Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR Annual Report 2001 Cover: Assembly of scale 1:5 semispan model of Dassault Falcon business jet to be tested in the ONERA F1 wind tunnel; model fitted with three-component balances on slat and flap brackets and provided with 250 pressure orifices 2 Annual Report 2001 1 Board of the Foundation NLR Appointed by: J. van Houwelingen, Chairman Ministers of Transport, of Defence, of Economic Affairs and of Education, Culture and Science Ir. J.P.J.M. Remmen Minister of Transport, for the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation Drs. E.A. van Hoek Minister of Defence Gen.maj. P. Vorderman Minister of Defence for the Royal Netherlands Air Force Drs. A.A.H. Teunissen Minister of Economic Affairs Drs. J.W.A. van Enst Minister of Education, Culture and Science B.A.C. Droste Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programmes (NIVR) G.H. Kroese ATC the Netherlands (LVNL) Dr.ir. A.W. Veenman Stork N.V. Drs.ing. P. Hartman KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Ms.ir. M.E. van Lier Lels Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Ir. E.I.L.D.G. Margherita Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) Prof.dr.ir. Th. de Jong Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering Jhr.mr. J.W.E. Storm Board of the Foundation NLR van ‘s Gravesande Ms.prof.dr.ir. M.P.C. Weijnen Board of the Foundation NLR, upon nomination by the Works Council Chairman of the Scientific Committee NLR/NIVR Prof.dr.ir. P.J. Zandbergen Board of Directors of NLR Ir. F. Holwerda General Director Ir. F.J. Abbink Technical Director Drs. L.W. Esselman R.A. Financial Director General Secretary E. Folkers Composition as on 31 December 2001 3 Table of Contents 1 Preface 7 2 General Survey 2.1 Mission and Means 9 2.2 Activities in 2001 9 2.3 Organisation and Personnel 13 3 Research Activities 3.1 Fluid Dynamics 17 3.2 Flight 37 3.3 Air Transport 51 3.4 Structures and Materials 70 3.5 Space 79 3.6 Information and Communication Technology 87 3.7 Avionics 107 3.8 Engineering and Technical Services 120 4 Internal and External Relations 123 5 Scientific Committee 125 6 International Co-operation 6.1 Military Research and Technology Organisations 128 6.2 German-Dutch Wind Tunnels (DNW) 130 6.3 European Transonic Windtunnel (ETW) 135 6.4 Group for Aeronautical Research and Technology in Europe (GARTEUR) 136 6.5 Co-operation with European Research Establishments in Aeronautics 138 6.6 Co-operation with Indonesia 141 Capita Selecta 1 Free Flight: Using Airborne Separation Assurance for Direct Routing 145 2 NLR’s Tower Research Simulator for Airport-related Research 152 3 Aircraft Self-Protection Equipment Integration, Qualification and Testing 159 4 WAVIR: Wake Vortex Induced Risk Assessment 167 Appendices 1 Publications 174 2 Abbreviations 182 5 1 Preface A review of the year 2001 would not be possible without NLR pursues national co-operation in technology mentioning the 11 September attacks on New York and development. Stork N.V., the Delft University of Washington. Their consequences have affected the whole Technology and NLR have founded the Fibre aeronautical community, including – on a limited scale – Metal Laminates Centre of Competence (FMLC), NLR. For the first time in many consecutive years of officially inaugurated on 16 May 2001. By joining steady growth, NLR saw some decrease in turnover. It is and expanding technological capabilities the strongly believed, however, that the trend for NLR will founding parties have developed, the FMLC will soon be upwards again. be capable of enabling customers to develop various products and production technologies. NLR has supported industries in the Netherlands in their efforts to participate in the development A review of the year 2001 would not be complete and production of the successor of the Royal without referring to the retirement, after more than Netherlands Air Force’s Lockheed Martin F-16 40 years with NLR, of Dr.ir. Ben M. Spee, General fighters. By carrying out projects that strengthen Director from1988. Paying tribute to his constant the Netherlands technology basis, NLR will drive for international co-operation, a symposium continue to provide the support that the industry “International Co-operation in Aerospace Re- requires for participation in military aircraft search & Development” was held, with speakers programmes. and guests from many countries in Europe as well as from the United States. In the area of civil aircraft development, the As of 1 August 2001 Ir. F. Holwerda took over the opportunity for the Dutch industry to contribute to position of General Director. the Airbus A380 programme will result in new research and development contracts. The 25th anniversary of the German-Dutch wind Equally important are the preparations for the tunnel co-operation, celebrated in May 2001, operation of the fifth runway of Amsterdam illustrates NLR’s long-standing emphasis on Airport Schiphol. For government agencies, ATC international co-operation, intended to be ex- the Netherlands and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, panded even further in the years