Happy National Aviation Day!
Image: Lockheed Martin artist concept of a blended wing body aircraft with a tail flying in the air. | NASA is working to create new experimental aircraft that will demonstrate new “green aviation” technology intended to dramatically reduce fuel use, emissions and noise—with the goal of cutting emissions from the nation’s commercial aircraft fleet by more than 50 percent, while also reducing perceived noise levels near airports to one-half the level of the quietest aircraft flying today.
To that end, NASA awarded six-month contracts to four companies, who will each define the technical approach, schedule, and cost for one or more large-scale, subsonic X-plane concepts. These concepts are in support of NASA’s ultra-efficient subsonic transport research goals.
The companies were Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation of Manassas, VA; Dzyne Technologies Incorporated of Fairfax, VA; Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company of Ft. Worth, TX; and The Boeing Company of Hazelwood, MO.
“Engaging these contractors now to gather this information will help us move forward efficiently and expeditiously when we’re ready to commit to building the X-planes themselves,” said Ed Waggoner, NASA’s Integrated Aviation Systems Program director.
Each company detailed their specific X-plane system requirements for a piloted experimental aircraft capable of sustained, two to three hours of powered high subsonic flight, and plans for conducting at least two research flight sorties per week over the course of a year-long program.
The requested information is to be built around a plan that would see the selected experimental aircraft eventually flying no later than 2021.
NASA’s return to flying large-scale X-plane technology demonstrators—a staple of its aeronautical research heritage—is part of New Aviation Horizons, an ambitious 10-year accelerated research plan developed and announced by NASA earlier this year.
The five X-plane concepts envisioned for possible further development and the contractor responsible for providing NASA with the required information include:
Aurora Flight Sciences for the D8 “Double Bubble,” a twin-aisle, largely composite airliner in which the fuselage is shaped to provide lift—enabling smaller wings—and the jet engines are mounted atop the rear tail area, which takes advantage of the air flow over the aircraft to both improve engine efficiency and reduce noise in the cabin and on the ground below.
Dzyne Technologies for a smaller regional jet-sized aircraft that features a blended wing body (BWB) design in which the lines of a traditional tube and wing airliner are shaped to become one continuous line in which the seam between the wing and fuselage is nearly indistinguishable. As an aerodynamic shape, this configuration increases lift and reduces drag.
Lockheed Martin for its Hybrid Wing Body, which includes features of the BWB on the forward part of the fuselage but has a more conventional looking T-shaped tail, with its jet engines mounted on the side of the hull but above the blended wing. Increased lift, reduced drag and quieter operations are all potential benefits.
Boeing for both its BWB concept—versions of which the company has flight tested with its subscale X-48 program in partnership with NASA—and a Truss-Braced Wing concept, which features a very long, aerodynamically efficient wing that is held up on each side by a set of trusses connecting the fuselage to the wing. Otherwise the aircraft appears more conventional than the other X-plane concepts under consideration.
Preliminary design work already has begun on a half-scale X-plane called the Quiet Supersonic Technology, or QueSST, a piloted supersonic aircraft that generates a soft thump, rather than the disruptive boom currently associated with supersonic flight.
Work also is underway on the X-57 Maxwell, a general aviation-sized electric research airplane. Maxwell will fly for the first time in early 2018 and demonstrate battery powered, distributed electric propulsion. Transport-sized electric aircraft could reduce energy use by more than 60 percent and harmful emissions by more than 90 percent. This was the first project to get an X-plane number designation in a decade.
NASA’s other green aviation initiatives include reducing airline emissions and flight delays. Working in partnership with airlines and air traffic controllers at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, NASA is beginning the first-of-a-kind demonstration of new technologies that coordinate operational schedules for aircraft arrivals, departures, and taxiing.
Credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
Release Date: October 6, 2016#NASA #Aviation #Aerospace #NationalAviationDay #FlyNASA #LockheedMartin #Aircraft #Concept #BlendedWingBody #BWB #HybridWingBody #Technology #Engineering #Photography #Science #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Illustration #Visualization
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy, along with surrounding minor islands, officially referred to as Regione Siciliana (in Italian, Sicilian Region). Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula, from which it is separated by the narrow Strait of Messina. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, and one of the most active in the world, currently 3,329 m (10,922 ft) high. (Source: Wikipedia)
Credit: NASA/JSC, ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli of Italy
Image Date: August 15, 2017#NASA #ISS #Earth #Science #Sicily #Mediterranean #Sea #EarthObservation #Astronaut #PaoloNespoli #ASI #ESA #Europe #Night #Italy #Italia #Human #Spaceflight #Expedition52 #UnitedStates #JSC #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM
#Education
The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel. The peninsula lies east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a northwestern geographic partition separating the region of Central America from the rest of North America. (Source: Wikipedia)
Credit: NASA
Release Date: December 27, 2005
#NASA #Earth #Science #Space #Satellite #Yucatán #Peninsula #Mexico #Caribbean #Sea #CentralAmerica #Goddard #GSFC #STEM #Education
U.S. Astronaut Randy Bresnik: "[the Yucatan Peninsula]…has lovely Cozumel hovering just offshore"
Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen, and close to the Yucatán Channel. (Source: Wikipedia)
Credit: NASA/JSC
Release Date: August 19, 2017#NASA #ISS #Earth #Science #Planet #Yucatan #Peninsula #Cozumel #Island #Mexico #Caribbean #Sea #EarthObservation #Astronaut #RandyBresnik #Human #Spaceflight #Expedition52 #JSC #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM
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U.S. Astronaut Randy Bresnik: "Eastern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula looks very inviting…"
The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel. The peninsula lies east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a northwestern geographic partition separating the region of Central America from the rest of North America. (Source: Wikipedia)
Credit: NASA/JSC
Release Date: August 19, 2017#NASA #ISS #Earth #Science #Planet #Yucatan #Peninsula #Mexico #Caribbean #Sea #EarthObservation #Astronaut #RandyBresnik #Human #Spaceflight #Expedition52 #JSC #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM
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U.S. Astronaut Randy Bresnik: "…but all we had to do was look down to be reminded that they were 250 miles high, not 250 fathoms deep"
Outside the International Space Station, Expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy conducted a spacewalk Aug. 17 to assess the condition of the exterior of the Russian segment of the complex and to install struts and handrails to facilitate future excursions. During the outing, Ryazanskiy manually deployed five small nanosatellites to collect data on a variety of scientific investigations. The spacewalk, which was the 202nd in support of space station assembly and maintenance, was the ninth in Yurchikhin’s career and the fourth for Ryazanskiy.
