in Multidisciplinary Systems Dallas, TX 20–21 Jun FUN3D Training Workshop Dallas, TX 22–26 Jun AIAA AVIATION 2015 Dallas, TX 13 Nov 14 (AIAA Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition) Featuring: 21st AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference 31st AIAA Aerodynamic Measurement Technology and Ground Testing Conference 33rd AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference 7th AIAA Atmospheric and Space Environments Conference 15th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference AIAA Balloon Systems Conference AIAA Complex Aerospace Systems Exchange 22nd AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference AIAA Flight Testing Conference 45th AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference 22nd AIAA Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technology Conference 16th AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference 46th AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference 45th AIAA Thermophysics Conference 28 Jun–2 Jul† International Forum on Aeroelasticity and Structural Saint Petersburg, Russia (Contact: Dr. Svetlana Kuzmina, Dynamics (IFASD) +7 495 556-4072, [email protected], www.ifasd2015.com) 6–9 Jul 20th AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems Glasgow, Scotland 8 Dec14 and Technologies Conference 12–16 Jul† International Conference on Environmental Systems Bellevue, WA (Contact: Andrew Jackson, 806.834.6575, [email protected], www.depts.ttu.edu/ceweb/ices) 25–26 Jul The Application of Green Propulsion for Future Space Orlando, FL 25–26 Jul Advanced High Speed Air Breathing Propulsion Orlando, FL 27–29 Jul AIAA Propulsion and Energy 2015 Orlando, FL 7 Jan 15 (AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum and Exposition) Featuring: 51st AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference 13th International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference 30–31 Jul Business Management for Engineers Orlando, FL 30–31 Jul Hybrid Rocket Propulsion Orlando, FL 9–13 Aug† 2015 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference Vail, CO (Contact: Dr. W. Todd Cerven, william.t.cerven@ aero.org, www.space-flight.org/docs/2015_astro/2015_astro.html) 29–30 Aug Introduction to Space Systems Pasadena, CA 31 Aug–2 Sep AIAA SPACE 2015 Pasadena, CA 10 Feb 15 (AIAA Space and Astronautics Forum and Exposition) 7–10 Sep† 33rd AIAA International Communications Satellite Systems Gold Coast, Australia 1 Apr 15 Conference and Exhibition (ICSSC-2015) (Contact: Geri Geschke, +61 7 3414 0700, Geri.geschke@ emsolutions.com.au, www.satcomspace.org) 13–17 Sep† 34th Digital Avionics Systems Conference Prague, Czech Republic (Contact: Denise Ponchak, 216.433.3465, denise.s.ponchak@nasa.gov, www.dasconline.org) 22–25 Sep† 3AF/AIAA Aircraft Noise and Emissions Reduction Symposium La Rochelle, France (www.aners2015.com) 30 Apr 15 23–24 Sep† 19th Workshop of the Aeroacoustics Specialists’ Committee of CEAS La Rochelle, France (www.aners2015.com) and 5th Scientific Workshop of the European X-Noise EV Network

B2 AIAA BULLETIN / JUNE 2015 DATE MEETING LOCATION ABSTRACT (Issue of AIAA Bulletin in DEADLINE which program appears)

12–16 Oct† 66th International Astronautical Congress Jerusalem, Israel (Contact: www.iac2015.org) 27–29 Oct† Flight Software Workshop Laurel, MD (Contact: http://www.flightsoftware.org) 2016 2–3 Jan 2nd AIAA CFD Aeroelastic Prediction Workshop San Diego, CA 4–8 Jan AIAA SciTech 2016 San Diego, CA 2 Jun 15 (AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition) Featuring: 24th AIAA/AHS Adaptive Structures Conference 54th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference 15th Dynamics Specialists Conference AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference AIAA Information Systems—Infotech@Aerospace Conference AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference 18th AIAA Non-Deterministic Approaches Conference 57th AIAA/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference 9th Symposium on Space Resource Utilization 3rd AIAA Spacecraft Structures Conference 34th Wind Energy Symposium

If you know someone who deserves to join an elite cla of AIAA members, let us know. Nominate them today Bolster the reputation and respect of an outstanding peer—throughout the industry. All AIAA Members who have accomplished or been in charge of important engineering or scientific work, and who have made notable valuable contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics are eligible for nomination. Now accepting nominations for outstanding contribut to the aerospace industry. ASSOCIATE FELLOW HONORARY FELLOW Accepting Nomination Packages: Accepting Nomination Packages: 15 December 2014 – 15 April 2015 1 January – 15 June 2015 Reference Forms due:15 May 2015 Reference Forms due:15 July 2015 FELLOW SENIOR MEMBER Accepting Nomination Packages: Accepting Online Nominations 1 January – 15 June 2015 monthly. Reference Forms due:15 July 2015

Criteria for nomination and For additional questions, contact additional details can be found Patricia A. Carr at [email protected] at: www.aiaa.org/Honors or 703.264.7523.

