June Jun e 2013 2013
Stealth sneaks into UCAVs
A conversation with Michael Gazarik Gazarik Expanding customer base for space payloads A P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E A M E R I C A N I N S T I T U T E O F A E R O N A U T I C S A N D A S T R O N A U T I C S
43rd AIAA Fluid 43rd AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference Conference and Exhibit Exhibit 44th AIAA 44th AIAA Plasmadynamics Plasmadynamics and Lasers Lasers Conference 44th AIAA 44th AIAA Thermophysics Conference 31st AIAA AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference 21st AIAA AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference 5th AIAA 5th AIAA Atmospheric and Space Environments Conference AIAA Ground Ground Testing Testing Conference Conference
The AIAA Summer Fluids Conferences Conferences are held to provide a forum for technical exchange and interaction among scientists, engineers, and professionals from industrial, governmental, and academic technical communities who participate in scientific research and development in the aerospace fluid dynamics disciplines.engineering Joint sessionsand provide conference attendees with an opportunity to interact with unique groups of professionals from diverse yet interrelated technical disciplines.
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13-0112
24–27 June 2013 Sheraton San Diego Hotel San Diego, California
June 2013
DEPARTMENTS EDITORIAL Time to roll up our sleeves.
3 Page 4
INTERNATIONAL BEAT
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Europe goes full tilt for electric helicopters. WASHINGTON WATCH Washington Washingto n and the sequeste sequester. r.
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CONVERSATIONS with Michael Michael Gazarik. Gazarik.
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AIRCRAFT UPDATE Regional jets: Running to stay in place.
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GREEN ENGINEERING ERA Phase 2: A descending hush.
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SPACE UPDATE Expanding customer base for space payloads.
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OUT OF THE PAST
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FEATURES
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STEALTH SNEAKS INTO UCAVS With threat threat environments environments rapidly growing growing more more dangerous, dangerous, UCAVs UCAVs will almost inevitably feature stealth.
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by J.R. Wilson
UPGRADED UNMANNED HELICOPTERS FACE OFF Unmanned helicopters prepare for a flyoff to demonstrate advanced navigation packages from two competing UAV makers.
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by Ben Iannotta
GAINING ACCESS TO CONTRAILS’ SECRETS
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Under NASA’s ACCESS project, researchers are seeking to minimize the adverse effects of contrails. by J.R. Wilson
BULLETIN AIAA Meeting Schedule AIAA Courses and Training Program AIAA News Call for Papers
B2 B4 B5 B17 Page 46
COVER An X-47B is transpor ted on an aircraft elevator aboard the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman. To To learn more about the new UCAVs, turn to page 28. USN photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman by Alan Radecki.
Aerospace Amer Aerospace America ica (ISSN (ISSN 0740 0740-722 -722X) X) is publishe published d monthly, monthly, excep exceptt August, August, by the America American n Institute Institute of of Aeronautic Aeronauticss and Astron Astronautics autics,, Inc. at 1801 1801 Alexan Alexander der Bell Bell Drive, Drive, Reston, Reston, Va. 2019120191-4344 4344 [703/264-7500].]. Subscription rate is 50% of dues for AIAA members (and is not deductible therefrom). Nonmember subscription price: U.S. and Canada, $163, foreign, $200. Single copies [703/264-7500 $20 each. Postmaster: Send address changes and subscription orders to address above, attention AIAA Customer Service, 703/264-7500. Periodical postage paid at Herndon, VA, and at additional mailing offices. Copyright © 2013 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., all rights reserved. The name Aerospace America is registered by the AIAA in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 40,000 copies of this issue printed. This is Volume 51, No. 6.
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Time to roll up our sleeves
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It’s getting crowded up there. After several gener generations ations spent pollutin polluting g our our oceans oceans and streams and fouling the air, we inhabitants of the planet finally took a long, hard look around and collectively began taking better care of our home. Individually, we started started using using more more nature-fr nature-friendly iendly produ products cts and proces processes ses and began monitoring our activities more closely with regard to their possible future environmental impact. More broadly, socially conscious industries began to seek processes that would leave a smaller manufacturing footprint. For those less inclined to follow suit, social and ultimately economic pressures were often broug brought ht to bear bear.. We W e also began to recogniz recognize e that we were were creating creating huge piles of of trash while finding finding fewer and fewer fewer places places to dump it. Once Once again, again, we began began searching for solutions, using more recyclables and materials that can be disposed of with little or no negative impact. There is still a long way to go, and no one nation can do it alone, but it’s a good start in reversing the mess we were making of Earth. Now it is time to turn our attention further skyward. More nations every year are are joining joining the the space space community community,, and low Earth Earth orbit orbit is a popular popular destination for constellations of communications and remote sensing spacecraft. It is also the home of the international space station. But even as we launch increasing numbers of satellites, so do many of them pass their useful life. Every year, the orbital debris map gets denser. LEO is strewn with spent rocket upper stages; dead satellites in decaying orbits are sharing space with new arrivals just beginning their productive lives. All of this material will stay in orbit long after their missions end. Many space agencies have informally adopted a best practice that is commonly called the ‘25-year rule,’ a time limit for the removal of their equipment from orbit once it has completed its mission. More often than not, however, the rule is met with a wink and a nod, as launches continue and retrieval and deorbit are almost nonexistent. According Accor ding to to some some estimates, estimates, there there are at least 21,000 21,000 particles particles in orbit orbit exceeding 10 cm in size, big enough to cause a good bit of damage. Harmful impacts with otherwise viable spacecraft or with the space station now seem to be a question of when, not if. We compound this problem by activities like the 2007 Chinese ASAT test. Debris from that test later damaged dama ged an orbiting Russian Russian satellite. Not long ago, space, even just low Earth orbit, seemed infinite; the notion that we might one day create an environment that might be so crowded as to be hazardous to newcomers seemed unthinkable. Yet here it is. But this orbiting junkyard was the creation of many nations, and so must be the effort to clean it up. Space agencies around the world must come together to develop plans for deorbit and retrieval, as well as truly committing themselves to honoring the 25-year rule. Just as we got in this mess together, collectively, we can find ways to make it right. Elaine Camhi Editor-in-Chief
Europe goes full tilt for electric helicopters AGUSTA W ESTLAND ESTLAND’S PROJECT ZERO , an all-electric tilt-rotor technology demonstrator, was unveiled for the first time in March. It is the latest in a line of European advanced programs that researchers hope will one day lead to a technically and economically competitive all-electric rotorcraft. Designed to hover like a helicopter and convert to a fixed-wing aircraft in forward flight, Project Zero features two integrated rotors that can be tilted through more than 90 degrees. The aircraft’s electric batteries. motors are powered by rechargeable Its tilt-rotors can be angled forward into wind when the Zero is on the ground ground,, allowing them to ‘windmill’ and recharge the batteries. The demonstrator performed its first unmanned tethered flight in June of 2011 at AgustaWestland’s research
center Cascina Costa in Italy and has since performed several more untethered hovering flights. According to the company, “Future hybrid solutions have also been investigated using a diesel engine to drive a generator. All of the aircraft control systems, flight control, and landing gear actuators are electrically powered....During cruise, the wings will provide most of the lift, with the blended fuselage and shroud also making a contribution.” Project Zero features detachable outer wings primarily for missions will be performed in that helicopter mode. Elevons enable pitch and roll control in forward flight, while the Vtail provides longitudinal stability. The electrical drive system design eliminates the need for the complex and heavy transmission system required by conventional rotorcraft.
The project’s main industrial partners are based in Europe but receive support from other partners in the U.S. and Japan. The proof-of-concept vehicle is one of several ‘top-down’ allelectric or ‘more electric’ technology demonstrators under development in Europe, pioneered by the major European helicopter manufacturers.
Eurocopter turbos In October 2011 Eurocopter revealed it was working on a turboshaft/electric conceptThis for approach its light, single-engined AS350. uses “the supplemental electric system to increase maneuverability of a single-engine helicopter during an autorotation landing….In the event of an engine failure, the electric motor provides power to the rotor, allowing a pilot to control the helicopter easily during the
Zero
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AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
descent to a safe touchdown,” according to the company. During 2012 Eurocopter worked on maturing the basic technology and evaluating its implementation on the company’s current series production helicopters. The critical design challenge has been to develop an electric power source that is light and powerful enough not to penalize the payload performance of the single-engine aircraft fleet in normal operations. The work was still proceeding at the start of this year, and no announcement on progress was forthcoming. The AS350 hybrid demonstrator features a compact electric motor and a lithium ion polymer battery installed in the center area of the helicopter helicopter..
eCO2 Avia-Hybrid
Hybrid approaches Meanwhile, in February, the EADS Innovation Works (EADS is Eurocopter’s parent corporation) published further outline details on its long-running concept study of a diesel-electric hybrid propulsion system they call the eCO2 Avia-Hy Avia-Hybrid brid helicopter. helicopter. The aim of the study is to determine which mix of diesel engines, generators, batteries, and electric motors would best enable, by the end of this decade, the development of a helicopter with fuel consumption around
As always with designing designing electrical electrical power generation, weight is a key challenge, and one option being considered is to remove more standard components. These might include the main gearbox, which will be unnecessary with a direct electric drive, or the heavy traditional tail rotor shaft, which can be replaced by an electric drive system. In this configuration, says the company, “Electrical rotor drives of the main and tail rotors allow for flexible, power-optimized rotor speed settings while further reducing fuel consumption. Tilting of the main rotor during
ing in lower noise levels and improved flight safety.” This is an area of considerable research activity by EADS Innovation Works. W orks. At the September 2012 Berlin Berl in Air Show the company also released the first details of a hybrid power system concept for the Tanan, a tactical remotely piloted air system (RPAS) under development by EADS’ Cassidian division. This hybrid approach combines a heavy-fuel-powered Wankel SuperTec rotary engine with a shaftcoupled electric generator; electric motor drives for the main and tail rotors; a power train control unit for
half that of today’s models. The company is examining various configurations, including combinations of two and three diesel engines powering batteries via electric generators, with the electric motors driving the rotors.
the cruise phase enables the hybrid helicopter to retain optimum aerodynamics during cruise, reducing the power demand and the fuel consumption. Takeoffs and landings are possible with electrical power only, result-
electric power management; and a battery providing energy for the aircraft’s electric propulsion system and on-board systems.
Project Zero industrial partners • Carbon graphite aircraft exterior surface: Lola Composites (U.K.). • Flight control system and rotor design: Sistemi Dinamici and IDS (Italy). • High-integrity flight control computer and actuator control unit: Selex (Italy), with software provided by Wind River (U.S.). • Motor inverter and motor control c ontrol algorithm: Ansaldo Breda (Italy). • Axial flux permanent magnet electric motors: Lucchi R. Elettromeccanica (Italy). • Rotor blade aerodynamics: AgustaWestland (Italy/U.K.) and Rotor Systems Research (U.S.). • Composite structure for the blades, shrouds, and spokes: Advanced Concepts Group and
AgustaWestland (Italy), (Italy), Japan Asia Asia Technology Center Center (Japan); fabricated fabricated by Uchida (Japan). • High bandwidth electromechanical actuators: Microtecnica (Italy). • Motor cooling system: MB Motorsport, Aerosviluppi (Italy). • Wiring harness and retractable landing gears: Marc-Ingegno (Italy). • Diesel engine alternate electric-hybrid propulsion: Oral Engineering (Italy).
