Supersonic test flights of the Bell X-1 rocket-powered aircraft marked the beginning
of NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center. On September 30th, 1946, 13 members of the National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics arrived at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
75 years later, NASA Armstrong continues high risk atmospheric flight research and test projects.
Despite the ongoing pandemic NASA Armstrong continues to
explore technologies that improve the sustainability of commercial aviation
and enable new markets for supersonic passenger flight and advanced air mobility.
Lockheed Martin's assembly of NASA's X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology, or QueSST,
is near completion. The aircraft was transported to Fort Worth, Texas in December for ground testing
and will begin a trailblazing series of flight tests at NASA Armstrong in 2022.
Facilities engineers refurbished one of Armstrong's old hangers that will house
the 100 foot long X-59 aircraft when it arrives at the center for testing.
Engineers are in the process of building and testing new unmanned audio ground recording
systems that will be used to characterize the X-59 sonic thumps. The Armstrong team
will create high-resolution pictures of the X-59 sonic thump effects as it flies over hundreds of
automated ground systems placed throughout the urban, suburban, and rural communities.
NASA's engineers are also in the process of validating a supersonic
shock wave imaging system and a shock wave measuring probe.
Both will be installed on chase aircraft to gather critical data on the X-59 sonic thump.
NASA and Empirical Systems Aerospace are making significant progress assembling
NASA's first all-electric X-plane, the X-57 Maxwell.
NASA Armstrong is advancing the goal of developing distributed electric propulsion technology that
will make aviation more efficient, quiet, and environmentally friendly. High voltage functional
ground testing was completed and installation of the aircraft's advanced high-capacity
batteries will begin soon. Test flights are planned in early 2022. The X-57 second phase
and eventually third phase designs will set standards for future all-electric aircraft.
scenario Striker 13...
NASA's Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign project continues to help emerging aviation
markets develop an air transportation system that moves within urban, suburban, rural, and
regional environments. Testing was conducted to better understand how a future urban air mobility
vehicles will need to operate within a congested environment. Air taxi testing with Joby Aviation
prototype aircraft collected information about how the vehicle moved, sounded, and communicated
with controllers. We're replicating an actual mishap that happened... Armstrong's Resilient
Autonomy team continues to collaborate with other NASA centers, the Department of Defense,
the Federal Aviation Administration and industry to create new autonomous aircraft technology that
could help prevent accidents... Our display is already indicating you can't get over that.
NASA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System project concluded
its demonstrations of the safe integration of UAS for commercial applications. Aerial inspections
of gas and petroleum pipelines were simulated during NASA's final SIO demonstration flights.
Armstrong C-20 aircraft equipped with an innovative precision autopilot system,
worked with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Uninhabited Aerial
Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar team to study wetland changes in the Mississippi
River Delta and track and map the oil spill in Huntington Beach, California.
After completing critical maintenance in May, NASA Armstrong's DC-8 deployed to St. Croix,
U.S Virgin Islands for the Convective Processes Experiment studying Aerosols and Winds.
The mission performed calibration activities for a recently launched earth science satellite.
The team also conducted studies into the interaction of eastbound
and westbound winds over the South Atlantic.
NASA's ER-2 completed missions studying ecosystems and natural disasters as well as a summer campaign
studying how convective storm systems affect air pollution over the stormy central United States.
NASA's King Air B200 science aircraft traveled to
NASA's Ames Research Center to begin the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics experiment.
The NASA Earth Venture Suborbital-3 mission will study small ocean whirlpools,
eddies, and currents to understand the role these ocean processes play in the movement
of heat, nutrients, oxygen, and carbon from the ocean surface to the ocean layers below.
NASA Armstrong continues to operate the SOFIA airborne laboratory
to study the solar system at altitudes above the moisture in the atmosphere.
Key observations in 2021 included investigating water on the sunlit portion of the moon.
Science deployments were completed in Europe and the Southern Hemisphere.
Perseverance is continuing to descend under parachute. We are coming up on the initialization
of terrain relative navigation... NASA's Perseverance rover successfully landed on mars in 2021.
Using the lander vision system and terrain-relative navigation
system capabilities first tested and validated at NASA Armstrong in 2014.
NASA's Flight Opportunities supported more than 25 suborbital flights. Researchers tested
a capability that uses small satellites to create a network between spacecraft and ground stations.
Other demonstrations include a plant experiment aboard Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo;
an imaging system designed to capture a lander's descent and landing;
and a payload return capsule able to navigate to a predefined touchdown location.
Early-career Armstrong engineers were awarded agency level funding to develop
lunar-dust repelling decoupling magnets as well as ways to instrument supersonic
parachute canopies used for Mars entry descent and landing. X-15 NASA 1...10 seconds Neil...
As part of our 75th anniversary, simulation
engineers are developing the Greater Heights virtual reality experience
where users will be able to learn Armstrong's storied history.
That's Armstrong Flight Research Center's 2021 highlights.
For more on these and other stories follow us on the web at nasa.gov/armstrong.