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bugger of a high gas key
you
I am
welcome to this edition of NASA images
I'm Lynn Bondurant during this show will
be focusing on historic NASA footage of
airplane work will see many tests
including crash tests let's go back to
nineteen seventy-four to the NASA
Langley Research Center in Virginia for
that
although the safety record of light
aircraft continues to improve there
still were 700 crashes in the US last
year resulting in more than 1,300
fatalities up till now there has been no
reliable method of predicting the
behavior of general aviation planes when
they do crash in a joint project with
the FAA NASA is beginning a light
aircraft crash safety program at the
langley research center in Virginia this
is one of 20 flood-damaged planes that
will be tested the actual facility was
originally used by Apollo astronauts to
practice landing on the moon the
240-foot high by 400 foot long lunar
landing practice area is now laced with
cables which are attached to the highly
instrumented aircraft before it comes
crashing to the ground dummies riding in
the passenger seats are instrumented to
measure g-forces engineers hope to learn
what happens to an airframe structure
when it impacts and to develop an
analytical design tool that can be
turned over to the designers and
builders of general aviation planes for
this first check out test the plane is
complete except for tail section and
engines comparable weights take the
place of missing parts and the fuel
tanks are filled with water for weight
and balance this first crash was made at
an impact speed of 30 miles per hour
future drops will be at speeds up to 60
miles per hour
here you can see some of the resulting
damage most of which was confined to the
nose and underside of the aircraft
describing the program that will follow
this series of Christ tests Langley
engineer Bob Thompson or in the future
what we hope to learn is to to integrate
some energy absorption concepts into
airframe design technology this gives
the aircraft designer some means of
putting together the energy absorption
concepts with the airframe
crashworthiness tests like these may one
day lead to the design of lightweight
aircraft that can absorb much of the
impact energy of a crash and hopefully
reduce fatalities
in 1975 NASA Langley engineers are crash
testing helicopters they're dropping
things on purpose at NASA's Langley
Research Center in Virginia in this case
a 22,000 pound army helicopter the big
ch-47 helicopter had earlier been
damaged by fire at the plant where it
was manufactured making it a good
candidate for the crashworthiness test
watch again this time in slow motion as
the helicopter is dropped 50 feet to the
concrete below the highly instrumented
craft is being used in a cooperative
test experiment with the US Army to
improve design and safety features of
future helicopters crashworthiness tests
giving aircraft designers important
structural information before they go to
the drawing boards one of the possible
problems with which pilots must deal
when landing planes is wake turbulence
or vortices of air which trails planes
ah
these model airplanes have something in
common with these real planes
they are all part of a NASA research
program to learn more about vortices
tornado-like patterns of air the trail
behind the wings of airplanes causing
varying degrees of turbulence Dave Scott
acting director of NASA's Flight
Research Center in California explains
the vortices are dangerous because these
bundles of energy as they follow behind
the aircraft leaving a wake have the
capability of turning over smaller
aircraft as they approach a landing and
because of this we have a great deal of
concern that many accidents can be
caused by the vortices are these bundles
of energies that they attempt to turn
over an aircraft while all aircraft
cause vortices large heavy Jets such as
the 747 and dc-10 create the more
serious problems air traffic density
around major airports adds to the
severity of the problem because of the
many aircraft coming in for a landing in
the need to sequence one plane behind
the other aircraft are routinely
separated it's safe distances to avoid
the trailing vortex problem however this
often results in increased fuel use and
traffic delays smoke generators mounted
on the wings of these flames by nasa
researchers make it possible to see and
investigate the whirling air patterns
the research has shown that by adjusting
wing flaps at different angles and by
making various design changes the
intensity of the vortices can be
substantially reduced this kind of
aeronautical research today may very
well result in even safer more
convenient flights in the future
for our next clip made in 1974 let's go
to California where aerodynamic truck
tests were made in an effort to reduce
fuel use they come in all sizes these
movers of everything from lettuce to
Steve their box like shapes allow the
packing of high-volume loads it's
believed that both trucks and
recreational vehicles like this can be
made more economical to operate in the
past as trucks were manufactured larger
and larger engine size was increased to
handle the heavier loads now with the
continuing fuel problems engineers are
attempting to make the big trucks more
efficient in a joint effort NASA and the
Department of Transportation are in the
midst of a research program to do just
that the tests are being done at NASA's
Flight Research Center near the Mohave
Desert in California on an auxiliary
runway project engineer ed Saltzman
explains the experience and background
that we have here at the NASA flight
research center that bears on the tests
such as this goes back to the
aerodynamics experiments that we've done
on various aircraft and really the means
of achieving aerodynamic efficiency on
aircraft that different than it is on
automobiles and trucks accepting of
course they're on trucks and automobiles
you're working at lower speed
starting with a small delivery van ed
Saltzman and his team of engineers
reshaped the vehicle with sheet metal
the test truck has evolved from a square
box to its present shape with rounded
corners the major emphasis has been on
the elimination of drag wind resistance
that forces the engine to work harder
the method used to define drag is known
