Langley Research Center

With an eye to the sky, Langley Research Center is working to reduce frustrating air travel delays, and increase the safety and performance of civilian and military aircraft. Langley also has satellite "eyes" in the sky with its atmospheric science instruments and programs to help us better understand our environment. It is the NASA Center for Excellence in structures and materials and has a lead role in airframe systems.

In addition, Langley plays an increasingly large role in supporting the nation's space programs by developing revolutionary technologies for affordable, advanced, space transportation systems, as well as small spacecraft and instruments. This research includes spaceframe technologies that are synergistic with the center's airframe systems capabilities. Langley's unique research facilities, located in Hampton, Virginia, include more than 20 operational wind tunnels, an indication of the center's dedication to advancing and improving aerospace research.

Tapping into a wealth of knowledge and resources in structures and materials, Langley has provided research support to the Reusable Launch Vehicle Program. Langley has performed research on cryogenic propellant tanks, composite structures, metallic and composite thermal protection systems, vehicle systems analysis, aerodynamic testing and analysis, and flight controls. Additionally, Langley has been the site of extensive wind tunnel tests of the X-37, the first orbital experimental vehicle to be lifted to orbit on the Space Shuttle and returned to Earth under its own power.

Langley researchers are developing the technologies to enable aircraft to fly faster, farther, safer, and quieter, while making them less expensive to manufacture, more energy efficient, and more maneuverable. Langley participates in many projects aimed at achieving these goals, such as: The NASA Aviation Safety Program (AvSP), Earth Observing System (EOS), Geostationary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS), and SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE).

Through the AvSP, one need not look far to find a way NASA research can provide benefits to the public. A partnership between NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Department of Defense (DoD), and the aviation industry, AvSP is working to develop advanced, affordable technologies to make travel safer on commercial airliners and smaller aircraft. To meet the national goal of reducing the fatality rate of aircraft accidents by 90 percent in 25 years, Langley researchers have gone looking for danger.

In June 1999, three aircraft, supported by a team of government and industry researchers, took to the skies over Colorado in search of turbulence associated with thunderstorms. Radar onboard the planes and on the ground collected atmospheric data to gain a better understanding of turbulence and determine if airborne Doppler radar can reliably detect it.

The X-43 is part of NASA's research into the next generation of advanced aircraft.

When not looking to fly into stormy weather, Langley researchers can be found purposely crashing aircraft. There is a method to the destruction, as researchers are looking for possible design changes that could help pilots and passengers better survive accidents. In October 1999, engineers dropped a Lear Fan composite aircraft from a height of 150 feet. The plane, which hit the ground at 60 miles an hour, was equipped with instruments to record the conditions on impact and 6 instrumented crash test dummies.

While one set of researchers study how to make planes, another team of Langley personnel is studying ways to prevent accidents from ever occurring through research into "self-healing" and "refuse-to-crash planes." The vision is for an integrated computerized health management system that oversees vital aircraft functions to prevent and reduce malfunctions, enhance flight crew responses to problems, and reduce a pilot's workload in an emergency situation. In addition to health management, NASA is also researching control upset management systems. Such technologies include advanced detection/prevention algorithms, display formats, pilot cueing, and guidance and control methods to prevent accidents when failures occur.

Advancing aircraft technologies does not end there. Building on the gains of the highly successful Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiment (AGATE) consortium, NASA is planning a small aircraft technologies (SATS) program. SATS, in partnership with the FAA, hopes to gain access to more communities in less time via air travel. The specific goal is to reduce public travel times by two-thirds in 25 years at equivalent highway system costs. Bruce Homes, manager of the NASA General Aviation Program at Langley, says, "imagine a third dimension for the interstate highway system...a 'virtual' interstate skyway system."

Along with aeronautic ventures, NASA Langley is dedicated to Earth Science, which will benefit society through the understanding of weather and climate forecasting, agriculture, natural resource management, and urban and regional planning. One attempt to improve the knowledge of Earth's atmosphere is through the EOS's Terra spacecraft, launched in late 1999. One of the instruments aboard Terra is the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES). CERES will collect data to study the energy exchanged between the Sun; the Earth's atmosphere, surface, and clouds; and outer space. CERES EOS-Terra is the second CERES instrument to fly above Earth. The first, launched in 1997, is aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) observatory.

Langley researchers perform various crash tests on airplanes, such as the one shown here, in an effort to improve aircraft safety performance.

Langley scientists are also participating in an international effort known as the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) to expand present understanding of polar ozone dynamics and improve ozone loss prediction forecasts over the North Pole. Additional data will be collected using Langley's future Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III satellite, to be launched in the summer of 2001. The second stage of SOLVE involved more than 350 researchers from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Russia, and Japan.

Meanwhile, Langley researchers are currently developing the Geostationary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS) for launch in 2003. Set to be the third Earth-observing mission under NASA's New Millennium project, GIFTS will test advanced technologies for measuring temperature, water vapor, wind, and chemical composition of the atmosphere. The weather information to be obtained by GIFTS will be equivalent to that obtained by launching 100,000 weather balloons every minute at intervals of 2 miles.

Whether it is developing new aircraft, making present air travel safer for everyone, or observing the heavens to improve weather forecasting, Langley has the skies covered today and in the future.