Green Rotorcraft plan Both AgustaWestland and Eurocopter are also lead partners in the EC/industry-funded ‘Green Rotorcraft’ integrated technology demonstrator (ITD) program. The plan is to produce by 2020 mature technologies that reduce carbon dioxide emissions over current levels by 25-40% per mission (for rotorcraft powered respectively by turboshaft or diesel engines), and to reduce noise sensed on the ground by 10 EPNdB (effective perceived noise in decibels) or halving the noise footprint area by 50%, while protecting human health and the environment AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
5
VC1
research program to simulate the entire electrical network architecture on helicopters and small regional aircraft. “The technologies are changing radically with super-capacitors potentially replacing or partly replacing batteries, plus new power components, motors, a wide variety of range extenders including fuel cells and multiple energy harvesting,” according to Peter Harrop, author of Manned Electric Aircraft 2013-2023: Trends, Projects, Forecasts, published by IDTechEx in the U.K. “But at the current rate of progress we don’t see pure electric helicopters becoming available for the leisure market for at least another 1015 years.” Other efforts
from harmful chemical substances. One strategic research area within the ITD is the development of new architectures ‘for more electrical helicopters.’ These include new concepts such as an electric tail rotor, a brushless starter generator, electromechanical actuators, electric taxiing, an electric regenerative rotor brake, and management of energy recovery. For the past four years, the Green Rotorcraft program has focused on se-
components will use several testbeds, integrating complete subsystems and evaluating them on large test rigs during 2014 and 2015. The Copper Bird Test Rig, under construction by Hispano-Suiza in France, “aims to validate the integration of electrical systems and equipment, the quality of the energy generated, the stability of the electrical network and, more generally, demonstrate the maturity of technologies and systems needed for
Complementing these ‘top-down’ approaches by major European manufacturers are ‘bottom-up’ programs of small all-electric rotorcraft, under de velopment velopme nt in Germa Germany, ny, France, and throughout the continent. In August 2011 in Venelles, France, French aerospace engineer Pascal Chretien made the first recorded flight of an all-electric helicopter. He flew a prototype untethered electric-powered manned helicopter featuring counterrotating rotors, each driven by a brushed DC motor with lithium-ion batteries mounted under the pilot’s seat. It hovered about 50 cm above
lecting key research areas and partners to perform specific research tasks. This year tests on a variety of
‘more electric’ aircraft,” according to the company. The rig has been upgraded as part of the EU’s Clean Sky
the ground for just over 2 minutes. A French automotive research company, Solution F, sponsored the program.
Green Rotorcraft: Integration of innovative electrical systems technology streams •Electrical system architecture, electrical network, power management •Electromechanicall actuation for primary flight control •Electromechanica Required functions and load profiles are established at a vehicle level for The eventual removal of hydraulic systems requires replacement of rotor different helicopter classes. The corresponding electrical networks are boosters with all-electric actuators. Two actuators are under development selected according according to performance performance metrics metrics such as balancing weight and with different specifications: one for the light helicopter segment, the engine power performance. other for the heavy/medium. The first one will be tested on a helicopter on •Brushless starter/generator starter/generator (S/G) for a turboshaft engine ground, the second one with an ‘iron bird’ testbed. Current S/Gs feature poor energy efficiency and require substantial mainte•Power supply nance, so a prototype brushless brushless machine with the converter to match a The development of flightworthy and compact supply equipment aims at high-voltage network for helicopters is now under development and test. enabling the use of future active control systems. •Energy recovery, conversion, and storage systems •Electric tail rotor Prototype systems allowing waste energy recovery from several sources are This will replace mechanical tail rotor drive shafts, gearboxes, and couplings. under development in areas such as heat recovery from engine nozzles and energy storage systems. These will be tested on ground rigs. •Electromechanical actuation actuation for landing gear This research will provide an alternative solution solution for taxiing a helicopter without rotor spinning (safety, fuel saving) and without hydraulic power. 6
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Key potential advantages include reduced drive train vibration, fatigue, and noise, overall weight savings, and improved through-life through-life maintenance. A motor for a conventional conventional tail tail rotor is under development for for ground demonstration. Source: Clean Sky.
One myCopter notion
Although there are clear differences of approach between the major European manufacturers wishing to de velop more-electri more-e lectric c area helicopter helico systems, this is one key ofpter aviation technology in which Europe seeks to gain some kind of global dominance. Ultimately the speed with which ‘more electrical’ and ‘all-electric’ concepts
Then, in October 2011, a Karlsruhe-based German company, E-volo, flew its VC1 for the first time. This electrically powered proof-of-concept vehicle featu features res 16 small prope propellers llers (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?
find their way on board rotorcraft will depend mainly on the performance improvements of batteries and supercapacitors. But it is likely that Europe’s helicopter will be in a prime position forsector industrially exploiting any gains in electrical storage and charging efficiencies. Philip Butterworth-H Butterworth-Hayes ayes
[email protected]
Events Calendar JUNE 6
Aerospace Today…and Tomorrow: Disruptive Innovation, A Value Proposition. Williamsburg, Virginia Virginia.. Contact: Merrie Scott,
[email protected] JUNE 12-14
v=L75ESD9PBOw). The effort is partly funded with a $2-million grant from the German ministry of economics. Later this year E-volo plans to have a provisional airworthiness certificate for its all-electric twin-seat Volocopter V200, a comme commercial rcial develo development pment of the VC1. The V200 will have a speed of over 54 kt, a takeoff weight of 450 kg, and an endurance of more than 1 hr flight time. Also in 2011 work began on the myCopter research program, a longterm project to develop a rotor-based all-electric personal air transport system (PATS), (PATS), as part p art of the EC’s seventh
Sixth International Conference on Recent Advances in Space Technologies. Istanbul,, Turkey. Istanbul Contact: Suleyman Basturk,
[email protected] [email protected]
framework research program. The effort focuses on three major research areas: user-centered human machine interface and training; automation; and a sociotechnological assessment of implementing all-electric PATS PATS technologies. Using RPAS platforms for incremental developments of automation, and three flight simulators — one one airborne, two ground-based — the the results of the work will be integrated within the German Aerospace Center’s Flying Helicopter Simulator. Simulat or. Air vehicles are also now included in the research agenda of the EC’s Innovative Transport SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) Support Action effort, which seeks to improve access by SMEs to research work on future low-carbon road and air transport systems.
Forty-third International Conference on Environmental Systems. Vail, Colorado. Contact: 703/264-7500
JUNE 17-19
2013 American Control Conference. Washington, D.C. Contact: Santosh Devasia,
[email protected] [email protected] JUNE 24-27
Forty-third AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference and Exhibit. Forty-fourth AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference. Forty-fourth AIAA Thermophysics Conference. Thirty-first AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference. Twenty-first AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference. Fifth AIAA Atmospheric and Space Environments Conference. AIAA Ground Testing Testing Conference. San Diego, California. Contact: 703/264-7500 JULY 14-18
JULY 15-17
Forty-ninth AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit.
Eleventh International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference. San Jose, California. Contact: 703/264-7500 AUG. 11-15
AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Contact: Kathleen Howell, 765/494-5786;
[email protected]; ww.space-flight.org/docs/2013_ast ww.sp ace-flight.org/docs/2013_astro/2013_astro.html ro/2013_astro.html AUG. 12-14
AIAA Aviation Aviation 2013: Charting the Future of Flight (Continuing ( Continuing the Legacy of the International AIAA AviationPowered Technology, Integration,and andthe Operations Conference. 2013 Lift Conference 2013 Complex Aerospace Systems Exchange).Los Angeles, California. Contact: 703/264-7500
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
7
Washington and the sequester IN W ASHINGTON, AMERICA’S LE LEAD ADER ERSS continue to be at loggerheads over the size and shape of the federal budget. Democrats and Republicans remain in gridlock over debt and deficit issues, making it difficult for federal agencies to conduct any long-term planning. The government is operating under a continuing resolution until FY13 ends on September 30 and is likely too dysfunctional to return to a traditional budget thereafter. The White House, House of Representatives, and Senate have each crafted separate
Many in Washington would say that instead of two separate dialogues about budget and strategy, the nation’s capital is discussing only half of the problem. Everybody in Washington is debating sequestration. Even though major policy reviews are due soon in several key cabinet departments, almost no one in the capital seems to be talking strategy. An anonymous a nonymous blogger suggested that Washington is reacting to sequestration using the Kubler-Ross model, which lists five stages of grief follow-
budget proposals for to FY13, but none of the three is similar the others or — or likely to be enacted. The process called sequestration, under which funding is automatically reduced for future government operations, is in effect and is not going away. Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley, in an unusually candid breakfast talk with defense writers, said ongoing deliberations about budget and strategy are “two separate discussions trucking along in parallel.” The secretary has announced that he will be retiring this month. Donley said that sequestration and
ing trauma — denial, ing, adepression, and, anger, finally,bargainacceptance. In early May it appeared that agency heads had progressed from denial to anger, with acceptance no where in sight.
strategy are out of sync. Acknowledging that the problem is, in effect, above his pay grade, the secretary said, “It’s up to the national leadership, I think, to figure out when those streams cross and how to make the right judgments on a budget plan that fits strategic realities.”
bers but retains a pay freeze on senior political officials. The plan involves small spending increases for some agencies involved in science and research and small cuts for others. NASA would get $17.7 billion, a reduction of 0.3% or about $50 million from the FY12 spending level. The plan for NASA includes full funding for the Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule. The goal is still an Orion test flight next year and a first flight of SLS in 2017, the White House says. The NASA proposal includes $78 million to study “a robotic mission to rendezvous with a small asteroid — one one that would be harmless to Earth — and and move it to a stable location outside the Moon’s orbit.” Many in the space community feel this does not go far enough
Air Force Secretary Michael Donley
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AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Budget proposal The executive branch proposal calls for $3.77 trillion in spending to run government during FY14, which will begin October 1. The plan does not allow for sequestration, even though the sequester is very real. The plan would give a modest 1% pay increase to government workers and military mem-
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
to scrutinize a situation that could one day involve a genuine threat. The defense portion of the budget proposal, released on April 10, also ignores sequestration. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel testified on Capitol Hill on April 17 and was criticized for this omission. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told Hagel the administration “put together a budget that ignores the realities of the law today.” Hagel acknowledged that the $526billion Pentagon budget plan exceeds the law’s current spending cap by about $52 billion, or 10%. He said DOD strategists and money managers are now looking at how sequestration will affect funding and that he had ordered “a strategic choices and management review” that will take sequestration into account and may result in a revised spending plan. Furloughs and less friendly skies In mid-April, the Federal Aviation Administration responded to sequestration by furloughing employees, one working day out of every 10. This included air traffic controllers at 149 major airports. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta and his staff understood that by imposing furloughs they were inviting a reaction from lawmakers. However, they may not have anticipated the pushback they got. The remarkably safe U.S. airways handle 23,000 aircraft every day, according to the Associated Press. On
the first day of furloughs, April 15, some 1,200 airline flights were de-
where. At least l east two dozen air shows that rely on military participation have
layed because 1,500 controllers staffed the fewer system.air traffic “This is a manufactured crisis,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). “I would add ‘phony and contrived’ contrived’,” ,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told the Washington Post ’s ’s Ashley Halsey III. Sens. John D. Rockefeller IV (D W.Va.) W.V a.) and Jon Thune (R-S.D.) sent Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Huerta a letter demanding to know how much it would cost to end the controller furloughs. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) entered the dialogue with a bill that would defer defer sequestrasequestration cuts — a measure seen as purely
been canceledbyaround the Blue country. Performances the Navy’s Angels and the Air Force’s Thunderbirds flight demonstration teams have been halted. The Air Force has postponed a long-planned move of an F-22 Raptor squadron — 24 24 aircraft, 1,200 airmen and 500 civilians — from from New Mexico to Florida. Navy fleet operations have been reduced. As noted last month, the Navy has one aircraft carrier strike group in the Persian Gulf region rather than two as planned. Almost every eve ry government gover nment agency has its own sequestration story. One State Department officer, referring to
symbolic. And the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in a statement that some controllers are being paid overtime so others can be given unpaid days off. By the end of April, the Senate had enacted legislation that would transfer up to $230+ million from other sectors of the DOT to the FAA. That would be enough to stop further furloughs and keep the air traffic control system operating at a normal pace through FY13. House endorsement (with many members already out of town) followed shortly thereafter, and the president signed off.
an ice cream retailer, said, “If the government were running Baskin-Robbins, it would offer only one flavor.” Several polls show Americans have — to — over moved past denial — to anger — over the inability of government to fulfill its basic responsibilit responsibilities. ies. For many in i n Washington, however, duty still beckons. Hard-working people in industry, government, and the military continue to cope with aerospace issues that resemble the ‘old normal’ more than the ‘new normal.’
