NASA's Green Aviation Research Throttles Up Into Second Gear

Jan. 7, 2013

Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1979
michael.j.braukus@nasa.gov

Kathy Barnstorff
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
757-864-9886/344-8511
kathy.barnstorff@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 13-002

NASA'S GREEN AVIATION RESEARCH THROTTLES UP INTO SECOND GEAR

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected eight large-scale integrated
technology demonstrations to advance aircraft concepts and
technologies that will reduce the impact of aviation on the
environment over the next 30 years, research efforts that promise
future travelers will fly in quieter, greener and more fuel-efficient
airliners.

The demonstrations, which are part of by NASA's Environmentally
Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project, will focus on five areas --
aircraft drag reduction through innovative flow control concepts,
weight reduction from advanced composite materials, fuel and noise
reduction from advanced engines, emissions reductions from improved
engine combustors, and fuel consumption and community noise reduction
through innovative airframe and engine integration designs.

The selected demonstrations are:
-- Active Flow Control Enhanced Vertical Tail Flight Experiment: Tests
of technology that can manipulate, on demand, the air that flows over
a full-scale commercial aircraft tail.
-- Damage Arresting Composite Demonstration: Assessment of a
low-weight, damage-tolerant, stitched composite structural concept,
resulting in a 25 percent reduction in weight over state-of-the-art
aircraft composite applications.
-- Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge Flight Experiment: Demonstration
of a non-rigid wing flap to establish its airworthiness in the flight
environment.
-- Highly Loaded Front Block Compressor Demonstration: Tests to show
Ultra High Bypass (UHB) or advanced turbofan efficiency improvements
of a two-stage, transonic high-pressure engine compressor.
-- 2nd Generation UHB Ratio Propulsor Integration: Continued
development of a geared turbofan engine to help reduce fuel
consumption and noise.
-- Low Nitrogen Oxide Fuel Flexible Engine Combustor Integration:
Demonstration of a full ring-shaped engine combustor that produces
very low emissions.
-- Flap and Landing Gear Noise Reduction Flight Experiment: Analysis,
wind tunnel and flight tests to design quieter flaps and landing gear
without performance or weight penalties.
-- UHB Engine Integration for a Hybrid Wing Body: Verification of
power plant and airframe integration concepts that will allow fuel
consumption reductions in excess of 50 percent while reducing noise
on the ground.

"With these demonstrations we will take what we've learned and move
from the laboratory to more flight and ground technology tests," said
Fay Collier, ERA project manager based at NASA's Langley Research
Center in Hampton, Va. "We have made a lot of progress in our
research toward very quiet aircraft with low carbon footprints. But
the real challenge is to integrate ideas and pieces together to make
an even larger improvement. Our next steps will help us work towards
that goal."

The Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project was created in 2009
and is part of NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's
Integrated Systems Research Program. During its first phase,
engineers assessed dozens of broad areas of environmentally friendly
aircraft technologies and then matured the most promising ones to the
point that they can be tested together in a real world environment in
the second phase. Those experiments included nonstick coatings for
low-drag wing designs, laboratory testing of a new composite
manufacturing technique, advanced engine testing, and test flights of
a remotely piloted hybrid wing body prototype.

Key to ERA research is industry partnerships. Each of the
demonstrations, which are scheduled to begin this year and continue
through 2015, is expected to include selected industry partners, many
of which will contribute their own funding. "ERA's research portfolio
provides a healthy balance of industry and government partnerships
working collaboratively to mature key technologies addressing ERA's
aggressive fuel burn, noise and emission reductions goals for
tomorrow's transport aircraft," said Ed Waggoner, director of the
Integrated Systems Research Program.

ERA is one of many NASA aeronautics research efforts to develop
technologies to make aircraft safer, faster, and more efficient and
to help transform the national air transportation system. That
research is being conducted at NASA Langley, NASA's Ames Research
Center at Moffett Field, Calif., NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center
at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and NASA's Glenn Research Center
in Cleveland.

For more information about NASA aeronautics programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics


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