Credit: NASA/JSC
Release Date: August 19, 2017#NASA #ISS #Earth #Science #Spacewalk #EVA #Cosmonaut #Commander #FyodorYurchikhin #FlightEngineer #SergeyRyazanskiy #космонавт #Роскосмос #Roscosmos #Russia #Россия #Astronaut #RandyBresnik #Human #Spaceflight #Expedition52 #UnitedStates #JSC #STEM
#Education
U.S. Astronaut Randy Bresnik: "As the sun rose on our Russian crew’s 7.5 hr spacewalk, their helmets lights gave off a glow that made it look like they were underwater…"
Outside the International Space Station, Expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy conducted a spacewalk Aug. 17 to assess the condition of the exterior of the Russian segment of the complex and to install struts and handrails to facilitate future excursions. During the outing, Ryazanskiy manually deployed five small nanosatellites to collect data on a variety of scientific investigations. The spacewalk, which was the 202nd in support of space station assembly and maintenance, was the ninth in Yurchikhin’s career and the fourth for Ryazanskiy.
Credit: NASA/JSC
Release Date: August 19, 2017#NASA #ISS #Earth #Science #Spacewalk #EVA #Cosmonaut #Commander #FyodorYurchikhin #FlightEngineer #SergeyRyazanskiy #космонавт #Роскосмос #Roscosmos #Russia #Россия #Astronaut #RandyBresnik #Human #Spaceflight #Expedition52 #UnitedStates #JSC #STEM
#Education
International Space Station crew members captured this nighttime image of Johannesburg, South Africa, a few minutes before crossing over the Indian Ocean on Aug. 7.
Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: August 7, 2017#NASA #ISS #Earth #Science #Planet #Johannesburg #SouthAfrica #EarthObservation #Canadarm2 #Dextre #CSA #Canada #Robotics #Photography #Astronauts #Human #Spaceflight #Expedition52 #UnitedStates #JSC #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM
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Darth Vader and other Star Wars characters from the 501st Legion address students and sponsors in the Center for Space Education at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Teams from across the state of Florida were gathered at Kennedy for the finals of the Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program national championship. The five-week program allows rising sixth- through ninth-graders to write programs for small satellites called SPHERES (Synchronized, Position, Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites). Finalists saw their code tested aboard the International Space Station.
A middle-school student high-fives a Star Wars character from the 501st Legion in the Center for Space Education at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Teams from across the state of Florida were gathered at Kennedy for the finals of the Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program national championship. The five-week program allows rising sixth- through ninth-graders to write programs for small satellites called SPHERES (Synchronized, Position, Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites). Finalists saw their code tested aboard the International Space Station.
Smoke from the wildfires in Canada's Northwest Territories, as well as British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are seen in this image from the Suomi NPP satellite. The smoke spewing from the fires has been swept up by the jet stream and is being carried across the continent. The largest fires seem to be in the Northern Territories. Fire is worrisome enough but the smoke that is produced from wildfires is extremely dangerous. Wind patterns have the ability to move smoke and dangerous particles across continents to affect people in far-flung parts of the world. The hotter the fire is the higher the smoke goes into the atmosphere and the farther it can travel. Winds in the upper atmosphere are stronger and allow the smoke to travel greater distances.
Smoke from extremely hot wildfires can even trigger massive thunderstorms, as they did in August of 2014 in Canada's Northern Territories. Once in the stratosphere, above the part of the atmosphere where weather occurs, aerosol particles can travel long distances. In a case from 2010, the smoke from a massive thunderstorm triggered by Russian wildfires reached the eastern United States. The smoke stayed in the stratosphere for a long time because it was above the part of the atmosphere where weather occurs, so it was not able to rain or fall out easily.
There is some comfort, however, if you aren't able to smell the smoke. Chances are the smoke most likely won't negatively affect you, but always check the Air Quality Index in your area to be sure, especially if the skies seem hazy. If you do smell smoke, take precautions to avoid it.
The Suomi NPP satellite's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument captured a look at multiple fires, smoke from those fires, and cloud cover over northern Canada on August 14, 2017. The Suomi NPP satellite is a joint mission between NASA and NOAA.
Image Credit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team.
Caption Credit: NASA/Goddard, Lynn Jenner with information from NASA stories cited above.
Release Date: August 15, 2017#NASA #Earth #Science #Space #Satellite #Smoke #Wildfires #Fires #Atmosphere #Clouds #Canada #BritishColumbia #NorthwestTerritories #Alberta #Saskatchewan #Manitoba #UnitedStates #NorthAmerica #EarthObservation #NOAA #SuomiNPP #VIIRS #MODIS #Goddard #GSFC #STEM #Education
