Armstrong Flight Research Center Research, Technology, and Engineering Report 2017
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration Armstrong Flight Research Center RESEARCH TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING 2017 From the Director: Research and Engineering Directorate It’s with great pride that I endorse the 2017 NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Research, Technology, and Engineering Report. We’re entering an exciting new era of flight transportation, and the talented researchers, engineers, and scientists at Armstrong continue to create innovative solutions to address some of the challenges facing the aerospace community. The center has long prided itself on its agility to develop and apply innovative tools, techniques, and technologies to the relevant aerospace problems of the day, and we’re excited to continue that tradition on the cutting-edge projects of today and tomorrow. From imaging and documenting the 2017 total solar eclipse, to developing tools to validate quiet supersonic flight, to discovering and solving the real-world problems of electric flight, to addressing the challenges of space access, the work represented in this report highlights the ability of our research, engineering, and technical team to address diverse challenges across mission directorates. As we support NASA’s aerospace research and development missions, conveying news of this work to the public remains a priority. This report presents brief summaries of the technology work at Armstrong, along with contact information for the associated technologists responsible for the work. Don’t hesitate to contact them for more information or for collaboration ideas. Bradley C. Flick Director for Research and Engineering ARMSTRONG RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, AND ENGINEERING REPORT 2017 From the: Center Chief Technologist I am delighted to present this report of accomplishments at Summaries of each project highlighting key results and benefits of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center. Our dedicated the effort are provided in the following pages. Technology areas innovators possess a wealth of performance, safety, and technical for the projects include electric propulsion, vehicle efficiency, capabilities spanning a wide variety of research areas involving supersonics, space and hypersonics, autonomous systems, flight aircraft, electronic sensors, instrumentation, environmental and and ground experimental test technologies, and much more. earth science, celestial observations, and much more. They Additional technical information is available in the appendix, as not only perform tasks necessary to safely and successfully well as contact information for the Principal Investigator of each accomplish Armstrong’s flight research and test missions but also project. support NASA missions across the entire Agency. I am proud of the work we do here at Armstrong and am pleased Armstrong’s project teams have successfully accomplished to share these details with you. We welcome opportunities for many of the nation’s most complex flight research projects by partnership and collaboration, so please contact us to learn more crafting creative solutions that advance emerging technologies about these cutting-edge innovations and how they might align from concept development and experimental formulation to final with your needs. testing. We are developing and refining technologies for ultra- efficient aircraft, electric propulsion vehicles, a low boom flight David Voracek demonstrator, air launch systems, and experimental x-planes, to Center Chief Technologist name a few. Additionally, with our unique location and airborne research laboratories, we are testing and validating new research concepts. TABLE OF CONTENTS Electric Propulsion Technologies Airvolt Single Propulsor Test Stand ...............................................4 Verification of Finite Element Models for Pyrolyzing X-57 Maxwell Experimental Aircraft .............................................5 Ablative Materials .......................................................................27 Hybrid-Electric Integrated Systems Testbed (HEIST) Ironbird .......6 Motivation for Air Launch ...........................................................27 Improving Aerospace Vehicle Efficiency Autonomous Systems Calibration Research Wing (CREW) ...............................................7 Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) System .28 PRANDTL-D Flying Wing ...............................................................8 Automated Cooperative Trajectories (ACT) Programmable Autopilot .............................................................29 PRANDTL-M Airframe...................................................................8 Expandable Variable Autonomy Architecture (EVAA) ...................30 Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE) Flight Experiment ..........9 Stereo Vision for Collision Avoidance ..........................................30 Acoustic Research Measurement (ARM) Flight Experiment ..........9 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Determining Leading-Edge Stagnation Point Location with Airspace System (NAS) ..............................................................31 Sensors of Unknown Calibration .................................................10 Improved Ground Collision Avoidance System (iGCAS) ...............32 Peak-Seeking Control for Trim Optimization ...............................33 Control of Flexible Structures Miniaturized Radar for Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) ...33 X-56A Multi-Utility Technology Testbed (MUTT) .........................11 Development and Flight Test of Resource Allocation for Multi-Agent Spanwise Adaptive Wing Research .............................................12 Planning (ReMAP) System for Unmanned Vehicles .....................34 Modeling of X-56A Landing Gear ................................................12 Active/Adaptive Flexible Motion Controls with Aeroservoelastic Avionics and Instrumentation Technologies System Uncertainties .................................................................13 ARMD Flight Data Portal (AFDP) .................................................35 Robust Virtual Deformation Control of the X-56A Model ............14 Upper-Atmospheric Space and Earth Weather Integrated Flight Dynamics and Aeroservoelastic Modeling Experiment (USEWX) .................................................................36 and Control .................................................................................14 Weather Hazard Alert and Awareness Technology Radiation System Identification for Flexible Aircraft ...................................15 Radiosonde (WHAATRR) Glider ...................................................37 Flight Research of Hyperelastic Materials ...................................15 Ethernet via Telemetry (EVTM) ...................................................37 Inverse Finite Element Method (iFEM) Investigation for Fiber Optic Sensing System (FOSS) ...........................................38 Aerospace Structures ................................................................16 Fiber Optic Augmented Reality System (FOARS) .........................39 Real-Time Structural Overload Control via Control Allocation Optimization ...............................................................17 New Flight Data Acquisition Techniques for Store Separation .....39 Flexible Matrix Composites for Passive Flutter Suppression .......17 Advanced Wireless Flight Sensor System ...................................40 Airborne Research Test System (ARTS) for Small SOFIA Cavity Environmental Control System (CECS) ...................40 Unmanned Aircraft .....................................................................18 SOFIA Data Acquisition Subsystem (DAS) ..................................41 Real-Time Parameter Identification ............................................42 Supersonic Technologies Shock-Sensing Probe to Study Sonic Booms ..............................19 Flight and Ground Experimental Test Investigating Laminar Flow .........................................................20 Technologies Using Schlieren Techniques to Understand Sonic Booms ............21 Fixed Base Modes Method for Ground Vibration Testing .............43 Quantifying and Measuring Sonic Booms ...................................22 Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for Microgravity Research .........44 Mitigating Sonic Booms ..............................................................23 Acoustic Detection of Aircraft Turbine Cooling Hole Clogging .....44 Flying Qualities for Low Boom Vehicles ......................................24 Fused Reality for Enhanced Training and Flight Research ...........45 CFD Study of Nozzle Plume Effect on Sonic Boom Signature ......24 Aerothermoelastic-Acoustics Simulation of Flight Vehicles .........45 Risk and Complexity Considerations for Midsized X-Planes ........46 Space and Hypersonics Technologies Towed Glider Air Launch System (TGALS) ..................................25 Appendix Heavy-Lift Mid-Air Retrieval .......................................................26 Additional Project Information ....................................................47 Heat Flux Mapping System .........................................................26 ARMSTRONG RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, AND ENGINEERING REPORT 2017 3 PROJECT SUMMARIES Airvolt Single Propulsor Test Electric Stand A modular test stand developed Propulsion at Armstrong is helping researchers conduct extensive measurements for efficiency Technologies and performance of electric propulsion systems up to 100 kW in scale. The