LaHood had announced his retirement in January, pending confirmation of his replacement. Obama has nominated Anthony Foxx, mayor of Charlotte, N.C., to be the next secretary. Few in Washington had expected the FAA furloughs to last, but other sequestration cuts were evident every-
tration, the agency everybody loves to hate, said on April 22 that it would postpone changing its list of prohibited items on airplanes. The TSA drew disbelief and anger from pilots, flight attendants, and other aviation professionals when it said in March that small pocketknives, as well as sporting goods like golf clubs and hockey sticks, would be allowed on airliners for the first time since the agency was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. There was also some negative reaction to the idea from the flying public, though not a lot. With the TSA, the public, it might be said, long ago made the leap from anger to acceptance. The TSA brouhaha revived the ages-old conflict between citizens wanting to be secure and wanting to
FAA Administrator Michael P. Huerta
Getting the knife The Transportation Security Adminis-
be free. “They’ll pick ‘secure’ every time,” an airline pilot with libertarian leanings “They’ve They forgotten all about observed. their civil liberties. forget that we got by for years without having a TSA at all.” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) reflected the opposite, and more popular pro-security view, when he said that a prohibition on items that can be used as weapons is “absolutely essential.” After no fewer than 133 lawmakers objected to the planned relaxation of the rules, TSA boss John Pistole
Rep. Bennie Thompson
arranged for Thompson to announce the decision to postpone — and and few in Washingt W ashington on believe believe the the postponem postponement ent is anything other than a full-fledged cancellation. Text ‘no’ to texting text ing
The National Transportation Safety Board, a government agency almost everyone likes, reported that the pilot of a medical helicopter that crashed in Mosby, Missouri, in 2011 was distracted by text messages while at the controls. CNN reported that, “to the amazement of safety officials [the pilot] evidently sent several text messages with one hand while piloting the aircraft with the other.” The NTSB reported that James Freudenberg “was distracted by sending and receiving over 10 text messages when he should have been conducting preflight checks.” The board said that because the pilot did not perform his preflight properly, he apparently did not know the Eurocopter AS350 B2 was low on on fuel. In addition addition (Continued on page 17) AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
9
Michael Gazarik
Tell us abou Tell aboutt your visio vision n and plan plans s for you your r NAS NASA A dir direct ectora orate te.. Why Why wa was s it for forme med? d? Wh What at ar are e its go goal als? s? The Space Technology Mission Directorate was established a few months ago. It is focused on developing and demonstrating the technology to enable NASA to go above and be yond low Earth orbit. To explore farther than we ever have, NASA needs a heavy launch rocket and a humanrated capsule, and they are in development. And NASA also needs new technology across a variety of fronts to
organized, prior to becoming a mission directorate. We’re already building, flying, and testing hardware for — to NASA and for our country to help the U.S. maintain and improve its technological edge and also to invest in the innovation economy. Investing in technology and creating high-paying jobs, and helping small businesses and universities that do this kind of work, is a good way to meet some of the economic challenges we have. Creating our directorate gives space technology sharper
number of universities in projects addressing key challenges the agency faces. My directorate is reemphasizing this relationship. We have formal programs to reengage our universities, letting them know we need their help, their ideas. We now have 350 activities with over 100 univers universities ities across the country. We are increasing the number of fellowships. We reach out to the universities in all of our projects.
enable us to explore space, to move in space, to store energy and propulsion power, and to do all the things we need to do to explore on long-distance trips in space.
focus and greater visibility on equal footing with the other three mission directorates that manage human exploration, science missions, and aeronautics. And we have solid backing in Congress and the administration.
phasis an phasis and d dir direc ectio tion? n? NASA completed 30 years of operation with the shuttle — a magnificent vehicle — and and built and began operating the international space station, and that took much effort and willingness to accept risk. Where NASA is now, though, is back to doing things that we haven’t h aven’t done before, moving be yond low Earth orbit, and to do that, we need new technol technology ogy and we have to get back into the nation’s laboratories in order to get there, and that’s what my directorate is all about. What we’re seeing from the work work force in NASA’s 10 research centers is great excitement, trying to do new things, build new things, making progress. We are at the cutting edge, and excitement is high. The mindset for building and operating the shuttle is different from the mindset for developing and testing new technologies for space exploration, and that’s the shift we’re making.
Give us a se Give sense nse of the his histor tory y of you your r direc dir ector torate ate.. We W e were in formulation and execution for about two years as NASA’s Space Technology Program, getting
Michael Gazarik is associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. He manages and executes the agency’s space technology programs, focusing on infusing them into NASA NASA’s ’s exploration and science mission needs. Prior to this appointment, Gazarik was deputy chief technologist and director for space technology. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the design, development, and deployment of spaceflight systems, and has contributed to the development of technology with application to NASA’s Exploration Systems, Space Operations, and Science missions. At NASA Langley, Langley, Gazarik served served as deputy director for programs in the Engineering Diraectorate. Directorate. led the in formulation of variety ofHe programs aeronautics, exploration, and science. Prior to joining NASA, Gazarik served as project manager for the Geosynchronous 10
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Tell us mo Tell more re ab about out wor workin king g with with the unive uni versi rsitie ties. s. NASA’s science mission directorate has a great relationship with a
Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer project at MIT’s MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. Laboratory. He led the development of the Airborne Sounder Testbed-Interferometer Testb ed-Interferometer,, an instrument that helps scientists understand temperature and water vapor profiles of Earth’s atmosphere, and worked in the private sector on software and firmware development for commercial and government applications. Gazarik earned a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has received numerous awards, including NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal and a Silver Snoopy Award, one of NASA’s highest honors.
Does the establis establishme hment nt of your di recto re ctorat rate e sig signal nal a shi shift ft in NA NASA’ SA’s s em em--
So yo your urs s is an anyt ythi hing ng bu butt a ri risk sk-a -ave vers rse e direct dir ectora orate te,, I tak take e it. It is not. We push the envelope as far as we can. It is not a good sign if everything always works right. We have to push the envelope. We’re like DARPA in some respects, and, if you go back in history, like Bell Labs and other laboratories, for example. They all worked on really tough problems that they weren’t sure
Interview by James W. W. Canan
how to solve, and they came up with some great breakthrough ideas such as the laser and the transistor. There was a community of organizations organizations and people working on tough problems. What we’re trying to do is develop the the same kind of community, get them communicating and sharing with each other. When that happens, that’s when you get breakthrough breakthrough ideas. There ar There are e som some e pro probl blem ems s ass associ ociate ated d with space space explor exploration ation,, like radiaradia tion tio n ex expo posur sure, e, th that at re requi quire re ne new w te tech ch- nologi nol ogies es to ove overc rcome ome,, ar aren en’t ’t the there re?? That’s right. One of the top needs is radiation protection for humans. Another is a reliable, long-lasting, lowmass propulsion system that will give us the ability to move about in space quickly and efficiently. That ties into solving the radiation problem. The
ogy, designing, building, testing, flying, seeing if it all works. That’s what we’re all about. How impo importa rtant nt is the the space space sta station tion in al alll tha that? t? It is very important. We have a number of projects that are using and will use the inter internation national al space station. For example, we want to learn and understand what long exposure to the space environment does to materials, and the space station is a great platform for that. One of our newer
programs called NICER [Neutron-star Interior Composition Explorer] is exploring how to use X-ray sources for spacecraft navigation. We’re W e’re also using the space space station to learn more about robotics — about about robots working side by side with humans in space. Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot, has been aboard the “We push the envelope as far as space station for well over a we can. It is not a good sign if year, doing mainte maintenance nance tasks. Robonaut 2 does not have legs, everything always works right.” though, and we’re developing its quicker we can get where we’re golegs and will fly them up to the station ing, the better. So we need technology this fall. for propulsion and navigation, includ Is priva private te indus industry try heav heavily ily invo involve lved d ing a better clock. That is why we’re working workin g on an atomic clock. Those in you your r pr progr ogram ams, s, you your r pla plans? ns? are just some of the problems, and Very V ery much so. For exampl example, e, we they’ve been known for a long time. are in partnership with General Motors in the robotics program, learning How ma many, ny, an and d how lon long? g? how robots can safely work with crew We W e have h ave a stack of about 40 remembers on the station and automoports over the past three decades that tive workers in factories here on Earth. have identified the challenges and the Crews Cre ws will will begin begin makin making g longer longer dudutechnologies that are needed to meet them. We have a lot of reports but not ratio ra tion n flig flights hts ab aboar oard d the the ISS in 20 2015 15.. a whole lot of progress. So now our Will that benefit your directorate? emphasis is on hardware, not on re Yes. Y es. The extension of space staports. We have nine programs in the tion flights is an agency-wid agency-wide e decision, technology misson directorate now, and we will take advantage of it to deand they are all focused on getting velop and demonstrat demonstrate e our technolhardware built, designed, and tested ogy. We have to be able to show that in the lab and in space. We’re getting our technology really works in space more and more people back into the so that the potential users can be comlabs now, after 30 years in the shuttle fortable with it and trust it. So demonprogram, working on new technolstrating new technology in space is
key for us, and the ISS provides a great platform to do that. Give us a se Give sense nse of you your r time timeta table ble for progr pro gram ams. s. We’ve W e’ve been at this for a little over two years, getting programs established, and now we have a number of challenging and interesting problems to work on, a number of incredible things coming up. As we go to building hardware and demonstrating in space over the next couple of years, some of our demonstrations will begin
to take place. One of our most fascinating programs is the solar sail. Tell Te ll us mor more e ab about out tha that. t. It will be the world’s largest solar sail, a new way to move about in space without the need of a chemical propellant. We will use the Sun’s energy in the form of photons. To get enough force from them, we will need a big sail, and we will be flying one that’s over 100 ft by 100 ft — a huge sail. Why do you want to do this? For NASA’s next mission in heliophysics, which is the study of the Sun. If we can control and maneuver a spacecraft with a solar sail precisely as required, we will be better able to monitor the Sun and look at and predict the space weather generated by the Sun. We will send spacecraft out to L1 — Lagrangian Lagrangian Point 1, where the forces of gravity balance out and the spacecraft stays in roughly the same position relative to Earth — and and keep it pointed at and around the Sun precisely where we want it to point. The [NASA] Science Directorate’s technical survey on heliophysics calls the solar sail a great way to do this. You mean you will be able to fine tune the navigation navigation of an obje object ct in space spa ce with with a sola solar r sail sail based based on its its inter int eract action ion wi with th pho photon tons? s? Yes. It sound soundss incredi incredible, ble, but it AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013 11
“It sounds incredible, but it will be just like pitching a sail to control a sailboat on the Chesapeake.” will be just like pitching a sail to control a sailboat on the Chesapeake. We
vestment allows NASA NASA to to go do the the asteroid mission. So we are working
tion effect. We think that’s solvable, using adaptive optics. We will test it
can stationkeep our spacecraft in position by managing the momentum of photons. The company that’s doing this for us is L’Garde L’G arde in Tustin, California, working with Dupont. It won the NASA competition for the solar sail contract. All of our programs have a competitive element. Our solar sail demonstration in space is scheduled for 2014.
closely with the human spaceflight team and the science mission team on how to do the mission, and my Space Technology Mission Directorate is going to develop the solar propulsion system that will get us there and back.
on our LADEE [lunar atmosphere and dust environment explorer] mission with a satellite that has a laser optical terminal.