15-678

AIAA BULLETIN / JUNE 2015 B3 DATE MEETING LOCATION ABSTRACT (Issue of AIAA Bulletin in DEADLINE which program appears)

25-28 Jan† Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS) Tucson, AZ (Contact: Sean Carter, [email protected], www.rams.org) 14–18† 26th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting Napa, CA (Contact: Ryan Russell, 512.471.4190, [email protected], www.space-flight.org/ docs/2016_winter/2016_winter.html) 5–12 Mar† 2016 IEEE Aerospace Conference Big Sky, MT (Contact: Erik Nilsen, 818.354.4441, [email protected], www.aeroconf.org) 16–20 May SpaceOps 2016: Daejeon, Korea 30 Jul 15 14th International Conference on Space Operations 13–17 Jun AIAA AVIATION 2016 Washington, DC (AIAA Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition) Featuring: 32nd AIAA Aerodynamic Measurement Technology and Ground Testing Conference 34th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference 8th AIAA Atmospheric and Space Environments Conference 16th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference AIAA Flight Testing Conference 8th AIAA Flow Control Conference 46th AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference 17th AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference 47th AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference 46th AIAA Thermophysics Conference 5–8 Jul† ICNPAA 2016 Mathematical Problems in Engineering, University of La Rochelle, France (Contact: Prof. Seenith Aerospace and Sciences Sivasundaram, 386.761.9829, [email protected], www. icnpaa.com) 25–27 Jul AIAA Propulsion and Energy 2016 Salt Lake City, UT (AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum and Exposition) Featuring: 52nd AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference 14th International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference 12–15 Sep AIAA SPACE 2016 Long Beach, CA (AIAA Space and Astronautics Forum and Exposition) Featuring: AIAA SPACE Conference AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference AIAA Complex Aerospace Systems Exchange 25–30 Sep† 30th Congress of the International Council of the Daejeon, South Korea 15 Jul 15 Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS 2016) (Contact: www.icas.org)

For more information on meetings listed above, visit our website at www.aiaa.org/calendar or call 800.639.AIAA or 703.264.7500 (outside U.S.). †Meetings cosponsored by AIAA. Cosponsorship forms can be found at https://www.aiaa.org/Co-SponsorshipOpportunities/. AIAA Continuing Education courses.

