aeronautic scientist
charlie scanlon is heading up an effort
at nasa's langley research center to
provide flight crews with comprehensive
weather information to use
in rerouting around storms
a touch sensitive screen provides access
to when you have a
display this one shows storms along the
flight path
and a history of their recent movements
the system is called cockpit weather
information needs or
sea wind and it could save the airline
six million dollars a year
and how do pilots like united airlines
steve gifford feel about having nasa's
weather system in the cockpit
can i have it yesterday i would love it
another langley research team is
evaluating this thermal bond inspection
system designed to find corrosion or
other problems in critical aircraft
joints
they're also testing a digital x-ray
device that produces even more
detailed images of existing corrosion
the goal is to minimize the number of
times a plane must be torn apart looking
for these types of flaws
and thus reduce the airline's staggering
maintenance costs
u.s air inspection foreman rusty jones
it's a definite boost to us any
reduction
that we can come up with is very very
important we have to produce a safe
reliable dependable airplane
that people can afford to fly
every time a commercial airliner takes
off weather is a major concern
one in 13 flights is forced to change
course to avoid storms
choosing the most efficient path around
bad weather is critical
because fuel and overall operating costs
are so
high currently
air dues rely primarily on imparted
weather radar to determine which ground
to fall
but this radar can't see very far out
ahead
and it doesn't provide any information
about storm cells beyond the one in
front of it
south central why aeronautics scientist
charlie scanlan has been spending so
much time in this simulator
at nasa's langley research center he's
heading up an
effort to provide flight crews with
better information to use in making
reroute decisions
okay a touch-sensitive screen provides
access
this one shows storms along the flame
movements lightning strike data and
terminal forecast
can also be called up on this same
screen all
at the touch of a finger we have no new
weather products
it's just a matter of taking what you
have out there today
putting it into a data stream and data
linking it to the airplane
the system is called cockpit weather
information needs
or sea wind to test it scanlan brought
in
14 commercial airline pilots including
united steep
gifford all flew the same scenarios with
and without the sea wind displays and
when they had the graphical weather
system
they were able to make better reroute
decisions than when they did not have it
in fact they were able to fly on an
average of five percent
shorter distance when they had this
extra tool
five percent might not sound like much
but with each of the major carriers
flying close to 350 planes a day
every day at a cost of over twelve
hundred dollars an hour
making better reroute decisions could
save as much as six
million dollars a year per airline
efficiently avoiding storms also has an
added advantage for passengers
if you can make reroute decisions and
stay away from the cells three times as
far away it gives you smoother safer
ride
and how do pilots feel about having
nasa's weather system in the cockpit
can i have it yesterday i would love it
it uh it's it's one thing that i could
get very enthused over and
having seen it in here i'd i'd like to
be using it tomorrow
nasa is also conducting other safety
related research aimed at improving
aircraft inspections keeping their
planes fit to fly is an important part
of any airline's mission
in addition to daily maintenance checks
at the gate
every aircraft is regularly brought in
to facilities like u.s airs in
pittsburgh for more thorough
checkouts and repairs a very
labor-intensive
costly process inspection foreman
rusty jones it's incredible the amount
of money that's spent
we did an aging aircraft program here a
few years ago uh
looking for some significant problems we
were spending an average of a million
dollars an airplane
just for that one check though expensive
it's still more cost effective in
today's economy to keep a plane flying
than it is to replace it
10 years ago you bought an airplane you
threw it away after 10 years
we can no longer afford to do that
a key concern in extending an aircraft's
lifespan
is its susceptibility to corrosion or
failures and critical joints
traditionally determining the extent of
these flaws has been tearing planes
apart
again costly and time-consuming
a few alternative non-destructive
evaluation techniques have been
developed
this ultrasonic device is widely used
but it's a time-consuming point-by-point
system that
ultimately relies upon operator
interpretation
looking for better ways to detect flaws
another nasa langley research team is
experimenting with this
thermal bond inspection system
its heart is an infrared camera
small lamps are used to warm an area of
the plane surface
three or four degrees is all it takes
for the camera to produce an image
lighter areas indicate corrosion or
joint problems
group leader elliott cramer we can
measure about a three foot by three foot
square area at a time
and by doing that large of an area then
you can rapidly do
an entire aircraft in addition to that
it's an imaging technology so you have a
picture when you're
done and that picture can be stored and
used later
on subsequent inspections to see if
there's been any changes
in the character of that airplane
langley researchers are also evaluating
this digital x-ray system
as a means of more accurately
determining just how much corrosion
exists in a given area
it generates very detailed images that
complement those produced with the
thermal bond technology
if you had a problem area that you found
with the thermal system you can go in
with the x-ray
and use that to define how bad that area
is research like this has the support
of the airlines it's a definite boost to
us any
reduction that we can come up with is
very very important
we have to produce a safe reliable
dependable airplane
that people can afford to fly
new in-cockpit weather displays and
non-destructive evaluation techniques
nasa research helping this country's
airlines compete
in today's global economy
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