ALBERT

Description: Method and system for analyzing aircraft data, including multiple selected flight parameters for a selected phase of a selected flight, and for determining when the selected phase of the selected flight is atypical, when compared with corresponding data for the same phase for other similar flights. A flight signature is computed using continuous-valued and discrete-valued flight parameters for the selected flight parameters and is optionally compared with a statistical distribution of other observed flight signatures, yielding atypicality scores for the same phase for other similar flights. A cluster analysis is optionally applied to the flight signatures to define an optimal collection of clusters. A level of atypicality for a selected flight is estimated, based upon an index associated with the cluster analysis.

Description: A dynamic wake avoidance system utilizes aircraft and atmospheric parameters readily available in flight to model and predict airborne wake vortices in real time. A novel combination of algorithms allows for a relatively simple yet robust wake model to be constructed based on information extracted from a broadcast. The system predicts the location and movement of the wake based on the nominal wake model and correspondingly performs an uncertainty analysis on the wake model to determine a wake hazard zone (no fly zone), which comprises a plurality of wake planes, each moving independently from another. The system selectively adjusts dimensions of each wake plane to minimize spatial and temporal uncertainty, thereby ensuring that the actual wake is within the wake hazard zone. The predicted wake hazard zone is communicated in real time directly to a user via a realistic visual representation. In an example, the wake hazard zone is visualized on a 3-D flight deck display to enable a pilot to visualize or see a neighboring aircraft as well as its wake. The system substantially enhances the pilot's situational awareness and allows for a further safe decrease in spacing, which could alleviate airport and airspace congestion.

Description: During the 1970s and 1980s, researchers at Dryden Flight Research Center conducted numerous tests to refine the shape of trucks to reduce aerodynamic drag and improved efficiency. During the 1980s and 1990s, a team based at Langley Research Center explored controlling drag and the flow of air around a moving body. Aeroserve Technologies Ltd., of Ottawa, Canada, with its subsidiary, Airtab LLC, in Loveland, Colorado, applied the research from Dryden and Langley to the development of the Airtab vortex generator. Airtabs create two counter-rotating vortices to reduce wind resistance and aerodynamic drag of trucks, trailers, recreational vehicles, and many other vehicles.

Description: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) major wind tunnel (WT), propulsion test (PT), and simulation facilities exist to serve NASA's and the nation's aeronautics needs. RAND Corporation researchers conducted a prior study of these facilities from 2002 to 2003, identifying (1) NASA's continuing ability to serve national needs, (2) which facilities appear strategically important from an engineering perspective given the vehicle classes the nation investigates and produces, and (3) management challenges and issues. This documented briefing (DB) is the final report from a new, one-year study (conducted from September 2006 through January 2008), partially updating the prior assessment. The study focuses on updating the list of facilities in the prior study that were deemed to be strategically important (again, from an engineering perspective) in serving those needs. This update also adds a new assessment of national needs for six major aeronautics simulators at NASA and lists those deemed strategically important.

Description: The results presented in this paper apply to a generic vehicle entering a planetary atmosphere which makes use of a variable geometry change to modulate the heat, drag, and acceleration loads. Two structural concepts for implementing the cone angle variation, namely a segmented shell and a corrugated shell, are presented. A structural analysis of these proposed structural configuration shows that the stress levels are tolerable during entry. The analytic expressions of the longitudinal aerodynamic coefficients are also derived, and guidance laws that track reference heat flux, drag, and aerodynamic acceleration loads are also proposed. These guidance laws have been tested in an integrated simulation environment, and the results indicate that use of variable geometry is feasible to track specific profiles of dynamic load conditions during reentry.

Description: A floating wind turbine system with a tower structure that includes at least one stability arm extending therefrom and that is anchored to the sea floor with a rotatable position retention device that facilitates deep water installations. Variable buoyancy for the wind turbine system is provided by buoyancy chambers that are integral to the tower itself as well as the stability arm. Pumps are included for adjusting the buoyancy as an aid in system transport, installation, repair and removal. The wind turbine rotor is located downwind of the tower structure to allow the wind turbine to follow the wind direction without an active yaw drive system. The support tower and stability arm structure is designed to balance tension in the tether with buoyancy, gravity and wind forces in such a way that the top of the support tower leans downwind, providing a large clearance between the support tower and the rotor blade tips. This large clearance facilitates the use of articulated rotor hubs to reduced damaging structural dynamic loads. Major components of the turbine can be assembled at the shore and transported to an offshore installation site.

Description: An analysis has been made of available experimental data to show the effects of most variables that are predominant in determining base pressure at supersonic speeds. Two dimensional bases and bases of bodies of revolution, restricted to turbulent boundary layers, are covered.

Description: A wing-body combination having a plane triangular wing of aspect ratio 2 with NACA 0005-63 thickness distribution in streamwise planes, and twisted and cambered for a trapezoidal span load distribution has been investigated at both subsonic and supersonic Mach numbers. The lift, drag, and pitching moment of the model are presented for Mach numbers from 0.60 to 0.90 and 1.30 to 1.70 at a Reynolds number of 3.0 million. The variations of the characteristics with Reynolds number are also shown for several Mach numbers.

Description: The experimental configuration is shown. The tunnel is about 8 ft. long by 2 ft. square. In most cases the wind speed is set to 11.6 m/s. Three different plates are used. Each is a quarter-inch thick, extends wall-to-wall, and has a semi-elliptical leading edge. The two extremes in bluntness are shown, being half a 14:1 ellipse and half a 5:1 ellipse. The plate surface pressure is uniform to better than 0.01 q, except near the leading edge, or whenever a condition of lift is intentionally applied to the plate. Turbulence is created in the setting chamber by means of eight 1/16-inch hypodermic tubes stretched normal to the flow and pressurized at any controlled value up to 6 psi. Each has twenty-one 0.006-inch holes spaced at 1-inch intervals along its mid-section of length, and directed upwind. The tubes are spaced vertically at 1.25-inch intervals. The turbulence so created is carried to the test section, where it is found to be spatially uniform over a suitably large cross-sectional area and axial length. Fig. 2 presents spectra of the steam turbulence in the empty tunnel for jet-array pressures of 1 psi to 6 psi. The T-S range extends between 80 and 150 Hz, approximately, for the present conditions. The primary method of fluctuation measurement is by use of microphones installed on the reverse side of the plate. A description of the method and its advantages has been given in AIAA 90-1504. Mean and fluctuating flow measurements are also made by means of various hot-wire probes and rakes carried on a computer-controlled x-y-z traverse mechanism. Fig. 3 shows the layout of a four-foot plate carrying 64 microphoned, the outputs of which are digitized simultaneously. The location of a single driver used for creating controlled T-S packets is also indicated.

Description: A rotor blade system with reduced blade-vortex interaction noise includes a plurality of tube members embedded in proximity to a tip of each rotor blade. The inlets of the tube members are arrayed at the leading edge of the blade slightly above the chord plane, while the outlets are arrayed at the blade tip face. Such a design rapidly diffuses the vorticity contained within the concentrated tip vortex because of enhanced flow mixing in the inner core, which prevents the development of a laminar core region.