B4 AIAA BULLETIN / JUNE 2015 Necessary chaNges are chart; and having successful events and publications will not creatiNg Positive results sustain our growth unless you, our members, continue to invest your time and energy in AIAA as fully as possible. While your Sandy H. Magnus, Executive Director professional obligations often limit the time you can spend on AIAA activities, the hours you volunteer are valuable ones. If you The AIAA 2014–2015 Annual are active, involved, and engaged, thank you. If you are seek- Report, Charting a Course for ing new and different engagement opportunities, you may be Success, is available online, interested in our Diversity Working Group, our STEM Working and I hope that each of you has Group, or the renewed AIAA Foundation. If your inner advocate taken, or will take, the time to needs to speak out, the Public Policy Committee continues to be read it. If the whole report hasn’t our voice on Capitol Hill and in the states. You can help make yet made it onto your summer lawmakers and policymakers aware of the pressures facing the reading list—or you are sitting aerospace community and work with them to better ensure our on a beach reading Aerospace industry’s present and future success. Be it diversity, advocacy, America without Internet or working with the next generation of aerospace professionals— access—I submit to you my Executive Director’s Report, AIAA needs your time and talent, which I hope you will invest which I’ve adapted for this column. It describes highlights liberally. of the past 12 months (it’s been a busy year!) and where As I mentioned earlier, the past year saw the successful we are on our continuing journey to evolve AIAA into a transition to—and completion of—our first full cycle of forums. stronger, more adaptable, more cohesive organization. Jim While the switch from our old format to the new was not always Albaugh summed it up aptly in his President’s Report, which an easy path, it is proving to be a successful one. The five I urge you to read and which we will reprint here in a future forums in the past 12 months buzzed with collaboration, energy, issue, “The difficult decisions that we’ve made, and changes and excitement. Combining multiple technical conferences and we have implemented, have positioned us well for growth tracks under one roof has allowed us to bring together a much and we are optimistic about our future.” wider array of professionals, ensuring maximum exposure for attendees to new concepts, ideas, research, and subject areas. As you know, in 2014, AIAA adopted its Strategic Plan predi- Additionally, the new forums allow us to maximize content deliv- cated on three strategic imperatives: develop and expand our ery and draw even better speakers and panelists—making them community; strengthen our existing community; and deliver more relevant not only to attendees, but also to the media and exceptional results—those three imperatives have contributed the public at large. The transition, of course, has not been with- greatly to a year of positive growth and change at AIAA. In out its challenges and lessons learned. But we have solicited a relatively short amount of time, we’ve come a long way in and studied your feedback, implementing the necessary changes realigning the AIAA staff and organizational structure to serve to make 2015 and beyond even more relevant, and an even the evolving needs of our members—both individual and corpo- better return on your investment. The forums have injected new rate—and the aerospace industry writ large. This type of evolu- energy into the Institute, the membership, and the aerospace tion is necessary if the Institute is to grow and remain relevant community, and have allowed us to help you shape the future and responsive. Shaping the Future of Aerospace isn’t just our of aerospace more readily than we could have even two short tagline; it’s what we at AIAA are doing every day through our years ago. forums, publications, committees, honors and awards, member AIAA also continues to be a champion for aerospace, both services, advocacy, and outreach. We have more work to do on Capitol Hill and in a growing number of states. As the Public to refine and implement our Strategic Plan fully—it will take all Policy section of this report details, our members are actively of us working together to ensure our long-term success. It also engaged with federal and state lawmakers on a wide variety will involve a continued culture of change. As Jim Albaugh’s of issues, including the ongoing threats posed by both “Open President’s Report makes clear, we need to take steps to ensure Access” legislation and the continued government travel regula- our governance structure allows us to be nimble, proactive, and tions, which hinder attendance at our forums. To address those quickly able to recognize and react to new trends in our industry and other problems, our members continue to recommend sensi- to be relevant to our members. ble policies and stronger support for the aerospace industry and I am delighted to share with you that the changes we’ve research and development enterprise in the United States. made during the past two years have borne fruit. In the report’s I am excited about AIAA finishing strong in 2015. This year detailed Financials section, Bill Seymore, our secretary/treasurer began with a bang at AIAA SciTech and every indication is that shares that our budget returned to the black in fiscal year 2014. the rest of the year will be just as solid. Two things are cer- This promising financial news was due, in large part, to prudent tain: First, the Institute will continue to identify and implement stewardship of the Institute’s endowment portfolio, which allowed the changes and improvements necessary to make your AIAA for continued investments in AIAA’s growth and sustainability. membership valuable and relevant to both you and to the entire This news, along with improved revenues and economies of aerospace profession. Second, as you, our members, continue scale provided by our forums, reduced and realigned staff, and to become more fully involved in the Institute’s activities— other factors, have us optimistic about our financial stability. We regions and sections, committees, student branches, honors and are emerging from the turbulence of the past few years, and are awards—we will keep moving forward. I look forward to continu- hoping for smoother sailing ahead for AIAA. ing our work together toward our common goals of growth, suc- That said, adherence to the strategic imperatives; making cess, and prosperity—for our industry, our profession, and our hard, but necessary choices, about staff and the organizational Institute.

To submit articles to the AIAA Bulletin, contact your Section, Committee, Honors and Awards, Events, Precollege, or Student staff liaison. They will review and forward the information to the AIAA Bulletin Editor. See the AIAA Directory on page B1 for contact information.

AIAA BULLETIN / JUNE 2015 B5 PREMIER AWARDS PRESENTED AT AIAA AEROSPACE SPOTLIGHT AWARDS GALA

AIAA presented its highest awards at the Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala on 6 May, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, DC. Inside the building’s soaring atrium, nearly 500 assembled guests heard similar messages from hon- orees and awardees, all firmly establishing that the world’s aerospace workforce is one large community—with all of the weight that word brings. The AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala, an annual, black-tie event, celebrates what AIAA Executive Director Sandra Magnus called “the best in aerospace.” And what a celebration it was—from the presentation of the newly elected class of 2015 Fellows and Honorary Fellows, to the presentation of all of the evening’s awards, the atrium ballroom rocked with enthusiastic applause as our community’s best and brightest were recognized. For more information about the AIAA Honors and Awards program, contact Carol Stewart at [email protected] or at 703.264.7623.

Class of 2015 Honorary Fellows (from left to right): Kyle T. Alfriend, Ben Randall Walden of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (left) and Daniel T. Zinn, Wanda M. Austin, Frederik J. Abbink. Hart of Boeing Defense, Space and Security (right) accepting the 2015 AIAA Foundation Award for Excellence on behalf of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Team. At center is AIAA Foundation President Michael Griffin (left) and AIAA President James Albaugh (right).

Class of 2015 Fellows: front row (left to right): David Eames, Wayne Goodman, Michimasa Fujino, Alison Flatau, Debra Facktor-Lepore, Glenn Lightsey, John Crassidis, David Miller, James Walker. Back row (left to right): Allen Arrington, Lawrence Brase, Jayanth Kudva, Thomas Beutner, Eric Evans, Timothy Lieuwen, Eli Livne, Alton Romig, Paul McManamon, Robert Smith, Zhi Wang, Ashok Srivastava.

