1 00:00:00,003 --> 00:00:03,440 >>Flashing across California desert skies, the airplanes you see 2 00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:07,544 here are writing new chapters in the story of man made flight....there she goes! 3 00:00:07,544 --> 00:00:12,082 >>This is my first opportunity to greet you as deputy administrator 4 00:00:12,082 --> 00:00:15,752 of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 5 00:00:16,086 --> 00:00:18,722 >>Together, you and I must make our new agency 6 00:00:18,722 --> 00:00:20,056 >>A most unusual place 7 00:00:20,090 --> 00:00:22,926 >>An organization that can challenge conventional wisdom. 8 00:00:22,926 --> 00:00:26,530 >>We can engineer anything we can write the requirements for. 9 00:00:26,530 --> 00:00:27,931 >>We're going to make your idea work. 10 00:00:27,931 --> 00:00:30,500 This particular idea is quite disruptive. 11 00:00:31,168 --> 00:00:35,439 >>A typical flight, of course, starts under the wing of the B-52 mothership. 12 00:00:35,605 --> 00:00:41,044 >>This sleek, high speed machine would have made Rube Goldberg proud. 13 00:00:41,178 --> 00:00:44,047 >>The manner in which we fly reentry from space, 14 00:00:44,047 --> 00:00:48,051 on the space shuttle was pioneered on the X-15. 15 00:00:48,051 --> 00:00:53,657 >>The X-31 pretty much wrote the book on thurst vectoring, along with its sister program, the F-18 HARV. 16 00:00:53,657 --> 00:00:55,826 >>An observation of an occulation is 17 00:00:55,826 --> 00:00:58,795 one of the more challenging missions that SOFIA can do. 18 00:00:59,596 --> 00:01:18,782 [Music/Background sound] 19 00:01:19,616 --> 00:01:23,987 >>Right now, we are looking at the dawn of a new era of aviation. 20 00:01:27,023 --> 00:01:31,361 [Music/Background sound] 21 00:01:37,931 --> 00:01:39,899 [Music] 22 00:01:40,300 --> 00:01:42,902 >>Flight loads is a crucial discipiline. 23 00:01:43,436 --> 00:01:48,608 It is one of the areas that requires a good combination of both science and art. 24 00:01:48,942 --> 00:01:52,979 We often say that every airplane that we have ultimately goes through the Loads Lab. 25 00:01:53,446 --> 00:01:58,585 >>In 1964, a new building was rising from the desert shore of Rogers Dry Lake. 26 00:01:58,685 --> 00:02:01,588 The tests this laboratory has conducted over the past 50 years have 27 00:02:01,688 --> 00:02:05,325 supported almost every type of vehicle the aerospace industry has to offer. 28 00:02:06,159 --> 00:02:09,229 >>We do a lot of testing in the laboratories to make sure 29 00:02:09,229 --> 00:02:12,365 that components are going to withstand the environments that they will see. 30 00:02:12,432 --> 00:02:15,568 >>Every time we go away from a standard configuration on a vehicle 31 00:02:15,568 --> 00:02:17,670 that changes the loads and we've got to understand 32 00:02:17,670 --> 00:02:21,975 how that affects the forces, stresses and things going on in the airplane. 33 00:02:22,742 --> 00:02:25,178 >>We in the Flight Loads Lab have been interested in thermal 34 00:02:25,178 --> 00:02:26,646 testing for many years. 35 00:02:26,646 --> 00:02:28,348 >>These specimens are being exposed 36 00:02:28,348 --> 00:02:32,218 to temperatures from 400 degrees to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit... 37 00:02:32,352 --> 00:02:35,488 >>...in order to precisely calibrate the thermal effects on the strain 38 00:02:35,488 --> 00:02:38,725 gauges ground heating tests were conducted. 39 00:02:58,745 --> 00:03:00,046 >>Also, over the years, there's 40 00:03:00,046 --> 00:03:03,550 been low temperature testing using cryogenic cooling capability. 41 00:03:04,017 --> 00:03:06,686 >>A cooling system was used to lower the glove temperature 42 00:03:06,686 --> 00:03:09,689 to the -30 degree Fahrenheit pre-launch condition. 43 00:03:09,989 --> 00:03:13,226 The heating and cooling systems worked together to bring the entire glove 44 00:03:13,226 --> 00:03:15,628 to cold soak condition... 45 00:03:18,231 --> 00:03:21,334 >>The type of loads that a wing will experience in flight, 46 00:03:21,334 --> 00:03:24,837 are bending loads, torsion loads and shear loads. 