to come. Negotia- NLR carried out various research programmes tions aimed at the integration of the wind tunnels aimed at accommodating the increasing demand operated by DNW and those of the Office National for air transport, within safety and noise limits. d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales For international customers, in co-operation with (ONERA) are being continued. The resulting various partners, NLR carried out studies to arrive future Aerodynamic Testing Alliance (ATA) will at a single European sky with harmonised air provide better and more cost-effective services in traffic control and reduced congestion and delays. the field of wind tunnel tests to the aeronautic Participation in international research and tech- industry and research community. Co-operation nology development programmes helped NLR to with DLR in the area of Air Traffic Management is retain its capability of providing the support that expected to improve the services provided to the customers require. national and international organisations concerned with the management of air traffic. NLR expects to continue various space activities, particularly in programmes of the European Space I hope you will enjoy reading this report. Agency and in co-operation with industries. The flight of the Sloshsat FLEVO satellite only awaits a launch opportunity. NLR will be contributing to the development of the European satellite naviga- tion system, GALILEO. By its participation in the Geomatics Business Park, a business and science park located near NLR in Noordoostpolder, Flevoland, NLR supports various companies in utilising remote sensing data in products for their customers. J. van Houwelingen, Chairman 7 2 General Survey 2.1 Mission and Means 2.2 Activities in 2001 The National Aerospace Laboratory NLR is the central In 2001 NLR’s turnover amounted to 165 million institute for aerospace research in the Netherlands. NLR guilders (M€ 74.8). The revenues from contracts provides scientific support, technical assistance and totalled 121 million guilders (M€ 55.0). About 50 per consultancy to aerospace industries, civil and military cent of NLR’s activities were related to the aircraft operators, government agencies and development and 50 per cent to the operation of international organisations. A non-profit organisation, aircraft and spacecraft; 88 per cent of the activities NLR conducts a basic research and facilities were related to aeronautics and 12 per cent to space. development programme funded by the government to Civil and military research amounted to 69 per cent maintain its capabilities of providing technological and 31 per cent, respectively. About 32 per cent of the support. work under contract was carried out for international customers. With sites in Amsterdam and in the Province of Flevoland, NLR owns, among other facilities, Services Provided under National Contracts various wind tunnels, research aircraft, research Activities under contract to customers from the flight simulators, an Air Traffic Control research Netherlands amounted to 82 million guilders simulator and a tower research simulator under (M€ 37.1). These contracts included work on development. NLR has available an extensive set aeronautics and space research and technology of equipment for the gathering, recording and for the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace processing of flight test data. NLR also has Programmes (NIVR). In addition, a number of facilities for research and testing in the areas of research programmes were executed under structures and materials, space technology, remote contract to the Royal Netherlands Air Force sensing and avionics. NLR’s extensive computer (RNLAF), the Royal Netherlands Navy network includes a 64-GFlops NEC SX-5/8 (RNLN), the Netherlands Civil Aviation Execu- supercomputer, tools for software development tive Agency (IVW-DL), Air Traffic Control the and advanced software for computational fluid Netherlands (LVNL), Stork Aerospace and dynamics, aeroelastics, electromagnetics and Fokker Space. NLR also carried out contract structural dynamics for aircraft and spacecraft. work to support the Netherlands Ministry of Defence, the Netherlands Ministry of Trans- By its participation in international facilities and port’s Aviation Policy Department (DGL), the organisations, NLR is able to offer the national German-Dutch Wind Tunnels (DNW), the aerospace sector access to advanced joint test European Transonic Windtunnel (ETW) and facilities and research capabilities. NLR co- several other service providers and businesses operates on an equal base with the Deutsches such as Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and KLM Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) in the Royal Dutch Airlines. foundation German-Dutch Wind Tunnels (Stichting Duits-Nederlandse Windtunnels – Services Provided to International Customers Stiftung Deutsch-Niederländische Windkanäle; Research carried out under contract to interna- DNW), which operates the Large Low-speed tional customers amounted to 39 million Facility in Flevoland and several other wind guilders (M€ 17.8).