B6 AIAA BULLETIN / JUNE 2015 2015 AIAA Distinguished Service Awardee, Roy Alan R. Mulally (center) after accepting the Daniel Guggenheim Accepting the 2015 AIAA Public V. Harris Jr. (right), formerly of NASA Langley Medal with AIAA President James Albaugh (left) and Bruce Service Award on behalf of Research Center, with AIAA President James Mahone of SAE International (right). AIAA, ASME, AHS Congressman Ralph Hall (Texas- Albaugh (left). International, and SAE International jointly sponsor the Medal. 4th, retired) was Janet Poppleton, Hall’s former Chief of Staff.

AIAA President James Albaugh (right) with Christopher Scolese of NASA Goddard Space Center (at ESA Director General and 2015 AIAA 2015 AIAA Reed Aeronautics Awardee center) accepts the AIAA National Capital Section Barry M. Goddard Astronautics Awardee Jean- Ramesh Agarwal (left) of Washington Goldwater Educator Award. Also shown are Martin Frederick Jacques Dordain (left) with AIAA President University in St Louis. (right) of the AIAA National Capital Section and AIAA James Albaugh (right). President James Albaugh (left).

AIAA Foundation Educator Achievement Awardees with AIAA Executive Director Sandy Magnus. Left to right: Mohamad Barbarji, West Point High School, West Point, VA; Gary Garber, Boston University Academy, Boston, MA; Kaci Heins, 2015 International Cooperation Award recipients Russell M. Northland Preparatory Academy, Flagstaff, AZ; Sandra Magnus; Paul Wiedorn, Cummings of the U.S. Air Force Academy (left) and Andreas Wilde Lake High School, Columbia, MD; and Heather L. Stewart, Paxton School, Schuette of DLR—German Aerospace Center (center) with AIAA Paxton, FL. President James Albuagh (right).

AIAA BULLETIN / JUNE 2015 B7 CAll For BoArd oF dIreCtors nomInAtIons • Volunteer Board service (commitment to attend 3–4 meetings per year in person) The 2015–2016 AIAA Nominating Committee will meet in early • Need employer time and travel commitment September to review nominees and select candidates to partici- • Support Institute mission and vision pate in the Board of Directors (BoD) Election to fill the following • Provide strategic discussion and input when required vacancies by election in 2016: • Duty to protect assets and exercise fiduciary prudence • Vice President-Elect, Member Services • Serve in BoD leadership or support capacity as required • Vice President-Elect, Technical Activities • Be vigilant of the aerospace landscape and identify business opportunities for the Institute • Director–Technical, Information Systems Group • Support AIAA Executive Director and staff as appropriate • Director–Technical, Propulsion and Energy Group • Director–Region IV AIAA members may submit themselves or other members • Director–Region V qualified for the chosen position as nominees by submitting a • Director–Region VII nomination through the AIAA website (go to www.aiaa.org, log in, and select Board of Director Nomination from the left-hand • Director–At-Large navigation bar) no later than 21 August 2015. Nominations will • Director–International open 9 June 2015.

AIAA BoD Duties Highlights Bill Seymore Details to keep in mind when running for the Board of Directors: AIAA Corporate Secretary/Treasurer

AIAA FoundAtIon ClAssroom GrAnt ProGrAm

The AIAA Foundation believes that one of the most significant ways to inspire students and advance the future of aerospace is to fund grants that allow teachers to supplement their lesson plans with hands-on math and science activities. One of our classroom grant recipients, douglas Ferguson of Martin Sortun Elementary in Kent, WA, used his AIAA Foundation grant to provide resources to support his school’s after-school program: The Academy of 21st Century Learning. The Academy uses hands-on programs such as LEGO NXT robotics to promote STEM education. Mr. Ferguson and Martin Sortun Elementary are transforming classroom instruction and growing their small after-school program into an all new STEM Academy for grades 5 and 6. The Academy makes STEM accessible and interesting for students through fun, real-world projects like programming a robot, and creates confidence and academic enjoyment. This program also allows students to collaborate, fostering social skills and new friendships as the school culture embraces STEM as cool. Community involvement has provided connections, per- spective, and smaller adult-to-student ratios. Involved parents have strengthened the school–home partnerships, and Boeing Annual Fund, it will support students and educators at the K–12 professionals have spoken first-hand about STEM, and former and university levels by providing funding of classroom grants, students have become powerful mentors. The volunteers inspire, scholarships, design competitions, and student conferences. motivate, and prepare students for STEM-related careers. Please visit www.aiaafoundation.org. Martin Sortun Elementary has expanded STEM education into the 5th-grade curriculum. Highly engaged students excit- edly anticipate their classroom’s turn to apply standards-based content through hands-on, robotics-based experiments. These experiments attach purpose to the science and improve student understanding. The school has also seen similar levels of excitement and improved learning from the application and use of robotics during after-school programs. “Thank you again for AIAA’s support of our STEM programs. And thank you, in general, for your support of public education. Making a difference in the life of a child is a gift that keeps on giving, but you’ve made a difference in the lives of many children across the country. So thank you, we appreciate your efforts to improve education and better the lives of our students.”— Douglas Ferguson The AIAA Foundation is committed to providing financial support to educational aerospace programs by devoting resources to the education of both practicing and future professionals. If you would like to make a donation to the AIAA Foundation 2015

