[Music]
>>Armstrong Flight Research Center's origins date back to
1946, when thirteen National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics engineers and support staff arrived in
California's Mojave Desert on a quest for supersonic flight with
the X-1, the first aircraft to be designated an X , or
experimental, vehicle, by the U.S. Air Force.
The first Air Force flight to pass Mach 1 came on
October 14,1947, with the NACA following on March 4, 1948.
[Music]
>>Other X-planes followed the X-1,
designed to find data related to speed, temperature, structure,
control, or human physiology.
[Music]
>>By the early 2000s, NASA Armstrong was testing
the first integrated hypersonic scramjet,the X-43.
The air-breathing engines reached Mach 7 and Mach 10.
[Sonic Boom]
[Startled Woman]: What was that???!!
>>A defining feature of many high-speed air vehicles is a
loud sonic boom. Over the years, NASA tried to mitigate these
booms, modifying various aircraft, like the F-5 Shaped
Sonic Boom Demonstration, F-15, and F-18, to test theories and
new technologies. Armstrong even used schlieren imaging of
aircraft in flight to better understand sonic shock waves.
And finally, seven decades after helping to create the first
sonic boom, NASA is designing a new x-plane to demonstrate quiet
boom capabilities, which could make non-disruptive supersonic
flight over land possible.
[quiet boom]
[Music]
>>Armstrong began flying Unmanned
Aircraft Systems, or UASs, as research vehicles as far back
as the 1960s, and developed the first purpose-built Ground
Control Station for these aircraft.
More recently, Armstrong and other
NASA centers began working to integrate Unmanned Aircraft
Systems into our National Air Space.
[radio chatter]
[Jet flying]
>>In the 1970s, Armstrong developed digital fly-by-wire,
control technology that replaced hydraulic systems and eventually
transferred to military and commercial aviation, cars,
motorcycles and boats.
The 80s and 90s saw the center develop thrust vectoring for
jets, making them more maneuverable, and investigating
safety improvements for commercial aviation.
In the early 90s, Armstrong began the Environmental Research
Aircraft and Sensor Technology program to develop greener
aircraft and study the environment.
The solar-powered Helios reached an altitude of 96,863 feet
during the program and prototypes of
the Predator-B eventually led to one of NASA's current science
platforms,Ikhana. A new x-plane, the all- electric X-57,
promises high-efficiency, quieter, more environmentally
friendly flight. We are also currently testing a new,
morphing flap that can reduce noise and improve performance,
and new control techniques for increased efficiency.
[Music]
>>While the center's initial focus was aeronautics,
within 10 years it added space as a research objective.
[Rocket flying]
>>The development of Reaction Control Systems for the
legendary X-15 was critical for spaceflight.
Later space work included the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
to train Apollo astronauts to land on the Moon, and Lifting
Bodies, designed to return from space and fly to a landing
instead of descending under a parachute. Armstrong's lifting
body track record made it the obvious site for approach and
landing tests of the space shuttle prototype
Enterprise, and, later, Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream
Chaser spacecraft. During the Space Shuttle years,
54 missions landed here.
[Music]
>>Armstrong was involved in testing the pad launch abort
test capsule for NASA's next spacecraft, the Orion crew
module, which will take astronauts on our Journey to
Mars.
The capsule's instrumentation and wiring took place at the
Center, as did its weight and balance, center of gravity,
and combined systems testing.
[Music]
>>Software for the Space Launch System, the rocket that
will fly Orion into space, was tested onboard Armstrong's F-18,
which flew to simulate a rocket flight path.
Another Armstrong F-18, this time diving nearly vertically,
was used to test a radar system that helped land the Mars
Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars in 2012.
[radio chatter]
>>Always pursuing breakthroughs in atmospheric flight and
and operations, our Center has investigated new air launch
techniques that could yield dramatic cost savings for access
to space, and equal gains in efficiency.
In addition, Armstrong's Flight Loads Laboratory performed
mechanical load testing on a Hypersonic Inflatable
Aerodynamic Decelerator, or HIAD, that could slow
spacecraft for entry into a planet's atmosphere.
In order to spur space technology development in the
private sector, the Center runs the Space Technology Mission
Directorate's Flight Opportunities Program, funding
tests, in space-like environments, of new
technologies intended for commercial suborbital
spacecraft. Among other things, the program has matured a 3-D
printer that can print parts and tools on the International Space
Station.
[Music]
>>The center has long operated a number of aircraft for the
Agency's Airborne Science Program, flying scientists
around the world to study the Earth. This includes a DC-8
flying laboratory,
a C-20,
two ER-2 high-altitude aircraft,
and two Global Hawks, all carrying instruments to study
our planet and its ever-changing environment. NASA's Predator B,
Ikhana,is used today as a science platform. Besides
assisting with imaging wildfires, Ikhana gave us the
first images of Orion returning to Earth for splashdown in the
Pacific after its initial orbital flight.
Armstrong also operates and maintains the Stratospheric
Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, a 747
with the world's largest airborne infrared telescope,
yielding extraordinary astronomical data about our
solar system and far beyond.
As Armstrong begins a new decade, advances in science,
technology, aeronautics and space exploration are all rooted
firmly in the last seventy years of its history.