Hi, I'm Amanda Blough from Corpus Christi Catholic School
in Chambersburg Pennsylvania, and this is NASA Now!
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Hi I'm Alicia, As more and more people choose to travel by air,
the congestion at airports continues to grow and grow.
So how can you put more planes in the air
without creating major delays on the runways?
Our expert today is working on an approach
that could hold the answer.
That's ahead, but first here's what's happening at NASA Now.
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An eye in the sky gives NASA a rare and up-close look
at an active volcano .
. . Studying volcanic activity can be dangerous
for both researchers and aircraft,
but recently NASA flew three un-crewed Dragon Eye aerial
vehicles over the Turrialba volcano in Costa Rica.
The study launched ten flights, between March 11th
and March 14th 2013, into the volcanic plume and along the rim
of the Turrialba summit crater;
approximately 10,500 feet above sea level.
Scientists believe this research will help us better understand
how volcanic activity impacts our atmosphere, as well as help
to improve NASA satellite data and aviation safety.
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When conventional landings
and takeoffs are not an option NASA aerospace engineer Carl
Russell and his colleagues step
in to develop a possible solution.
One is called a tiltrotor.
Today they are used by the military
but in the near future you might find yourself as a passenger.
Here's Carl to tell us why.
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The main problems facing today's air transportation system is
that we would like to add a significant number of aircraft
to the system, but it's difficult to do this
without adding delays.
So NASA is looking at a bunch of different ways
to increase what we call throughput which is the number
of aircraft that can fly through airports.
And one of the ways that we're looking at to do this is
by adding rotorcraft that's vertical takeoff aircraft
such as helicopters and tiltrotors.
Your typical helicopter can only fly about 200 knots.
So we use these different configurations
that can fly faster.
The examples are compound helicopters,
which use either wings for additional lift or propellers
for additional propulsion.
The other configuration that we're looking
at a lot is tiltrotor configuration and that's
like a V-22 or the Augusta Westland 609.
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A rotor can actually be thought of as a rotary wing;
in fact that's what they're often times called.
The way that it generates lift is by spinning about its axis
and the rotor blades have a shape
that is actually similar to a wing.
It's called an air foil.
Now when an air foil flies through the air,
it generates a force called lift.
Now on a wing, when the aircraft is flying through the air,
the lift just acts in an upward direction.
On a rotor, the lifts acts in a direction that is parallel
to the axis of the rotor.
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When designing a tiltrotor engineers have
to balance both hover and cruise performance.
That is, we need to be able to take off efficiently
but also fly efficiently and there are several tradeoffs
that engineers have to make
when they actually create the designs.
For example, the rotors are optimized
for both cruise and for hover .
They are smaller than you would ideally want to hover
and they're larger than you would ideally want for cruise.
In addition, because all of the lift in hover is carried
by the rotors, the wings have to be stronger.
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The tiltrotors that NASA is looking at right now hold
around 90 passengers and this would be similar
to your typical regional jet that might fly
about a thousand miles.
A tiltrotor, the size
of a regional jet is not currently flying
and no prototypes have been made,
but the military is flying the V22
and there are additional examples
of tiltrotors that are flying.
So the technology exists for tiltrotors but one the size
that we would use for passenger transport has not
yet been built.
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There are many areas of future research in tiltrotor
and high-speed rotorcraft technology.
These include, improving efficiency, improving safety
of course, reducing vibrations, improving handling qualities,
and the list goes on and on.
Eventually if a prototype is made additional issues will have
to be worked out because while design tools have improved a lot
in recent years it's still impossible
to get everything right on the first try.
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Our expert introduced us to a future concept in air travel,
now it's time for you to try your hand at aerospace design.
Teachers you and your students can apply what you saw
in today's program by working on creating your own airfoil.
Look for Forces and Motion - The Great Boomerang Challenge.
You'll find it under the extension activity
on the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus.
Well that's it for NASA NOW.
Be sure to visit our facebook page and leave a comment.
We'll see you next time on NASA NOW!
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NASA NOW comes to you from the Virtual Campus
at NASA Explorer schools.