B8 AIAA BULLETIN / JUNE 2015 DBF 2015 winners: First place went to the University of Ljubljana (middle), the first time an international team has won DBF; second place went to University of California, Irvine (left); and third place went to Georgia Institute of Technology (right). The Best Paper Award, sponsored by the Design Engineering Technical Committee for the highest report score, went to Georgia Institute of Technology.

Design/BuilD/Fly Competition AttrACts of dedicated work to design a plane that could meet this year’s engineering stuDents From ArounD the WorlD challenges and prepare a technical report outlining their design and testing processes. Hannah Thoreson, AIAA Communications, and Stephen Brock, AIAA In the end, the day truly belonged to the international stu- Membership dents, as many of them ranked very highly in the competition. The University of Ljubljana from Slovenia had a large pres- The 19th annual Design/Build/Fly (DBF) Competition was held ence on the airfield with 21 students in attendance. They also 10-12 April at TIMPA Airfield near Tucson, AZ. Sponsored in led all teams in overall score. Tel Aviv University and Beihang conjunction with Raytheon Missile Systems and Cessna Aircraft, University also placed very highly. There was even one student the annual contest is held by the AIAA Foundation in either who made the long voyage from Cairo to represent an entire Tucson or Wichita during alternating years. This year’s contest team that had been unable to secure visas. She was able to welcomed over 650 students from 25 U.S. states, as well as successfully pass the technical inspection and complete the from 15 other countries. ground mission. The students arrived at the competition with their aircraft in The AIAA Foundation thanks all of the students and volun- pieces and had to assemble their projects onsite. The teams teers who contributed to making DBF 2015 one of this year’s competed in four separate missions: three in the air and one most successful programs. We look forward to the 2016 event on the ground. This competition was the culmination of months in Wichita.

AIAA SouthweSt texAS SectIon And ut’S AIAA to inspire and engage girls, their parents, and teachers, with stuDent ChApter holD introDuCe A girl to hands-on engineering. Participants learned about the concepts engineering DAy of Newton’s Law of Motion, friction, jet propulsion, and air resis- tance by designing and constructing their own balloon-powered On 28 February, in celebration of Engineering Week, the AIAA rocket car using empty water bottles and a variety of materials. Southwest Texas (SWTX) Section partnered with University AIAA student chapter members encouraged the future engineers of Texas’s (UT) AIAA Student Chapter members and Sigma and offered them innovative ideas to help them overcome design Gamma Tau student members to participate in UT Austin’s 14th challenges and improve the aerodynamics of their vehicle. One Annual Women in Engineering Program, known as Introduce of the most popular areas was the Design Station where the girls a Girl to Engineering Day (Girl Day). Over 1,660 1st–8th grade explored their creativity and imbued the arts in their design. The girls from across the state took part in the event at UT. With the SWTX section is looking forward assistance of 952 volunteers, 96 activities were facilitated that to making this an annual section included booths and demos hosted by 113 student organiza- STEAM event. tions, corporate partners, community organizations, schools and college/university partners. AIAA South Central Regional Director Jayant Ramakrishnan and SWTX Section Chair Joan Labay-Marquez were proud to be a part of this remark- able international event. Thanks to the leadership provided by Zach Basset, vice president of the AIAA student chapter, and Shivani Patel, vice president of Sigma Gamma Tau’s student chapter, dozens of enthusiastic AIAA student members volunteered their time, talents, and resources