47 00:03:24,871 --> 00:03:28,474 There are loads that are applied to the wings as a result of the air loads 48 00:03:28,474 --> 00:03:31,844 that are put onto the airplane when it's flying or when it's maneuvering. 49 00:03:32,612 --> 00:03:33,780 >>How far can we push it? 50 00:03:33,780 --> 00:03:36,282 Where is it going to fail and how is it going to fail? 51 00:03:36,482 --> 00:03:40,386 So this work here has really been key to be able to help us anchor the models 52 00:03:40,386 --> 00:03:43,590 that we're developing to analyze the performance of these structures 53 00:03:43,590 --> 00:03:47,360 and also to take that next step and optimize the design of these systems. 54 00:03:48,528 --> 00:03:51,497 [Music] 55 00:03:52,632 --> 00:03:56,035 >>The second HiMAT aircraft underwent extensive ground vibration 56 00:03:56,035 --> 00:03:59,706 testing after its delivery to the Hugh L. Dryden flight Research Center. 57 00:04:00,340 --> 00:04:02,442 >>Any aircraft in flight has resonant 58 00:04:02,442 --> 00:04:06,779 modes which occur as its structure flexes under aerodynamic loads. 59 00:04:07,513 --> 00:04:11,818 These flexures can become rapid and large. Under extreme conditions, 60 00:04:12,051 --> 00:04:14,487 they may even result in structural failure. 61 00:04:14,654 --> 00:04:17,590 >>Dryden's flight loads research facility; mechanical 62 00:04:17,590 --> 00:04:20,627 vibrators are attached to portions of the aircraft's structure. 63 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:24,530 >>As the aircraft structure is excited at known amplitude and frequencies. 64 00:04:24,564 --> 00:04:27,934 Its mechanical responses are carefully measured and tabulated. 65 00:04:28,101 --> 00:04:31,571 >>We're trying to understand how the airplane rings, basically like a bell. 66 00:04:31,604 --> 00:04:32,872 >>You actually want to see 67 00:04:32,872 --> 00:04:36,009 the structural characteristics and how it behaves...once you go and fly, 68 00:04:36,075 --> 00:04:39,112 if you experience any like flutter or dangerous 69 00:04:39,112 --> 00:04:42,081 vibration motions, then it's practically too late. 70 00:04:42,115 --> 00:04:44,484 >>We can tell if the structure is sound. 71 00:04:44,517 --> 00:04:48,288 >>With all this data, we'll be able to update our models, which will be used 72 00:04:48,288 --> 00:04:51,491 in our flutter analysis to validate that we are good 73 00:04:51,524 --> 00:04:53,426 and can give flight clearance for the vehicle. 74 00:04:54,127 --> 00:04:57,096 [Music/Background Noise] 75 00:04:58,064 --> 00:04:58,931 >>Inertia testing, 76 00:04:58,931 --> 00:05:01,367 understanding basically how the mass is distributed 77 00:05:01,367 --> 00:05:04,304 around the vehicle, which gets important for the control laws. 78 00:05:04,637 --> 00:05:05,805 >>The Moment of Inertia 79 00:05:05,805 --> 00:05:09,142 essentially tells us the angular momentum properties of the vehicle. 80 00:05:09,142 --> 00:05:12,278 We want to understand during flight when we're trying to control it, 81 00:05:12,278 --> 00:05:13,780 how it pitches up and down, 82 00:05:13,780 --> 00:05:17,650 to understand how much resistance and inertia happens 83 00:05:17,650 --> 00:05:20,486 during those pitching maneuvers. 84 00:05:20,787 --> 00:05:23,823 >>We need to know for certain that our sensors are behaving properly 85 00:05:23,823 --> 00:05:26,459 so that when we put them on our structures or put them on our vehicle, 86 00:05:26,626 --> 00:05:28,661 we actually believe the data that's coming off. 87 00:05:28,661 --> 00:05:33,433 >>...not only test a large test article, but to bring in some new test techniques 88 00:05:33,433 --> 00:05:37,370 like the FOSS and really calibrate that against more traditional 89 00:05:37,370 --> 00:05:40,973 strain measurements and the finite element modeling. 90 00:05:41,574 --> 00:05:44,877 >>The Flight Loads Lab here at NASA, Armstrong performs 91 00:05:44,877 --> 00:05:49,315 some of the most sophisticated tests that I've seen on on vehicles, 92 00:05:49,315 --> 00:05:51,084 flight vehicles, as well as entry vehicles.