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aeronautic scientist

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charlie scanlon is heading up an effort

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at nasa's langley research center to

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provide flight crews with comprehensive

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weather information to use

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in rerouting around storms

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a touch sensitive screen provides access

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to when you have a

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display this one shows storms along the

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flight path

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and a history of their recent movements

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the system is called cockpit weather

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information needs or

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sea wind and it could save the airline

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six million dollars a year

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and how do pilots like united airlines

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steve gifford feel about having nasa's

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weather system in the cockpit

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another langley research team is

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evaluating this thermal bond inspection

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system designed to find corrosion or

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other problems in critical aircraft

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joints

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they're also testing a digital x-ray

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device that produces even more

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detailed images of existing corrosion

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the goal is to minimize the number of

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times a plane must be torn apart looking

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for these types of flaws

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and thus reduce the airline's staggering

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maintenance costs

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u.s air inspection foreman rusty jones

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it's a definite boost to us any

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reduction

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that we can come up with is very very

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important we have to produce a safe

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reliable dependable airplane

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every time a commercial airliner takes

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one in 13 flights is forced to change

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course to avoid storms

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choosing the most efficient path around

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bad weather is critical

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because fuel and overall operating costs

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are so

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high currently

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air dues rely primarily on imparted

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weather radar to determine which ground

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to fall

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but this radar can't see very far out

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ahead

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and it doesn't provide any information

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about storm cells beyond the one in

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front of it

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south central why aeronautics scientist

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charlie scanlan has been spending so

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much time in this simulator

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at nasa's langley research center he's

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heading up an

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effort to provide flight crews with

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better information to use in making

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reroute decisions

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okay a touch-sensitive screen provides

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this one shows storms along the flame

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movements lightning strike data and

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terminal forecast

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can also be called up on this same

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screen all

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at the touch of a finger we have no new

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weather products

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it's just a matter of taking what you

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have out there today

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putting it into a data stream and data

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linking it to the airplane

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the system is called cockpit weather

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information needs

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or sea wind to test it scanlan brought

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in

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united steep

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gifford all flew the same scenarios with

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and without the sea wind displays and

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when they had the graphical weather

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system

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they were able to make better reroute

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decisions than when they did not have it

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in fact they were able to fly on an

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average of five percent

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shorter distance when they had this

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extra tool

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five percent might not sound like much

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but with each of the major carriers

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flying close to 350 planes a day

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every day at a cost of over twelve

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hundred dollars an hour

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making better reroute decisions could

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save as much as six

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million dollars a year per airline

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efficiently avoiding storms also has an

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added advantage for passengers

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if you can make reroute decisions and

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stay away from the cells three times as

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far away it gives you smoother safer

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ride

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and how do pilots feel about having

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nasa's weather system in the cockpit

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can i have it yesterday i would love it

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it uh it's it's one thing that i could

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get very enthused over and

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having seen it in here i'd i'd like to

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be using it tomorrow

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nasa is also conducting other safety

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related research aimed at improving

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aircraft inspections keeping their

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planes fit to fly is an important part

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of any airline's mission

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in addition to daily maintenance checks

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at the gate

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every aircraft is regularly brought in

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to facilities like u.s airs in

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pittsburgh for more thorough

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checkouts and repairs a very

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labor-intensive

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costly process inspection foreman

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rusty jones it's incredible the amount

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of money that's spent

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we did an aging aircraft program here a

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few years ago uh

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looking for some significant problems we

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were spending an average of a million

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dollars an airplane

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just for that one check though expensive

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it's still more cost effective in

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today's economy to keep a plane flying

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than it is to replace it

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10 years ago you bought an airplane you

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threw it away after 10 years

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a key concern in extending an aircraft's

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lifespan

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is its susceptibility to corrosion or

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traditionally determining the extent of

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these flaws has been tearing planes

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apart

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again costly and time-consuming

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a few alternative non-destructive

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evaluation techniques have been

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developed

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this ultrasonic device is widely used

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but it's a time-consuming point-by-point

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system that

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ultimately relies upon operator

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interpretation

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looking for better ways to detect flaws

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another nasa langley research team is

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experimenting with this

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thermal bond inspection system

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small lamps are used to warm an area of

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the plane surface

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three or four degrees is all it takes

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for the camera to produce an image

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lighter areas indicate corrosion or

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joint problems

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group leader elliott cramer we can

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measure about a three foot by three foot

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square area at a time

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and by doing that large of an area then

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you can rapidly do

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an entire aircraft in addition to that

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it's an imaging technology so you have a

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picture when you're

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done and that picture can be stored and

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used later

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on subsequent inspections to see if

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there's been any changes

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in the character of that airplane

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langley researchers are also evaluating

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this digital x-ray system

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as a means of more accurately

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determining just how much corrosion

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exists in a given area

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it generates very detailed images that

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complement those produced with the

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thermal bond technology

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if you had a problem area that you found

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with the thermal system you can go in

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with the x-ray

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and use that to define how bad that area

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is research like this has the support

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of the airlines it's a definite boost to

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us any

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reduction that we can come up with is

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very very important

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we have to produce a safe reliable

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dependable airplane

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new in-cockpit weather displays and

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non-destructive evaluation techniques

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nasa research helping this country's