Earlier Earlie r this this year year the the Oba Obama ma admi adminn istra ist ratio tion n anno announc unced ed its pla plan n to hav have e NASA NAS A go out int into o space space an and d captu capture re an asteroi asteroid. d. What What is your direc directortor ate’s ate ’s ro role le in the as aster teroid oid mi missi ssion? on?
We W e move it. The missi mission on leverages a lot of what our directorate has been doing. We’ve been working on developing solar-electric propulsion, and this mission will be a great way for us to demonstrate it. Solar energy will power the spacecraft out to capture the asteroid and bring it back. Why solar electric propulsion? It is the most efficient way to get to the asteroid. The spacecraft could not carry enough chemical propellant to do that; the propellant would be too massive. Solar electric power has been used on many spacecraft, s pacecraft, but we need it to produce a much higher level of power. The state of the art today for spacecraft is a total 25 watts of solar power. To get more power, we need bigger solar arrays. The arrays we have today can’t collect enough enough of the Sun’s energy. Solar cell efficiencies aren’t what they need to be. So we need a bigger, better structure and we need to learn and understand how we’re going to deploy those big solar arrays. They may be more than 100 ft in length. And we have to learn and understand how to manage them structurally and thermally. How lon long g hav have e you be been en wo worki rking ng on solar sol ar-el elec ectri tric c te techn chnolo ology gy?? We’ve W e’ve focused on high-pow high-powered ered SEP for over a year, and that early in12
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Is cutting cutting the weight weight of of propell propellants ants and an d the cos costt of pr propu opulsi lsion on im impor porta tant nt in you your r te techn chnolo ology gy de deve velop lopme ment? nt? Absolutely. It’s very expensive expensive for NASA to get off the surface of the planet, and that’s a big challenge from a chemical propulsion perspective. One of the advantages of solar electric propulsion is that it’s very mass-effi-
cient. You You don’t need a lot of mass to move. Now the solar-electric s olar-electric thrusters don’t generate a lot of force, but it’s enough to provide constant acceleration. One of the problems is that the highly charged particles that come out of the back end erode the walls of the thrusters, and over time you lose thrust as your walls erode. So one of the advances we’ve been working on is to develop a magnetic control shield that basically prevents the erosion. This great work is being done by Glenn and by JPL. What else does your directorate have hav e in sto store re?? Anotherr projec Anothe project, t, called laserco lasercomm, mm, we’re workin working g on at Goddar Goddard. d. The Mars rovers take great images of the planet but most of them remain on Mars because we cannot get them back. So we’re exploring laser communications — using using optical communications and lasers to send data back and forth from Earth to space. The Europeans have made some progress with using lasers for communications between low Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit, and we’re tied into that. But the harder job is going from space to ground, because we have to get the laser cleanly through the atmosphere, which has a distor-
Do you have any other other propulsion propulsion proje pro jects cts in mi mind nd be besid sides es sol solar ar sa sail? il? Yes, and a demons demonstration tration will take place in 2015, a demo of the technology of a new, green propellant for maneuverability in space. Spacecraft typically use hydrazine for maneuverability, a chemical that’s been in existence for years. Hydrazine is high performing, works very well, but is very toxic to human humans, s, so when you
load a spacecraft with hydrazine on the ground, you have to take a lot of precautions. So we are trying to de velop an alternative propellant that is much greener and safer. I take take it that that go going ing gr gree een n is no nott your your main ma in go goal al in thi this s en ende deav avor or.. That’s right. We’re not doing it primarily to get a green propellant, we’re doing it to try to get a replacement for hydrazine. We have a competitively selected project led by Ball Aerospace and Aerojet to demonstrate this new alternative propellant. We think it will have a big effect. We We want to show that it performs just as well as, or better than, hydrazine. It works in a larger temperature range, and it’s more dense than hydrazine, so we can carry and use less of it. And it’s less toxic, so we can easily load spacecraft with it on the ground. But we still have to prove to the world that it’s going to work. How wi will ll you tes testt it? We’re W e’re going to build a spacecraft, a whole new system, with new thrusters made by Aerojet. We We have to show the spacecraft builders in the aerospace community that they can have confidence in the whole system, so it’s got to be a system demonstration in space under a variety of condi-
“We are customer-focused, we are going to solve problems, and that’ th at’ss our real push. pu sh.””
tions to show that it works safely and reliably, that the performance is there.
by taking risks where it would be hard for private companies, for the indus-
This is a great role for my directorate; we’re leveraging what’s already out there. It would be hard for private industry to take the risk and spend the money to do this. Propellant alternatives have been developed for years, but no one has been able to pick up the ball and spend enough money to demonstrate them in space, and this is where the government comes in, and it’s a great role for us.
try, to do so. That’s a key role for us in the Space Technology Mission Directorate. We are customer-focused, we are going to solve problems, and that’s our real push.
tioned in his State of the Union message this year.
So NAS NASA A be belie lieve ves s tha thatt thi this s wil willl ind induce uce the com compa panie nies s to spe spend nd mon money ey the themm selves selv es on dev develop eloping ing and utili utilizing zing non-hy non -hydra draze zene ne al alter ternat native ives? s?
Are you Are you work working ing wi with th othe other r gove governrn ment me nt ag agen encie cies? s? We W e are working closely with the [White House] Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Management and Budget. OSTP was a big architect and proponent of our program, especially especially in its early days, in setting it up and focusing on the types of problems we would be facing. We
As you point point out, out, a lot of this this work work has be been en goin going g on for som some e time time.. So is it fair to to say that that the creat creation ion of your directorate directorate is NASA NASA’s ’s way of bring br inging ing it all tog togeth ether er an and d hig highl hligh ightt ing the ne need ed an and d the the ent enthus husias iasm m for for new ne w spa space ce ex explo plorat ration ion te techn chnolo ology gy?? Yes, Ye s, and I think there was recognition by [NASA Administrator] Charlie Bolden and others within the agency that we needed an organization to go do this, and by [mission directors] Bill Gerstenmaier and John Grunsfeld that they want to do more missions and more capable missions, and that the
That’s right, and we think we can leverage a larger part of the whole aerospace industry by working on the tough problems, attacking them, and
work with them on a number of national initiatives, including one on ad vanced manufacturing manufacturing — a multi-agency initiative — that that Presid President ent Obama men-
Space Technology Mission Directorate can help with all that. We’re going to do things that haven’t been done before, and in a new way.
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013 13
Regional jets: Running to stay in place TH E
REGIONAL JET MARKET IS FLAT,
but has attracted many new industry entrants. The arrival of new-generatio new-generation n engines has enabled one next-player to gain some traction on the market, although some others face uncertain prospects. This new entrant challenge has induced very different reactions by the two legacy regional jet market leaders. One is reinventing itself to survive, while the other seems content to gradually fade away. A flat market There is little about the regional jet market that inspires hope. It was the only segment of the aviation industry that did not grow during the great 2003-2008 boom market. Large commercial jetliner deliveries grew at a 7.4% annual growth rate in that period, and continued growing at a 12.4% rate in 2008-2012. Yet regional aircraft grew at a mere 4.4% rate in 2003-2008, and even this was completely due to turboprop deliveries growth (regional jets stayed flat). Worse, in 2009 the regional sector declined by 13.1%, and all told fell by 34% in 2008-2012. Between 2009 and 2010 Embraer, the largest regional player, saw its backlog drop from 375 jets to 229. In 1989, regional aircraft deliveries were 15% of the total world transport market by value. In 2012, they were 6.4%. High regional jet seat-mile costs (worsened by high fuel prices), persistent airline pilot scope clauses (agreements between pilots’ unions and airline management that limit how many large regional jets an airline can fly), and problematic relations between major and regional carriers all portend continued market flatness in real terms, and shrinkage in relative terms. Not only is this market flat, it is also heavily concentrated. The 2,000 jets based in North America represent 14
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Enter the new generation Despite the challenges associated with entering this market, three new regional jet producers have thrown their
The once and future king In 2006, two years after it began deliveries of its E-Jet series, Embraer surpassed Bombardier as regional jet market leader. This successful program has since allowed Embraer to maintain its top position. However, the company continued to delay any kind of reengining upgrade, even as it became clear that the market preferred products with the new engines. Finally, in January of this year the company announced that it too was
hats in the ring. The biggest success,
adapting Pratt’s GTF GTF,, specifically going
about 60% of the world’s fleet. Asia, which has become the biggest single market for large jetliners, has a mere 230 regional jets, or 7% of the fleet. The importance of penetrating the North American market has greatly complicated the efforts of new market entrants.
The Mitsubishi Regional Jet has been the surprise success as a new enrant in the regional jet market.
and a major surprise, has been the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), powered by Pratt & Whitney’s PurePower PW1000G geared turbofan (GTF). In October 2009 the MRJ scored a notable breakthrough with a tentative order for 50 firm and 50 option planes from Trans States Holdings, the parent company of Trans States Airlines and GoJet Airlines. A firm contract was expected by the end of the year, but did not arrive until February 2011. In July 2012 SkyWest announced a tentative commitment for 100 MRJ90s. This order, for 100 firm and 100 option craft, was firmed up in December 2012.
with the 15,00015,000-22,000 22,000 lbt PW1700 PW1700G G and PW1900G. The new family will enter service in 2018. However, since January, no launch customer has been announced, and no timing has been provided as to when such an event might occur. Going with Pratt’s GTF offers the safest path to compete with the MRJ, and the Pratt engine offers impressive new technology. However, moving away from a General Electric powerplant means Embraer can no longer count on GE’s GECAS leasing unit for orders. GECAS has provided about 50 orders for the current E-Jet series.
Also, Bombardier, unlike Embraer, Embraer, has no plans to upgrade the basic CRJ
Pratt & Whitneys’ PurePower is becoming the go-to engine for many regional jet builders.
Embraer’s experience with offering a reengined E-Jet series echoes similar
Bombardier’s difficult options Now that the regional jet battle re-
episodes in the industry, particularly Airbus with its A320neo (New Engine Option) series and Boeing with its 737 MAX. Any airframer announcing a new engine program runs the risk of watching orders for its current generation of jets dry up, as customers elect to wait for the new model. This means they can face a few years of declining production rates, or, alternatively, declining profits as they are forced to discount prices on current-generation jets in order to keep sales up. While unpalatable, this reengining decision is necessary if a new or current competitor has an advantage. Airbus was forced to launch the neo in response to Bombardier’s CSeries, which uses the GTF; Boeing had to launch the 737 MAX to respond to Airbus’s neo. In short, Embraer quickly found out that the only thing worse than cannibalizing your own backlog is to have competitors do it for you.
volves aroun around d new engines engines,, forme formerr market leader Bombardier risks being left behind. After building more than 1,600 CRJ series regional jets, deliveries have trailed off markedly, with just seven -900s and seven -1000s delivered in 2012. As of the start of the year, there were 107 CRJs on backlog, compared with 185 E-Jet series jets. This isn’t a disaster, especially since a few months earlier the CRJ backlog was down to just around around 50 planes. However, the CRJ backlog was increased last year by 40 -900s for Delta. This order competition victory resulted from a unique Bombardier advantage with this customer: customer: Delta has the largest CRJ-200 fleet by far, and wanted to return many of them. This allowed Bombardier to offer generous trade-in terms, an ad vantage that likely will not be repeated repeated in many more competitions. The ad vantages of going with a new engine (on an MRJ or ERJ) will weigh against Bombardier in the future, particularly as fuel prices stay high.