AIAA BULLETIN / JUNE 2015 B9 Dayton-CinCinnati SeCtion HolDS aeroSpaCe The symposium’s technical program attracted a broad SCienCeS SympoSium range of technical content and best presentation awards were evaluated in 14 different categories including Acoustic and Eric Swenson and Ryan Schmit, 2015 DCASS Executive Chairs Aeroelasticity, Unmanned Vehicles, Human Factors, CFD, Combustion Co-Winners, Experimental Methods, Flow Control, For four decades, the AIAA Dayton-Cincinnati Aerospace Fluid Dynamics, Materials, Optimization & Uncertainty, Space, Sciences Symposium (DCASS) has provided a unique venue Structures, Thermal & Heat Transfer, and Image & Diagnostics. for technical interchange with members of our regional aero- Once again this year’s DCASS hosted an Art-in-Science space community. The 40th AIAA Dayton-Cincinnati Aerospace Competition that included 20 different entries with 1st, 2nd, 3rd Sciences Symposium was held on 4 March at the Sinclair place photo awards and best video submission award. These Conference Center in Dayton. This year’s symposium show- award winners were recognized at the 2015 AIAA Dayton- cased cutting-edge research with a one-day program with techni- Cincinnati Section Awards Banquet on 21 May 2015. cal presentations across multiple areas of aerospace science and technology. Over 240 people attended the 2015 Aerospace Sciences Symposium, which included 142 technical presentations in 35 parallel morning and afternoon sessions. The keynote session included opening remarks and an award presentation by special guest Sivaram Gogineni, AIAA Region III Director. The invited keynote speaker was Michael Drake, Technical Fellow of Aircraft Configuration Design, The Boeing Company, and he spoke about “Technology and Innovation in the 787 Dreamliner,” which addressed many of the design and technical challenges that had 2015 DCASS Organizing Committee: (from left to right) Maj James Rutledge, Beth Huelskamp, Travis Michalak, to be overcome in creating one of Michael Drake (keynote), Marcus Rumpfkeil, Ryan Schmit, Lance Chenault, Eric Swenson, Levi Elston, Sivaram Boeing’s greatest aircraft. Gogineni, and Tim Leger.

Call For paperS For Journal oF GuiDanCe, made in recent years in CG&C, much remains a work in prog- Control, anD DynamiCS ress. This special issue of JGCD will provide a focused forum Special iSSue on “computational Guidance and control to disseminate the latest research work in CG&C, and further stimulate interest in this area of great potential. Original research The Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics (JGCD) is papers that meet the afore-listed CG&C descriptions (with spe- devoted to the advancement of the science and technology of cial consideration given to onboard applications) are sought in, guidance, control, and dynamics through the dissemination of but not exclusive to, the following topics: original archival papers disclosing significant technical knowledge, exploratory developments, design criteria, and applications • Control (model predictive control, computational optimal con- in aeronautics, astronautics, celestial mechanics, and related trol, control allocation, etc.) fields. The journal publishes qualified papers on dynamics, sta- • Guidance (all flight phases, powered or unpowered, space or bility, guidance, control, navigation, optimization, electronics, atmospheric flight) avionics, and information processing related to aeronautical, • Autonomous mission and trajectory planning and optimization astronautical, and marine systems. • Modeling of system dynamics and problem formulations pro- A clear trend in the field of aerospace guidance and control moting computational benefits has emerged in recent years in what we call “Computational • Air traffic management applications (with focus on onboard Guidance and Control” (CG&C). In contrast to traditional guid- applications) ance and control, CG&C has the following identifying trade- • Embedded computation implementations for real-time guid- marks: 1) Guidance and control laws and controllers of fixed ance and control structures are replaced by algorithms. 2) The generation of • CG&C verification and validation guidance and control commands relies extensively on onboard computation. The extensive onboard computation requirement More information about this special issue as well as guidelines is in fact the defining difference between CG&C and other for preparing your manuscript can be found in the full Call for branches of computational engineering and sciences. 3) The Papers on the journal website in Aerospace Research Central, process of determining guidance and control commands may http://arc.aiaa.org/loi/jgcd. be model-based or data-based, and does not require significant pre-mission planning, gain tuning, or extensive offline design of Deadline: Submissions are due by 31 october 2015. nominal references. Contact Email: Ping Lu, JGCD Editor-in-Chief ([email protected]) This special issue on CG&C intends to bring recognition to Guest Editors: Panagiotis Tsiotras ([email protected]) and this significant trend in aerospace guidance and control and Mehran Mesbahi ([email protected]) afford it a proper descriptive term. Even with the great strides