as the coast down method after
accelerating the truck to 65 miles per
hour the gears are disengaged and the
truck is allowed to coach
the deceleration is monitored closely
because the time it takes to slow down
can be directly converted into drag so
far aerodynamic drag has been decreased
a little over fifty percent the thing
that we're all interested in of course
is the savings in fuel the miles per
gallon that we can achieve rather than
the aerodynamic drag per se and the
aerodynamic improvements that we've
experienced so far are translatable into
fuel savings at cruise conditions when
you're going down the highway at highway
speeds somewhere in the neighborhood of
all fifteen percent perhaps twenty
percent savings and fuel other secondary
benefits include less pollution and
increased engine light this big tractor
trailer typical of many on US highways
is also being studied
here engineers attach one of many add-on
devices that will modify airflow around
the truck and hopefully reduce drag to
help them visualize the flow of air
patterns six inch long strings or Tufts
are attached and photographed these have
been used in aeronautical research for
years another method involves pumping a
powder like substance over the truck as
it travels along
the large tractor-trailer program has
just begun and it's too soon to predict
how much fuel might be saved as a result
of the truck modifications a fuel
savings of as little as five percent
however would save thousands of barrels
of fuel every day the researchers are
hopeful as they continue to apply
aerodynamic techniques to help solve a
ground transportation problem let's go
back into the air for our next clip from
1976 the clip explains at the first day
in NASA is for Aeronautics the clip ties
together several of the ideas from other
films used in the show for 60 years nASA
has been pioneering in aeronautical
research during World War two the need
was for real-time problem-solving and
responding to a variety of crises
associated with American bomber and
fighter planes
today research is aimed at making planes
fly higher faster farther quieter and
with greater safety consider the problem
of wake vortices invisible tornado like
patterns of air that trail behind large
Jets causing dangerously turbulent
conditions for smaller planes following
in their wake the turbulence is so
severe that flight controllers must
carefully space takeoffs and landings to
avoid them research on wake vortices has
ranged from studies like these at NASA's
Flight Research Center in California
where different combinations of gear and
flaps are used to break up the vortex to
an experimental laser system at the
Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville Alabama working with the FAA
the experimental laser program is an
effort to develop an accurate wake
vortex detection and monitoring system
they would permit tracking the path of
the vortices produced by large aircraft
field tested at the John F Kennedy
International Airport in New York the
laser research may one day help make
commercial air traffic safer information
gained by flights of the two thousand
mile per hour why f12 will help the
designers of new aircraft and spacecraft
heating stability and control aircraft
loads these are just a few of the many
tests under way using the high-speed
planes as flying research tools the
rocket-powered x24 be has completed 36
missions over the California desert near
the flight research center bringing to a
close experimental rocket powered flight
tests that began with the excess one in
1946 these unique planes have proved
extremely valuable in advanced
aeronautical research using the same
aeronautical Noel used to design sleep
high-speed jet planes NASA engineers are
cooperating with the Department of
Transportation
test a variety of fuel saving
modifications for large trucks even the
simple changes have provided a forty
percent reduction in aerodynamic drag
wind resistance that forces the truck
engine to work harder this translates
directly into a highway crews fuel
reduction of 20 to 25 percent an
interesting ground transportation
problem being aided by aeronautical
research techniques at the Langley
Research Center in Hampton Virginia
they're crashing airplanes on purpose
engineers hope that these crash
worthiness tests will help designers
build lightweight aircraft that can
absorb much of the impact energy of a
crash reducing injuries and fatalities
this is a pilot's I've you coming in for
a landing but there's an easier less
expensive way to fly it's called the
flight simulator for advanced aircraft
what the pilot sees and hears in this
simulator at NASA's Ames Research Center
is like the real thing another advanced
research tool for designing and
evaluating aircraft performance without
ever leaving the ground that first a in
NASA stands for Aeronautics research
aimed at improving the quality and
safety of flying our next clip from 1976
shows an unusual scissor-like plane
design the singing is an arid lake bed
at nasa's dryden flight research center
near the Mojave Desert in California
it's early morning engineers and
technicians have been here since before
sunup check out in preparations for the
upcoming flight test our painstaking and
delivered this is not an ordinary plane
it has a scissor like design that could
prove to be the shape of aircraft to
come studies indicate that if the design
features of the oblique wing as this
25-foot model is called were applied to
full-size jets it would allow them to
travel faster than sound without leaving
the usual sonic boom in their wake and
give them increased fuel economy
before the oblique wing plane takes off
a television equipped aircraft sweeps
over and scans the flight path what the
camera sees will aid this man the pilot
of the oblique wing model he actually
flies the plane from inside to this van
another television camera mounted in the
nose of the test aircraft lets him see
where the planes going watch now as the
ground crew start the engine and launch
the oblique wing plane
during the flight researchers carefully
record how the aircraft responds to a
variety of maneuvers they compare these
responses with wind tunnel predictions
to better understand what the aircraft
is doing and why it's doing it