Embraer has sat atop the leader board since its entry into the regional jet market.
design. Given the massive corporate challenge of bringing the CSeries jetliner to market, along with other challenges such as developing the Lear 85 and Global 7000/8000 business jets, Bombardier is unlikely to find the resources necessary to do anything more than a superficial refresh to the series. Given the CRJ’s smaller and older airframe, it is possible that introducing newer engines would be technically difficult. In addition, given Bombardier’s focus on the CSeries, it is clear that the company wishes to focus on the larger mainline jet market, taking ad vanta ge of that segmen vantage segment’s t’s larger size and faster growth rates. It is quite likely that the company views regional jets as a mere legacy, and a distraction moving forward. The CSeries, of course, is generally too large and heavy to compete effectively in the regional market, although it does offer some appeal against smaller versions of Airbus’s and Boeing’s singleaisle families. Delta is a mainstay customer for the CRJ.
Still, an intriguing possibility presents itself. General Electric’s Passport engine (formerly NG34) might provide the basis for a major CRJ upgrade, if GE provides the resources. The 16,500lb Passport 20 has been selected to power Bombardier’s Global 7000/8000 business jets, and will enter flight testing in 2014. However, this new engine series has not been selected for any kind of regional jet application. While the CF34 also powers COMAC’s ARJ 21, that aircraft’s likely death eliminates that prospect of another General Electric platform. The MRJ’s arrival, AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
15
some or all of a reengined CRJ’s development and certification bill, and adds the weight of GECAS’s market clout (perhaps even providing launch orders too), the CRJ could be rejuve-
REGIONAL MARKET DELIVERY SHARES BY MANUFACTURER
(Value of deliveries in 2013 $billions) $10
8 6
4
2
0
‘92
‘94
‘96
‘98
‘00
‘02
‘04
‘06
‘08
Embraer
ATR
BAE
MRJ
Bombardier
Other
Saab
Fokker
‘10
‘12
‘14
‘16
‘18
‘20
‘22
SuperJet
and the E-Jet reengining decision,
Jet family) f amily) to exactly e xactly zero new-build
means GE will go from overwhelming market dominance (the CF34 series powers both the CRJ family and the E-
market presence. GE is therefore a wild card in this market. If the engine maker pays for
nated. Bombardier, andtoGeneral Elec-a tric, would be able maintain position in the regional jet market longer than currently anticipated. Bombardier,, in short, offers a suBombardier perb illustration of regional jet market dynamics. Given a flat market and the threat posed by new competitors, legacy manufacturers need to keep running just to stay in place. Embraer did not want to run, but decided it had no choice. Bombardier seems to have decided not to run. And unless General Electric provides direct support, Bombardier will gradually leave the regional jet race.
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Richard Aboulafia
Teal Group Teal raboulafi
[email protected]
(Continued from page 9)
to the pilot, the crash killed flight nurse Randy Bever, paramedic Chris Frakes, and patient Terry Tacoronte. The AP reported that the helicopter tragedy NTSB’s worries that underscored “distraction “distr actionss the from electronic devices are a growing factor in incidents across all modes of transportation — planes, planes, trains, cars, trucks, and even ships.” The news of the distracted pilot came just after the bipartisan Ralston Institute issued a report citing texting as a greater danger on the nation’s highways than drinking. Moreover, the report concludes, the nation is becoming increasingly aware of the problem — and taking it more seriously witness the murder murder charge filed against a Utah woman for hittin hitting g two pedestr pedestrians, ians, killing one, while simultaneously driving and using a hand-held device. No U.S. airline crashes have been linked to the use of electronic devices, but the FAA — which often acts on recommendations by the NTSB — in in January proposed regulations prohibiting flight crews from using cellphones and other wireless devices while a plane is in operation. The regulations are required under a law passed last year by Congre Congress ss in respons response e to an October 2010 incident in which two Northwest Airlines pilots overflew their destination of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by 100 miles while they they were engrossed in working on their laptops. No drone medal
On April 15 Secretary Hagel scrapped a new medal for unmanned aerial vehicle pilots and cyber specialists. Hagel’s decision to abandon the Distinguished Warfare Medal, which had been unveiled by predecessor Leon Panetta just weeks earlier, was a surprise even though the medal drew strong criticism from Capitol Hill. Most in Washington had expected Hagel to defend the new form of recognition for Americans engaged in a new kind of warfare that uses remote technology. The medal would have recognized specific acts — such such as a critically timed UA UAV V aerial strike that — rather neutralizes an important target — rather
Rep. Duncan D. Hunter
than constituting recognition merely for being on duty. Hagel’s action took place before the medal was awarded to anyone. One highly visible opponent of the award was Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (RCalif.), who served as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan (and is the son of the congressman he replaced in 2009, also named Duncan Hunter). “I wasn’t as concerned about the medal as about where they placed it in the order of things,” Hunter said in a statement. Until Hagel killed it, the medal was rated above the Bronze Star and Purple Heart in the hierarchy of awards. Hagel indicated the DOD would find a different way to recognize UAV UAV and cyber duty. USAF Lt. Col. Matt J. Martin covered the dichotomy of this form of military service in the book Predator. He wrote of flying at 10,000 feet over Baghdad, pinpointing insurgents with a laser, and guiding an AC130U Spooky gunship to unleash a barrage of weapons fire that killed dozens of the enemy. “Then,” Martin wrote, “I remembered r emembered that Trish had asked me to pick up a gallon of milk on the way home.” The operators of UAVs work in Nevada, California, and Arizona and live in everyday American communities even though their MQ-1B Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones fly combat missions in overseas war zones. (The discussion and the medal apply to military members; CIA operators, who handle drones outside the war zones in places like Pakistan, would not have been eligible for the medal). Even though they commute to work and live with their families, many in the UAV community experience posttraumatic stress disorder according to
Patience Mason, an author and authority on PTSD. “It’s very real,” Mason said in an interview. “In my opinion, killing people is a traumatic stressor. s tressor. “In the originaleveryone, list of traumatic stressors, because veterans and mental health providers, believed killing other people was a manly thing and wouldn’t be traumatic, it was not listed,” Mason said. “What was considered traumatic was when someone tried to kill you, your friends, or even people you didn’t know. When drone operators started having PTSD, it was no surprise to me. They see the people they kill up close and personal, see the body parts and wounded and dead afterwards. That is traumatic.” The question of how to recognize the service of drone operators and cyber warriors, like so many questions lingering in the summertime air in the nation’s capital, now awaits an answer at some future future date. date. Robert F. Dorr
[email protected]
FACULTY POSITIONS Department of Mechanical Engineering The Department of Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University invites applications for multiple tenure-track faculty positions at the Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor ranks to begin in 2014 (www.me.iastate.edu ). Exceptional candiwww.me.iastate.edu). dates in all areas of mechanical engineering will be considered, with particular emphasis in manufacturing, controls, biotechnology, energy,, complex fluids, and design. energy All interested, qualified persons are encouraged to apply early at www.iastatejobs.com/ applicants/Central?quickFind=83186 by completing the Employment Application for vacancy #130200, with applications to be reviewed on a continuing basis from July 1 to Dec. 15, 2013.
ISU is an Equal Opportu nity/Affirmative Action Employer, and we are seeking candidates who share this mission of advancing diversity.
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
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Green Engineering
ERA Phase 2: A descending hush hush UNDER NASA’S FIXED W ING
vironm entally vironmentall y Respons Responsible ible Aviation (ERA) projects, finding a way to reduce airframe noise during an aircraft’s landing approach has remained an important area of research. During both takeoff and landing, the engines of modern commercial planes are much quieter than those of previous aircraft generations. This is helping to reduce the noise burden on communities in and around airports. But reductions in airframe noise have
might offer particular promise in terms of reducing airframe noise. Throughout the ERA project, the agency has partnered with Gulfstream Aerospace on airframe noise research. Mehdi Khorrami, a NASA Langley scientist who is ITD lead for the flap and landing-gear experiment, says these components are major sources of airframe noise. Slats are another prominent source and are being addressed under the Fixed Wing project. ERA Phase 1 research, Khorrami
ful that smoothing the airflow around a landing-gear unit did not worsen the noise source mechanisms associated with the airflow hitting another part of the airframe. “You also want [the airframe] more ‘draggy’ for landing — the the ideal-case scenario is that you want ‘silent’ drag,” says Khorrami. Small-scale models of landing-gear units and other reduced-noise components were tested in Virginia Tech’s wind tunnel, tunnel, although the tests did not involve integrated sets of such parts.
not kept pace. Today, it is well known in the industry that airframe noise is comparable to or even louder than engine noise during aircraft approaches to landing. As a result, communities under the glidepaths to runways at major airports must still endure noise levels much higher than they — and and NASA — would like. Now, under ERA Phase 2, eight integrated technology demonstration (ITD) areas have been selected to move toward flight demonstration by 2015. One of these is a ‘flap and landing-gear noise reduction flight experiment.’ Based on work in ERA Phase 1, NASA felt that flaps (including leading-edge slats) and landing gears
recalls, started with high-fidelity numerical modeling of airflows over various reduced-noise flap and landinggear design concepts. The modeling used CFD simulations and analysis run both by NASA in-house software and third-party software developed by Exa. “One of the unique things about our noise-reduction concepts is that they are not just based on cut-andtried models, but are significantly based on computational simulations,” Khorrami says. NASA tested multiple iterations of its design concepts in virtual space, and only after refining them until it felt they were optimal did the team build physical scale models and test them.
Khorrami notes also that small-scale testing can go only so far. “The ultimate test is in the real environment — — with a smaller s maller scale model, you canca nnot maintain the geometries accurately. Noise sources are notorious in that every little detail matters.”
For Phase 2 of NASA's ERA project, Mehdi Khorrami's team is testing flap and landing gear noise-reduction technologies using a half-span, 18%-scale model of a Gulfstream G550 installed in Langley’s 22x14-ft wind tunnel.
Research challenges Especially challenging for Langley was that it could not just design a new noise-reducing flap in isolation and pair it with a noise-reducing landinggear fairing without accounting for their mutual interactions. (Although landing-gear fairings are included in the research, Khorrami says, NASA is going through the patent application process for some of the concepts, so he is constrained from describing them further.) The new landing-gear and flap configuration concepts effectively had to be weight- and fuel-efficiency neutral in order not to affect ERA’s integrated technology goals. In addition, NASA had to be care-
20
AND AN D EN-
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Gulfstream model testing As part of ERA Phase 2, NASA is continuing to partner with Gulfstream Aerospace Aerosp ace and has created an 18%, half-span model of a Gulfstream G550 executive jet. The team is testing integrated combinations of its concepts in the 14x22-ft subsonic wind tunnel at Langley. The model is mounted vertically in the wind tunnel and its design modified very slightly compared with the real aircraft to mitigate boundarylayer effects within the tunnel. This ensures that the model’s aerodynamic properties are the same as those of the G550. To measure the airframe noise generated by the model and its noisereducing flap and gear modifications, 97 microphones are mounted on a round traversing array inside the wind tunnel. The array can be moved along the flow direction, allowing it to obtain the same kind of data it would obtain if an aircraft were passing by. (The model in the tunnel is in a fixed position.) “Certification only calls for noise measurement in the vicinity of the
In Langley's 14x22-ft wind tunnel, the team uses a round traversing array ar ray with 97 microphones mounted on it to measure the airframe noise generated by the half-span Gulfstream G550 model and its noise-reducing flap and gear modifications.
overhead direction, but NASA is all about proving there is significant noise reduction in every relevant direction for community noise,” explains Khorrami. His team has tested five or six different landing-gear modifications and seven or eight different flap designs; in all, he says, the team has tried well over 30 diffe different rent variati variations ons and permutations of different concepts. Gulfstream Aerospace has performed flight tests using a G550 fitted with pressure ports and other sensors at the same relative locations as the sensors fitted to the half-span model in the Langley wind tunnel. This is to measure in a real aircraft the aerodynamic sources of airframe noise. Thus the company has acquired data on pressures on landing-gear units and flaps in a flying aircraft while its partner NASA has been obtaining data on the effects of noise-reduction modifications from the model in the wind tunnel. According to Khorrami, a preliminary look at its data by Gulfstream Aerospace Aerosp ace indicat indicates es “very good” agreement between the flight test data and NASA’s model-derived data.