B10 AIAA BULLETIN / JUNE 2015 CALL FOR NOMINATIONS History Manuscript Award is presented for the best historical manuscript dealing with the science, technology, and/or Nominations are being accepted for the following awards, and impact or aeronautics and astronautics on society. must be received at AIAA Headquarters no later than 1 July. Awards are presented annually, unless other indicated. Information Systems Award is presented for technical and/ AIAA members in good standing may serve as a nominator or management contributions in space and aeronautics com- and are highly urged to carefully read award guidelines (https:// puter and sensing aspects of information technology and sci- www.aiaa.org/Secondary.aspx?id=2915). You may submit nomi- ence. (Presented odd years) nations online or download the nomination form after logging into www.aiaa.org with their user name and password. Intelligent Systems Award recognizes important fundamental contributions to intelligent systems technologies and appli- Aerospace Design Engineering Award recognizes design cations that advance the capabilities of aerospace systems. engineers who have made outstanding technical, educational, (Presented even years) or creative achievements that exemplifies the quality and ele- ments of design engineering. (Presented even years) Lawrence Sperry Award is presented for a notable contribution made by a young person to the advancement of aero- Aerospace Guidance, Navigation, and Control Award nautics or astronautics. The nominee must be under 35 years recognizes important contributions in the field of guidance, of age on December 31 of the year preceding the presentation. navigation, and control. (Presented even years) Mechanics and Control of Flight Award honors an out- Aerospace Software Engineering Award honors outstand- standing recent technical or scientific contribution in the mechan- ing technical and/or management contributions to aeronautical ics, guidance, or control of flight in space or the atmosphere. or astronautical software engineering. (Presented odd years) Pendray Aerospace Literature Award is presented for an Children’s Literature Award is presented for an outstand- outstanding contribution or contributions to aeronautical and ing, significant, and original contribution in aeronautics and astronautical literature in the relatively recent past. astronautics. (Presented odd years) Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Award is de Florez Award for Flight Simulation is presented for an presented for an outstanding sustained technical or scientific outstanding individual achievement in the application of flight contribution in aerospace structures, structural dynamics, or simulation to aerospace training, research, and development. materials. (Presented even years) Excellence in Aerospace Standardization Award honors contributions by individuals that advance the health of the aero- Survivability Award honors outstanding achievement or con- space community by enabling cooperation, competition, & growth tribution in design, analysis implementation, and/or education of through the standardization process. (Presented odd years) survivability in an aerospace system. (Presented even years)

Faculty Advisor Award is presented to the faculty advi- Summerfield Book Award is presented to the author of the sor of a chartered AIAA Student Branch, who in the opinion best book recently published by AIAA. Criteria for the selection of student branch members, and the AIAA Student Activities include quality and professional acceptance as evidenced by Committee, has made outstanding contributions as a student impact on the field, citations, classroom adoptions and sales. branch faculty advisor, as evidenced by the record of his/her student branch in local, regional, and national activities. Sustained Service Award recognizes sustained, significant service and contributions to AIAA by members of the Institute. Gardner-Lasser History Literature Award is presented A maximum of 20 awards are presented each year. for the best original contribution to the field of aeronautical or astronautical historical nonfiction literature published in the last For more information on AIAA’s awards program, contact five years dealing with the science, technology, and/or impact Carol Stewart, Manager, AIAA Honors and Awards, carols@ of aeronautics and astronautics on society. aiaa.org or 703.264.7623.

AIAA NORTHwEST FLORIDA SECTION PARTIPATES IN OkALOOSA SCIENCE FAIR

Mike Sytsma

The AIAA Northwest Florida (NWF) section continued its tra- dition of endowing special awards on Okaloosa science fair students whose projects show excellence in aerospace-related topics. On 4 February, the Okaloosa County Regional Science Fair was held at the Fort Walton Beach Fairgrounds. Six AIAA members volunteered as special award judges: Eugene Toma, Tim Eymann, Thomas Webb, Chiung Hung, Brian Sytsma and Mike Sytsma. Mike Sytsma was responsible for organizing the judges and the logistics of the awards. They Recognized for projects that showed excellence in aerospace-related judged both the junior and senior divisions and awarded four topics. (L–R): Senior Division, 2nd place: Daniel Bobbitt, Go with the awards to entrants who had the best aerospace-related projects. flow; Junior Division, 2nd place: Matthew VandenBoom, How does the Eugene Toma presented the awards to the students at a size and location of a model rocket’s fins affect its stability?; Junior ceremony held 17 February at the Emerald Coast Convention Division, 1st place: Logan Thursby, Hands free driving; and Senior Center. Division, 1st place: Camille Miles, Triple the fun in the sun!

AIAA BULLETIN / JUNE 2015 B11 On 26 March, the AIAA Niagara Frontier Section hosted a dinner meeting and lecture. Speakers included Robert Brady, retired CEO of Moog Inc., and Dr. Renso Caporali, retired CEO of Grumman Aerospace. In a fascinating 45-minute panel discussion, they spoke about their careers in the aerospace industry—from their greatest challenges to advice for young engineers today. The meeting began with the recognition of 75-year IAS and AIAA member Walter Brewer, and 66-year ARS and AIAA member John Sennef. L–R: Bob Brady, retired CEO of Moog Inc. (speaker); John Sennef, 66-year member, flew P-47s over Europe in World War II before becoming Bell rocket engineer, worked on Bell Agena, and Lunar Module Ascent engine; Renso Caporali, retired CEO of Grumman Aerospace, AIAA Honorary Fellow (speaker); Walt Brewer, 75-year member, worked at Curtiss-Wright on P-40 prior to World War II, then Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, retired as vice president of The Aerospace Corp.

