Unique NASA Tests Help Make Jets Safer

NASA Tech Briefs, Aug 2004

They can fly as fast as 200 miles per hour and push the flight envelope past where most pilots would go. They are turbine-powered, dynamically scaled remote control jet models, created at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. The models are being used in "refuse to crash" technology research for NASA's Aviation Safety and Security Program (AvSSP).

The Generic Transport Model trainer is a 5.5% scale version of a commercial airliner that weighs 50 pounds. It has an 82'' wingspan, is remotely piloted, and has turbine engines. According to Christine Belcastro, head of the Control Upset Prevention Recovery element of the program, "Using a sophisticated flying model will allow us to test flight regimes beyond normal envelope operations in an in-flight environment."

Her team is designing computer software and control systems to prevent airliners from going into steep dives and other extreme flight conditions. The technology also would help aircraft automatically return to level flight if the on-board systems detect an upset condition that may be caused by weather, damage, equipment malfunction, or pilot error.

"It wouldn't be safe to put a real aircraft into unusual attitudes to test our software, and there are limits to wind tunnel testing," Belcastro said. "We needed to find a way to validate not only our control systems research, but also realistic inflight scenarios that can be used in simulators to help better train pilots."

For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/improvingflight/gtm.html.>Next Month in NTB

A special report on the latest hardware and software for Industrial Automation will be included in the September issue of WASA Tech Briefs, along with a Technology Focus section on Composites and Plastics.

Copyright Associated Business Publications Aug 2004

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