Lowering landing-gear noise While Khorram Khorramii cannot ca nnot talk in detail yet about NASA’s landing-gear la nding-gear noisereduction concepts, he does say one promising idea involves using separate fairings for each landing-gear unit’s upper struts and another for its wheels. The fairings must be designed so that the landing-gear unit remains retractable and stowable. Whatever fairing concepts are chosen for flight test, they will have to be designed to prevent water from gathering in the landing-gear units and to allow mechanics easy access to the landing gear for inspection and repair. NASA Langley has based these landing-gear efforts on two-wheel bogies, but Khorrami is “very confident” that concepts to suit four- or six-wheel versions can be developed using highfidelity simulation. “There is a lot of interaction between the various components of the landing gear — this this is where we did the very high-f high-fidelit idelity y simulations — but but the design procedure can be extended to any landing gear with any number of wheels,” he says. ‘Very high fidelity’ in this context
means that every brake piston, hydraulic line, and fastener is simulated in very fine detail, Khorrami adds. Because NASA has already patented some of its flap noise reduction concepts, Khorrami can be more forthcoming about them. He says Langley’s research has focused on flap tips, since this small area, where minitornados develop as a byproduct of lift, is the source of much of the flap noise. Back in 2004, NASA Langley experimented with a design concept called a continuous mold line (CML), which kept the flap tip attached to the wing so that there was no flap-tip area when the flap was extende extended d and hence the noise sources became much weaker. However, However, the CML design in volved a large flap fl ap area ar ea and a nd was not ideal for structural reasons.
FLEXSEL, ROLD, and FENoRFins Khorrami says NASA Langley is now focusing much of its noise-reduction attention on a patented design called a ‘flexible side edge link’ (FLEXSEL). This relies on an elastomeric material (Continued on page 25) AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013 21
Expanding customer base for space payloads IF
YOU LOOK BACK AT THE NUMBER
of space payloads launched (successfully or not) to Earth orbit during the past decade, the low point was in 2004, when the total was only 76. Note that by ‘payloads,’ we refer to any satellites or capsules. We also mean any distinct piece of hardware or equipment carried to the ISS during its assembly period. There were only 55 launches attempted in 2004, and four of those missions were failures — the the launch of the Telstar 8 commercial communications satellite by a Zenit 3SL rocket, the Offeq 6 military spy satellite by a Shavit 1, the Demosat instrumented dummy satellite and two military technology satellites (Ralphie and Sparky) by a Delta IV-Heavy, and the Sich-1M and Mikron civil Earth observation satellites by a Tsyklon 3. That leaves 69 payloads that actually made it to orbit in 2004: 25 civil payloads, 22 military, 19 commercial, two university, and one nonprofit. Of those, 63 were satellites and six were capsules carrying supplies or crews to the ISS. (Technically, anything that goes into an orbit is a satellite, but we prefer to differentiate between these two types of payloads.) Nearly 60% of the payloads were small (100-1,500 kg) or medium-sized (1,500-4,000 kg); 26% were large (4,000-5,500 kg), extra-large (5,5006,500 kg), or heavy (over 6,500 kg). The remaining 14% were nano/picosized (20 kg or less) or micro-sized (20-100 kg). Sixty-one percent of the
payloads were launched to LEO, 23% to geostationary (GEO), 9% to medium Earth orbit (MEO), 4% to elliptical, and 3% to deep space. The payloads were launched using 23 different types of rockets: Europe’s Ariane 5G; the U.S. Atlas IIAS, Atlas IIIA, Atlas V, Delta II, Taurus XL, and Titan 4B; Russia’s Cosmos 3M, Dnepr 1, Molniya M, Proton K, Proton M, Soyuz 2.1a, Soyuz FG, Soyuz U, Tsyklon 2, Zenit 2, and Zenit 3SL; India’s GSLV 1; and China’s Long March 2A, 2B, 2C,
over the short (2-3 years), medium (46 years), or long term (7-10 years). At the Berlin Air Show in early 2004, we released our Worldwide Mission Model: 2004-2013, listing planned payloads for that 10-year span. We were able to identify only 1,209 payp ayloads — a drop of 14% from our model in 2003, which had counted 1,410 payloads. Our 2003 model, in turn, had diminished in number from the previous year, which had listed 1,547 payloads.
and 4B. The payloads belonged to government agencies, companies, universities, or organizations from 15 different countries or regions: Argentina, 2; Canada, 2; China, 10; Europe, 2; France, 7; India, 1; Italy, 1; Japan, 2; Russia, 20; Saudi Arabia, 3; Spain, 2; Taiwan, 1; Netherlands, 4; U.K., 1; and U.S., 11.
As this column noted in 2004, “We “We peaked in 2001 when we identified 2,160 payloads proposed for launch during 2001-2010….There are just not enough new commercial satellites being proposed to make up for all those commercial satellite programs that have died of attrition during the past few years.” From 2001 through 2004, hundreds of payloads that governments and companies had been envisioning simply dropped off the radar. There was no development work w ork or financing activity of any consequence within these programs, so we opted not to factor them into either our model or our forecasts.
Market snapshot The space market, which is driven prip rimarily by the payloads market, appeared completely stagnant in 2004. Not many new satellites or capsules were being ordered. Nor were many new launch contracts awarded. In fact, in 2005, the number of launches attempted (55) was the same. Three ended in failure, leaving a total of, again, 69 payloads (62 satellites and seven capsules) sent to orbit. Clearly there was a sense of being stuck. Not only was there little in the way of new contract work; there also were relatively few new payloads being proposed for manufacture and launch
Uninterrupted growth However, in 2005, we did notice that things were starting to change a little in the market — more contracts, and — more particularly more talk about new programs. In our model that year for the period 2005-2014, we counted 1,297 payloads — a 7 % increase from the pre-
NUMBER OF PAYLOADS BY MARKET Civil Commercial Military University and nonprofit Total 22
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
74 54 36
205 142 68
156 141 94
62 130 80
38 35 54
56 32 48
39 31 24
40 43 21
36 38 16
39 43 16
745 689 457
53 217
60 475
63 454
27 299
23 150
10 146
8 102
5 109
9 99
6 104
264 2,155
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Total
NUMBER OF PAYLOADS BY ORBIT LEO GEO MEO Deep space Elliptical Total
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
Total
170 23 16 4 4 217
317 80 27 34 17 475
341 66 16 21 10 454
233 31 21 8 6 299
109 26 9 6 0 150
98 31 7 9 1 146
63 22 14 3 0 102
62 22 19 6 0 109
65 21 7 3 3 99
78 15 5 4 2 104
1,,536 1 337 33 141 98 43 2,155
vious year. This was follow followed ed by a 10.5% increase in our model for 20062015, which included 1,450 payloads.
U.S. (52), Russia (29), China (18), and European nations (19) were strong. But countries such as Egypt and the
ganizations that are becoming players in the buying and operating of space payloads is consistently growing, as is
The number of payloads proposed around the world has continued to grow without interruption ever since. Our latest model has 2,155 payloads for 2013-2022. Moreover, the number of payloads launched annually since 2006 has remained above 100. It has surpassed 110 each year, except in 2008 (105). The number of launches has been above 60 every year since 2006, and over 70 annually since 2009. So the space market has recovered since its low point in 2004, and it also has stabilized. It is not what we would characterize as a ‘booming’ market. But looking at what has occurred during the past three years, we feel there is much reason for enthusiasm and hope. For example, there are far more payload customers from many more countries than ever before. In 2010, payloads were launched for agencies, companies, universities, and organizations from 21 countries. Unsurprisingly, the numbers for the
Ivory Coast also launched payloads, as did about 43 different customers from these and other nations. In 2011, the number of countries launching payloads rose to 25. Among the most active were the U.S. (48), Russia (25), China (19), Europe (13), and India. Others included Chile, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Ukraine. About 57 diffe different rent custom customers ers from these and other countries launched payloads. In 2012, the number of countries launching payloads rose again, to 28. Europe (29), U.S. (22), Russia (22), China (21), and Japan (7) led the way, but others were also active, including Belarus, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, North Korea, South Korea, Turkey, UAE, Venezuela, and Vietnam. Some 62 customers launched payloads. The number of government agencies, companies, universities, and or-
the number of countries. In 2004, 15 countries launched payloads. Last year it was 28. In 2004, there were 32 customers that launched. Last year, there were 62. Future implications These are extremely positive trends that bode well for the industry’s future. While the number of payloads being launched each year (and their total dollar value) may not be nearly as high as what many in the 1990s had expected it to be by now, there are a lot more players in the market, and they will be buying more and more payloads every year. During the past 10 years, for example, about 225 agencies, companies, universities, and organizations in 55 countries have launched payloads to orbit. By comparison, we estimate there will be more than 350 payload customers from nearly 100 countries over the next 10 years. Our Worldwide
NUMBER OF PAYLOADS BY MASS Mass, kg <20 20>100 100>1,500 1,500>4,000 4,000>5,500 5,500>6,500 6,500> Total
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
Total
88 10
62 53
86 51
63 45
44 13
13 14
15 3
9 3
14 0
13 4
407 196
65 20 8 10 16 217
231 62 23 16 28 475
211 46 16 24 20 454
129 26 10 11 15 299
45 19 8 8 13 150
54 29 15 6 15 146
45 10 10 7 12 102
52 9 13 8 15 109
41 11 6 14 13 99
52 9 10 3 13 104
925 241 119 107 160 2,155
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013 23
NUMBER OF PAYLOADS BY CUSTOMER REGION North America Russia & CIS Europe Asia and Pacific Rim Latin America and Caribbean Africa and Middle East Total
20 13
201 4
2015
2016
2 017
20 18
201 9
2020
2021
20 22
102 35 42
183 48 121
183 76 94
141 42 71
29
77
72
7
24
2 21 7
22 475
64 29 28
56 30 31
25 31 15
30 21 23
31 26 14
38 24 9
853 362 448
30
22
21
23
27
20
25
346
18
14
5
5
6
5
4
7
95
11 454
1 299
2 1 50
3 14 6
3 109
4 99
1 10 4
51 2,155
2 102
Total
Mission Model for the period 20132022 specifically identifies 320 of these customers and 70 of these countries, and it names the 2,155 payloads that they are proposing either to build or
and India, payloads from countries recently entering the space market, and the increasing use of picosats, nanosats, and microsats by governments, civil payloads should make up at least
of these will be very small technology satellites built to increase understanding of how they can support U.S. warfighting warfi ghting and logist logistical ical requir requireements. These picosats, nanosats, and
to buy and launch. Thirty-five percent of the payloads are civil — meaning government non — meaning military. Thirty-two percent are commercial, 21% military, 12% university or nonprofit. Of the roughly 1,109 payloads launched during 2003-2012, 40% were civil, 26% commercial, 26% military, and 8% university or nonprofit. We do believe that the growth trends favor commercial and university/nonprofit payloads. In the next two or three years alone, there will be dozens of Globalstar, Iridium, and Orbcomm mobile communications replacement satellites launched to LEO, along with some 30 Galileo navigation, 20 O3b broadband communicationss satellites headed for communication MEO, and perhaps others less certain, such as the 24 Cicero meteorological satellites for LEO. There are potentially hundreds of pico-, nano-, and microsatellites from hundreds of universities — many many of which are just waiting for affordable launchers. We have identified more than 200 university satellites proposed for launch in the next five years alone. We anticipate a lot more of them 5-10 years out.