as you can see the the wing on the
aircraft is at an angle to the fuselage
such that the left wing points forward
of the of the aircraft a normal airplane
the wings are at right angles to the
fuselage on this aircraft the wing is at
an oblique angle such that the left wing
points forward and the right wing points
f and this this feature allows the
aircraft to have much lower transonic
drag than a conventional aircraft and
for a transonic airplane designed to use
this wing you would fly at 100 to 200
miles an hour with the wing at zero
degrees of y'all as the speed increases
the wing yo has increased
research has shown that oblique trimmed
aircraft compared to fixed-wing planes
use less fuel and can reduce sonic boom
levels the planes designer Artie Jones
says that using the oblique wing takes
maximum advantage of wings sweep in a
way that fools the wind by making it
think you're going slower than you
actually are the next phase of research
could include a 1,500 pound plane with
the 30 foot wingspan powered by jet
engines it would have a pilot on board
these artists concepts show how the
oblique wing design might be applied to
transport type aircraft the wing of
course would swing back to a more
conventional position for landing the
oblique wing a unique design that may
one day allow planes to fly faster
quieter and use less fuel
NASA engineers have even tested plane
designs underwater as we see in this
1977 report from the NASA Dryden Flight
Center California ever see a jet plane
fly underwater for this model of a 747
almost does just that but consider first
what led to these interesting underwater
studies NASA researchers are trying to
solve the problem of wake vortices those
funnel-like patterns of air that swirl
off the wings of planes as they speed
along the larger the plane the larger
the vortex and resulting problem
vortices can't be seen a less smoke or
die pods are attached to the wings here
the second test plane intentionally
follows much closer than normal this
allows engineers to visually observe and
study both the vortex and its results
right now air traffic controllers avoid
the problem altogether by carefully
spacing takeoffs and landings if the
vortices can be reduced or eliminated
however it will cut down air traffic
delays at many of our busy airports
this is Hydra nautic sin Laurel Maryland
it was here that NASA recently completed
a series of tests to look at the vortex
problem from a different angle
underwater the tank used is 425 feet
long 25 feet wide and 12 feet deep
testing an aircraft in water may seem
like a strange idea but water and air
are both fluid medium and the advantage
of using water in this case is that you
can simulate a reynolds number much
closer to the reynolds number that you
use in flight and reynolds number is one
of the correlations that you do with one
of the ways that you get the scale
effects from model testing to flight
testing the vortex generating model is
mounted on the carriage and this motor
driven carriage moves the model through
the water channel the following models
the small business jet is mounted on a
separate carriage downstream of the
generating aircraft and the to the test
last approximately 25 seconds and you
get maybe 15 seconds of data from this
test run where the two miles are moving
on separate carriages through the water
telling facilities as the test
progresses dye is let out of the wing
tips of the generator aircraft and this
dye will swirl up in in the vortex the
axial velocity so that you can actually
see the vortex in the films that we take
of the test
results of the wake vortices research
are encouraging while NASA is having
success in changing airflow over the
wings using flaps and deflectors to
break up the vortices the FAA is working
to develop instruments to detect and
thus avoid them all part of a continuing
effort to improve the safety and comfort
of air travel
our final historic clip is called from
tights to wings the year is 1975
today sports enthusiasts around the
world collared hang gliding
this is the man responsible for Co
inventing the specially designed wing
that is making hang gliding a rapidly
growing sport 63 year old aeronautical
engineer Francis M regalo now retired
from NASA's Langley Research Center in
Hampton Virginia he and his wife
Gertrude hukou invented the wing live in
Kitty Hawk North Carolina regalo enjoys
flying a couple of times a week from
what's been called the highest sand dune
on the East Coast jockey Ridge
turn to the left and come down four up
and land and what's it like to hang
glide with a hang glider as with other
aircraft you have a freedom of up and
down direction as well as the others and
just getting your feet off the ground
and being lifted by by the air it is a
new experience for regalo the renewed
interest is represented by hang gliding
takes on particular significance the big
kites represent more than two decades of
research much of it on his own time in
1963 he and his wife Gertrude received
from NASA one of the highest cash awards
ever given for an invention the
invention was not an accident at all it
was a purposeful search for a kind of
wing that would be less expensive more
rugged more practical than the
conventional kind of wing and we studied
everything along that line that there
had already been like boat sails
windmills parachutes and and airplane
wings before coming up with this design
experimenting with small gliders and
kites a good performing completely
flexible wing finally evolved in 1948
ten years later NASA was searching for
devices that could be used to bring
astronauts in their spacecraft to a safe
landing on earth early versions had many
names paraglider para wing gliding
parachute and flexible wings the basic
design seen in all these can be seen in
most hang glider
flying today intensive testing ranged
all the way from small wind tunnel
models to full-scale flight tests
complete with man and spacecraft
attached while the regalo wing as it is
known by many as had limited
applications regalo himself is
optimistic that the new interest
generated by some 20,000 Flyers
worldwide will produce other uses in the
future
that's it for this edition of NASA
images until next time this is Lynn
Bondurant saying goodbye from the NASA
Lewis Research Center in Cleveland Ohio
you