ObituaRies AIAA Senior Member Roderick Died in April

AIAA Fellow Morkovin Died in October 2014 Norman F. Roderick, former chair of the Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Department in the School of Engineering, Mark V. Morkovin died 18 October 2014. died 6 April. Professor Morkovin began his teaching career at Illinois Dr. Roderick graduated from the United States Air Force Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1967, and established a strong Academy and received his master’s and Ph.D. in aerospace reputation of fluid dynamics research in Armour College of engineering from the University of Michigan. He worked at the Engineering Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering rocket test track at Holloman AFB, was a faculty member of Department. His legacy continues through the IIT Fluid Dynamics the Department of Aeronautics at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Research Center, and the Mark V. Morkovin windtunnel was and then was a faculty member of Chemical and Nuclear named for him. He conceived the Morkovin Hypothesis—first Engineering (ChNE) at the University of New Mexico for more discussed in the article, “Effects of compressibility on turbulent than 30 years. Roderick led the nuclear engineering program flows,” Mecanique de la Turbulence (1962, pp. 367–380). The through a particularly difficult time during the 1980s and 1990s hypothesis states: “that for moderate Mach numbers compress- and also served as interim chair of the ChNE department on a ibility effects did not influence the dynamic behavior of turbu- number of occasions. lence directly, and the principal effect of high speeds was felt Dr. Roderick was an AIAA Senior Member, a member of through the change in fluid properties.” both the American Nuclear Society and the American Physical Professor Morkovin made significant contributions to two Society, and a fellow of IEEE. He had a long, successful career projects that are on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution: the in research and consulting in the Air Force, at UNM, Los Alamos first transonic and supersonic airplane, the X-1; and the first National Lab and at Numberex, specializing in high-density maneuverable re-entry vehicle. He was elected as a member plasma physics. of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to the understanding of instability, transition, and turbulence through AIAA Senior Member Pieronek Died in April outstanding research and distinguished written reviews of the field. Professor Morkovin was awarded the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Catherine F. Pieronek, associate dean for academic affairs Award (1976): For outstanding personal contributions in basic and director of the Women’s Engineering Program at the and applied research on transition and turbulent flow, and for University of Notre Dame, died 9 April. She was 52 years old. many years of service as a stimulating and stabilizing influence Ms. Pieronek graduated from Notre Dame in 1984 and on research in this field. earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1987. She worked as Associate Fellow Greenwood Died in March a senior systems engineer at TRW, where she helped develop both the Data Relay System on NASA’s Compton Gamma Ray William R. Greenwood, 84, died 9 March 2015. Observatory and the Chandra satellite. Mr. Greenwood was an engineering graduate of Purdue She returned to Notre Dame in 1992 to pursue a law degree University. He also earned graduate degrees in engineering from and served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in business from University Law. After earning her law degree in 1995, Ms. Ohio State University. Pieronek became director of alumni relations for the Notre Dame Mr. Greenwood started his career in the U.S. Air Force, serv- Law School and editor of its quarterly publication. She became a ing for five years on active duty, and several more years in the nationally recognized expert in Title IX issues,. Air Force Reserve. His duty included three years as an engi- In 2002, Ms. Pieronek joined Notre Dame’s College of neering officer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Engineering, serving as its associate dean and establishing the OH. He then worked seven years at RCA as a group leader and women’s engineering program to increase the retention rate of engineering scientist on military electronics projects. women from the first through sophomore years. Before his retirement in 1993, he was employed at Raytheon Last year Ms. Pieronek was named a fellow of the Society Company for 29 years. At Raytheon, he was a Principal of Women Engineers, cited for having had a lasting and posi- Engineer working on missile systems at facilities in Bedford, tive impact on engineering education, and for illuminating public Wayland, and Tewksbury. He was a Life Senior Member of discourse on gender equity in fields. She had been a member of IEEE, and an Associate Fellow of AIAA. AIAA since 1981.

B12 AIAA BULLETIN / JUNE 2015 AIAA Space and Astronautics Forum and Exposition Setting a Course for the Future

31 August–2 September 2015 Pasadena Convention Center Pasadena, California

Organizing Committee—The New Face of SPACE Stephanie Bednarek, SpaceX, General Chair Kate Stambaugh, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Forum 360 Co-Chair Justin Kugler, Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Forum 360 Co-Chair Paul Guthrie, The Tauri Group, Member Matt Cannella, United Launch Alliance, Member Aaron Parness, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Member Ben Tutt, Airborne Systems, Technical Program Chair

Complete list of organizers at aiaa-space.org/Organizers