one-third of the total. We W e foresee military payloads comprising less than 20% of the market. The U.S. and Russia will continue to build and launch the vast majority of military payloads, and the U.S. in particular will increasingly employ picosats, nanosats, and microsats for imaging, communications, and technology development missions. A noteworthy program in this category is Colony 1, which calls for a const constellati ellation on of 50 3-kg technology CubeSats built by Boeing Phantom Works for surveillance and reconnaissance. Another is the Kestrel Eye system, which would consist of six 15-kg nanosats built by Andrews Space for the Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC). These are also technology development imaging satellites. Another Anoth er nanosa nanosatt progra program m for the U.S. military is ONE (Operational Nanosatellite Effect), which calls for at least 10 3-kg technology satellites for communications. These will be built by Miltec Missiles and Space for SMDC as well. DARPA is working on a system called SeeMe (Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements), which envisions six prototype and 24 operational 40-kg technology microsats for surveillance. Millennium Space Systems has been contracted on this program. Thus, while the Pentagon will perhaps be building and launching many more payloads than ever before, many
microsats may eventually find useful applications, but probably not until 10-20 years from now. We do not see other countr countries ies building and launching many dedicated military payloads. This is partly because of cost considerations and partly because of the trend toward sharing platforms with commercial and civil payloads. Another major reason is that so many military imaging and communications requirements can now be fulfilled by commercial payloads. Leasing or purchasing simply makes more sense than owning. This is certainly the case within the t he civil payloads market, notably with regard to cargo resupply and crew transport services to the ISS. If you consider solely the payloads that could go up in the next four years as a result of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, there are about 16, split evenly between SpaceX with its Dragon capsules and Orbital Sciences with its Cygnus capsules. Meanwhile, NASA will continue to lease seats for its astronauts aboard Russian Soyuz crew capsules, until a human-rated U.S. capsule — as as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability is ready to take over. That — is could be as early as 2015, but more likely will be closer to 2018-2020.
Civil vs. military payloads Civil payloads will not dominate quite so much as in past years because of public funding constraints in the U.S. and Europe. However, because of expanding national programs in China 24
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Marco Cáceres Teal Te al Group
[email protected]
Green Engineering (Continued from page 21)
that is attached to the end of the flap and stretches to keep the flap tip continuous with the wing when the flap is deployed. Unlike CML, which constituted 3540% of total flap area, the elastomeric material used by FLEXSEL represents less than 5% of the total flap area and so is potentially easier to implement structurally. To make the concept practical, Langley is still experimenting with a variety of different dif ferent elastomeric materials to find one that is not affected by altitude and will be structurally strong enough to keep working over the long term. Langley has also filed patents on two other flap noise-reduction concepts. One, called a ‘reactive orthotropic lattice diffuser,’ or ROLD, uses what Khorrami calls “a very elaborate set of interconnected holes” at the flap tip. The lattice in this design weakens noise-producing flow structures by in-
teracting with the airflow. The other NASA-patented concept, called ‘flap edge noise reduction fins’ (FENoRFins), involves using a “tight bunch” of small fins that extend from the flap tips into the passing airflow. Their spacing is key, and while the fins must be small, Khorrami says they cannot be too small, because they must be structurally strong. The FENoRFins approach is similar to the use of fine brush bristles extending from the flap tip, a concept that was investigated by European researchers but found to produce a small degradation in aerodynamic performance, he says. For ERA Phase 2, the NASA-Gulfstream partnership is expected to downselect “three or four” of its bestperforming flap noise-reduction concepts and “maybe two or three” of its best landing-gear ideas by this spring. Khorrami notes that all those chosen will “have to be practical, real-world
concepts.” While those selected for further experimentation will have to incur virtually no penalties in weight and aerodynamic performance, they will also need to be maintainable and suitable for certification. For the downselection process, NASA would have to compare all its own computer simulations and wind tunnel data at length with the flight test data gathered by Gulfstream Aerospace using the G550 flying testbed. Khorrami says that NASA wants “to flight test, at a bare minimum, from two to four concepts, no later than the fall of 2014.” The agency actually is aiming to get its favored concepts into the air a little earlier than that; Khorrami says his team is “looking at mid-to-end summer 2014” for flight testing to begin. When it does, should the flight test aircraft pass overhead, you might be surprised at how quiet it is. Chris Kjelgaard
[email protected]
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sneaks into UCAVs UAVs UA Vs are now among the most heavily demanded aircraft types in military arsenals around the world. Predictably, interest in unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) (UCAVs) is also on the rise. In an increasingly dangerous threat environment, it is likely inevitable that stealth, a feature now widely used in manned combat aircraft, will find its way into UCAVs as well.
hen DARPA officials began looking into stealth technology in the mid-1970s, they did so without the support of the nation’s military aviation leaders,
UAVs — while still not universally supported by the DOD — began began a new life as well. After September 11, 2001, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq saw more advanced UAVs UAVs in widespread widesprea d use use as intellige intelligence, nce, surveilla surveillance, nce,
who value in aand technology techno logy that mightsaw limitno other design capability factors they considered vital at the time. That also was true with the agency’s UAV UA V research, which interested the services even less. But when the F-117 Nighthawk entered service in the 1980s as the world’s first stealth combat aircraft, the military view of that technology began to change. The subsequent development of the larger B-2 Spirit stealth bomber cemented the technology as a ‘must have’ for future aircraft. Indeed, it has become one of the defining elements of fifth-generation fighters, currently limited to
and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms. in late 2001, their role in combat took aBut major leap with the introduction of an MQ-1 Predator armed with Hellfire missiles. Since then UAVs have evolved into one of the most widely used and heavily demanded aircraft types in the U.S. arsenal — — and in the militaries of more than 50 other nations. With that growth, a new concept has also gained support: the unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV). Technically any weaponized UAV might be identified as a UCAV; UCAV; however, the term generally gener ally means a next-generat next-generation ion platform, platform, designed designed from the start to be armed and capable of per-
W
the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. Born for combat
by J.R. Wilson Contributing writer 28
With the successful use of the U.S./Israelideveloped Pioneer UAV UAV as an aerial spotter during Operation Desert Storm in 1991,
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
forming the missions of a manned jet fighter orall b omber. bomber. Both the Air Force and Navy have had research programs to build and test UCAV prototypes. Others focused on the concept of operations (CONOPs) for such aircraft,
Copyright ©2013 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
An X-47B is hoisted aboa rd the carrier USS Harry S. Truman during during carrier tests. Photo courtesy Northrop Grumman.
either removing pilots on extremely highrisk missions or flying UCAVs in concert with (and controlled from) manned aircraft. UCAVs, along with stealthy ISR platforms, also have found a key place in the Penta-
Col. Chris Coombs headed the Medium Altitude UAS Division Division at the the USAF USAF AeronauAeronautical Systems Center before it was deacti vated at Wright Patterson AFB in 2012. He agrees that while there were no stealth re-
gon’s new ‘air/sea battle’ concept, designed to improve joint operations in ‘antiaccess/ area-denial’ (A2/AD) environments.
quirements on theinPredator or Reaper UAVs used so heavily southwest Asia, that is likely to change. “It is definitely an area of consideration as you get out into the 2020 timeframe when looking at what kinds of targets you may have to address then,” he says. “If you think about the kinds of missions manned — the aircraft have gone against previously the F-117 and F-22 — the the reason for stealth is to get into high-value targets deep in enemy territory, typically protected by great radar
Changing requirements With all legacy Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps fighters being replaced by fifth-gen — the eration stealth aircraft — the USAF F-22 and multiservice/international F-35 — it it is only logical that future UCAVs be stealthy as well. “It’s a requirements issue,” UAV analyst Steve Zaloga of The Teal Group tells Aero- space America . “The first-generation [aircraft] have been operating in a permissive air defense environment, but the services
have to prepare in thea future to deal with an enemy force with more sophisticated capability. And in that case, the current systems would be inadequate….What the future battlespace will look like,” he says, “is a judgment call at the highest level.”
The successful use of Pioneers during Desert Storm set the stage for the use of UAVs UAVs to flourish. USN photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Daniel J. McLain.
and unconstrained by pilot physiology offers a significant boost in carrier combat capability,” according to a 2008 study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), a defense and national security think tank based in Washington, D.C. What may have have been been considered considered a useful advantage in 2008, however, became a
systems. The same requirements that apply for manned also apply for UAVs or UCAVs
necessity by 2012, says CSBA analyst Mark Gunzinger, a retired Air Force colonel and former staff member of the National Security Council. “We think the world is becoming increasingly nonpermissive for military operations — air, air, space, sea, undersea, and a nd on the ground. If that trend continues, we’re going to have to move toward capabilities that can operate in all those domains against those kinds of threats,” Gunzinger says. Those comments reinforced findings in his 2010 CSBA study, Sustaining America’s Strategic Advantage in Long-Range Strike : “Antiaccess/area-denial networks like the
for deep reconnaissance and deep strike. “Right now, no defined CONOPs have been given to us to address SEAD [suppression of enemy air defenses] or manned aircraft accompaniment. However, the Air Force plan developed a couple of years ago ag o talked about a future situation where UAVs accompany manned aircraft, providing the ability to carry additional weapons loads. Or stealth UAVs could go in for the initial deep strike and then report back to the manned aircraft to attack other targets or follow up. up. So in terms of where we want to go, it’s considered, but not currently being implemented,” says Coombs.
one being developed by the PRC and other states with the resources to buy advanced military systems will likely pose unacceptably high risks to U.S. Navy surface forces and compel them to operate initially as far as 1,000 n.mi. or more from an adversary’s coastline. This suggests the need for a carrier-based aircraft with a range that is at least two to three times that of the F/A18E/F or F-35C if carriers are to contribute meaningful strike capacity at the outset of future operations. “Moreover,, land- and sea-based aircraft “Moreover penetrating dense, sophisticated integrated air defenses will require all-aspect, broad-
This U.S. Sentinel drone is seen operating from an unknown base.
Whether be ofdeep greater greate r value to futurestealth UAVs would UAVs performing ISR or those tasked with strike missions is difficult to judge, based on current operations, he adds. This is because current Predators do both, sometimes switching from ISR to strike in midmission. The Air Force has already used at least one stealthy UAV — the the RQ-170 Sentinel, built by the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. This large ISR platform, sometimes called the ‘beast of Kandahar Kandahar,’ ,’ reportedly began flights in southwest Asia in 2011. Range is key
Stealthy UAVs come with a requirement foralmost longer always range capability than the manned aircraft whose missions, both ISR and attack, they are intended to perform. “A carrier-based UCAV with an unrefueled combat radius of 1,500 n.mi. or more 30 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
band low-observable Finally, hedging against thecharacteristics. loss of vulnerable C4ISR battle networks will require strike platforms to be capable of operating effectively independent of these networks. Simply put, the combination of range, persistence, stealth and independence of action will likely be the sine qua qua non for effective strike operations over the coming decades.” But Chinese antiship missiles that could force even the Navy’s new Ford-class aircraft carrier to remain outside manned aircraft range from an enemy coastline are not the only problem. Iranian cruise missiles, smart mines, and swarms of fast-attack boats alsoofare theand fleetnarrow in the confines thethreatening Persian Gulf Strait of Hormuz. Those, too, strengthen the concept of creating fleets of carrier-based long-range stealth UAVs and UCAVs, Gunzinger believes.
Navy and Air Force plans
Both the Navy and Air Force have had plans in motion for fo r a stealth UCAV to meet those evolving demands. Although the Air Force canceled its X-45 UCAV as part of the Joint UCAS progr program am in 2006, offi officially cially to concentrate on a long-range strike bomber, the general consensus is they actually moved it into the ‘black’ budget, where both the F-117 and B-2 were developed. The Navy, however, has stayed public with its X-47B, a Northrop Grumman-built ‘bat wing’ UAV UAV that was also also part of J-UCAS, J-UCAS, under a replacement UCAS-D (carrier demonstration) program. The X-47B completed carrier deck handling tests in late 2012 and is scheduled to make its first carrier launch and recovery at sea this year — the the first by any UAV of its type — from from the USS George H.W. Bush. Autonomous aerial refueling demonstrations are scheduled for 2014. The Navy’s follow-up to UCAS-D is the
A captured beast In December of 2011, Iran announced that a Sentinel the USAF said was patrolling the Afghan-Iranian border had been captured while violating Iranian airspace. After the aircraft was dis played on Iranian state television, the White House issued a formal request for its return. Iran refused, instead saying it would send President Pr esident Obama a 1/80th pink scale model. Although Iran claimed to have jammed jammed the UAV’s GPS guidance system and taken control of the vehicle, U.S. experts dismissed that as an unlikely assertion, one that demonstrated a lack of knowledge of the platform’s actual operations. Tehran also claimed to have broken the UAV’ UAV’ss encryption codes, extracted extr acted information from its final surveillance mission, and reverse-engineered the aircraft to build its own line of stealth UAVs. However, However, the actual extent of Iran’s ability to replicate the UAV’ UAV’ss advanced technology — o r produce any of the other next-generation platforms it has claimed to be —or developing— is is debatable.
“There will be strike capability as part of this solicitation. The specifics will be in
unmanned veillance andcarrier-launched strike (UCLASS) strike (UCLASS) airborne aircraft, a surcarcarrier-based stealth UAV UAV capable of both persistent ISR and light strike. To combine the best evolving technologies with rapidly changing threat and mission requirements, says the Navy, the UCLASS will be developed using the ‘spiral’ concept. This approach entails implementing the system’s various capabilities in multiple steps rather than waiting to field a single version that delivers everything the service wants. The Air Force has indicated it will base its own next-generation UCAV on the initial UCLASS capabilities document and has as-
the trade space,” heSystems told the International. Association for Unmanned Vehicle “I will tell tell you that, from a munitions munitions perspecperspective, it will be something that’s already been certified…that is carried in our magazines on our aircraft carriers. There is no new weapons development program associated with UCLASS, and that strike capability will be organic to the UCLASS system.”
signed Air Force to the Navy programanoffice. That observer would seem in keeping with the two services’ efforts to solidify the air/sea battle plan. However, even as the Navy vowed to issue a request for proposals to launch competition for the UCLASS this year, internal debate continues over design priorities — stealth, stealth, endurance, payload, maneuverability. At a UAV UAV conference held in February, Rear Adm. Mathias Winter, the Navy’s program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons, explained that UCLASS development will not include any new weapons. He indicated that talks are
Lockheed its preliminary concept, the SeaMartin Ghost,says “leverages [our] experience with the RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aircraft system, the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter, and other Navy program technologies [to provide the Navy] with a versatile and supportable carrier-based unmanned aircraft solution with capability growth margins” to meet future threats.
UCLASS candidates
At least four leadin leading g U.S. UA UAV V build builders ers — Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and General Atomics — are are expected to compete for the UCLASS contract.
The Navy and Northrop Grumman completed the first shore-based trials of a wireless, handheld controller for X-47B carrier deck operations.
under waycontractors with both fleet and defense as commanders to which strike weapons the aircraft should carry and how best to integrate those weapons with other systems and capabilities, presumably including stealth. AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013 31
A2/AD + A Air/Sea ir/Sea Battle = QDR 2014 Overhaul? On February 26, the House Armed Services Committee’s oversight and investigations subcommittee heard testimony from CSBA vice president Jim Thomas, who served as a deputy assistant assistant secretary of defense in both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. Thomas called for a reassessment of defense spending in the 2014 Quarterly Defense Review (QDR), based in
campaigns against terrorists, WMD [weapons of mass destruction] powers, and adversaries possessing robust antiaccess networks,” he testified, adding that those, along with enhanced special operations ope rations forces, “should become more central in the American military, military, especially in an era of declining resources.” Accomplishing that, Thomas said, will require that
part “The on the growi growing ng A2/AD threat. key security challenges we face and the priority missions outlined in the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance place a premium, in particular, particular, on highly distributed, autonomous, and low-signature forces capable of operating independently, far forward in denied areas,” he told the subcommittee. “Such forces and capabilities will need to be far less dependent on vulnerable forward bases but vastly more effective operating in nonpermissive environments where adversaries will contest our air forces, jam our communications, and blind our sensors and command and control.” To ensure the nation’s ability to project force into A2/AD areas, and to deal with future future nonstate threats ranging from terrorists to pirates, DOD’s highest capability priorities must include “land- and sea-based longrange, air-refuelable, unmanned stealth aircraft for surveillance, kinetic strike, and nonkinetic electronic attack,” said Thomas. “Combinations of such access-insensitive forces and capabilities are likely to be the spearhead of future
Defense Chuck Joint Chiefs agree onSecretary major trades upHagel front,and thenthe address the most pressing security challenges— rather rather than trying to define a single defense strategy — a nd aggressively rebal—and ance America’s military capabilities portfolio, including an increased reliance on unmanned stealth. “Given both the fiscal and external security challenges facing the nation, the upcoming QDR could be the most consequential of the last two decades. However, a ‘business as usual’ approach in the QDR is unlikely to lead to the major changes in our forces and ca pabilities that are needed,” he concluded. The review “will need to prioritize those capabilities that perform best in contested operating environments, while divesting those that depend on relatively benign operating conditions. “Finally,” said Thomas, “it is worth bearing in mind that the upcoming QDR will have ha ve far less margin for error than previous reviews. Given the bleak fiscal outlook, we will likely be stuck with the force that results from the upcoming review for decades to come, for better or worse.”
Northrop Grumman is expected to offer an enhanced version of its X-47B, which has drawn on lessons learned over the past year from from its carrier landing landing and and other other flight flight tests. That test program, says the company, clearly indicates the Navy plans to have unmanned craft aboard carriers in the future. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ candidate is a version of the USAF Avenger (formerly Predator C).production, Drawing onand nearly two decades of R&D, op-
The Sea Ghost would build upon lessons from the RQ-170. 32 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
erating experience with the Predator and Reaper, GA believes the Sea Avenger has demonstrated many of the Navy’s requirements, although no previous version of the Predator included stealth. Boeing is expected to offer a modified version of the X-45 Phantom Ray it designed for the UCAS-D competition (won by Northrop Grumman). Although drawing from previous designs, thisofficials will be aindicate. unique new platform, company They are strategically vague about details. While the UCLASS — and, and, by extension, the Air Force adaptation — has has slipped by about two years, the Navy has seemed confident it would begin moving forward this year. However However,, at an industry industry conference in December 2012, DOD’s deputy director for unmanned warfare, Dyke Weatherington, said he expected procurement of new UAVs to be slowed in coming austerity budgets. “I do think the preponderance of what we see in the near future is improvements to current capabilities rather than a whole lot of new programs,” programs,” he said. said. Research and technology visions Nonetheless, just as manned stealth aircraft and UAVs slowly evolved from uninteresting to indispensable, combining the two
32 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Boeing may offer a modified version of its X-45A for the UCLASS competition.
technologies for the future military air fleet has developed a sense of inevitability. The Office of Naval Research’s current Naval Science and Technology Strategic Plan outlines both the strategic drivers and
by the Chinese firm AVIC. In some ways, these unmanned combat planes represent traditional advances in weapons tech: They are designed to fly faster and farther than our current generation of strike drones and
vision for the future of Navy UA UAVs Vs and UCAVs — an an integrated hybrid force of unmanned and manned systems with enhanced C4ISR capabilities. “Increased proliferation of inexpensive lethal threats targeting individual warfighters and high-value assets, combined with continued rapid advances in computing, power and energy, robotics, sensors, and position guidance technologies drives the requirement to augment expensive manned systems with less expensive, unmanned, fully autonomous systems that can operate in all required domains,” says the ONR plan. “Central to achieving that vision is the
to better evade enemy defenses,” he wrote. “But these planes are also very different than their predecessors: They are smarter and more autonomous. They are designed to take off and land on their own, fly mission sets on their own, refuel in the air on their own, and penetrate enemy air defenses on their own. The Taranis even has modules designed to allow it to select its own targets.” Another March report on China’s UAV programs by Project 2049 Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank with an Asian focus, described the emphasis the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) places on becoming
developmen development of a distributed system of heterogeneous tunmanned systems relying on networkcentric, decentralized control that is flexible in its level of autonomy, with the ability to get the right level of information to the right echelon at the right time. This may include defeating asymmetric and emerging threats via persistent and stealthy distributed large-area presence, stimulation of suspect entities, and disruption and deception of potential hostiles.” In a Foreign Policy online article in March, Peter W. Singer, director of Brookings Institution’s 21st-Century Defense Initiative, analyzed the global effort to bring
a leading power. “UAVUAV systems may emerge as the critical enabler for PLA long-range precision strike missions within a 3,000-km radius of Chinese shores. Emphasis on reducing the radar cross-section of new UAV designs indicates an intent to survive in contested or denied airspace,” the institute noted. “The ultimate goal of combined UAV and missile campaigns would be to penetrate otherwise robust defense networks through tightly coordinated operations planned to optimize the probability of overwhelming targets.” In short, even as friends and foes challenge U.S. domination of ‘traditional’ UAVs,
stealth UCAVs into future Grumman’s air combat X-47 missions: “Consider Northrop UCAS, a jet-powered, stealthy plane testing out in Maryland right now; or the Taranis, being tested in Australia by BAE; or the Blue Shark, rumored to be in development
the rest of the to world may generat be far ion closer when it comes the next generation of unmanned stealth aircraft. This in turn puts even greater pressure on the DOD, Congress, and the administration to respond, even as defense budgets grow tighter.
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013 33
Next year, in a dramatic flyoff at Marine Corps Base Quantico, two unmanned helicopters will demonstrate new navigation packages featuring advanced sensors, processors, and algorithms from two competing UAV UAV manufacturers. These technologies may soon enable such aircraft to rescue troops from battle zones, or civilians from disaster areas, without putting pilots at risk.
Upgraded unmanned helicopters
face off The Navy conducted a successful five-day Quick Reaction Assessment in Arizona to prove the K-MAX helicopter’s cargo-carrying capability in conditions similar to those it will experience in Afghanistan.
ost unmanned aircraft engineers cringe at the word ‘drone.’ ‘drone.’ It has politpolitical freight because of current strikes, and it also implies a lack missile of technical sophistication. The problem for critics is that it remains an apt term for how today’s UAVs are operated. The Predators and Reapers flown over Afghanistan and Africa are controlled by joystick when the situation heats up, but most of the time they fly from one waypoint to the next while operators in ground control stations — often often former fighter pilots — struggle struggle not to yawn. The brains are not in the planes; they are on the ground. Between now and February 2014, engineers at Aurora Flight Sciences in Manassas, Virginia, and Martin Owego, New York, York, willLockheed be preparing for in a dramatic robotic helicopter flyoff that could soon make the word drone a misnomer. Under an Office of Naval Research (ONR) program called AACUS (autonomous
34
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Copyright ©2013 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Unmanned Little Bird successfully performed 14 autonomous takeoffs and landings from a ship during flight tests in July 2012.
aerial cargo utility system), Aurora and Lockheed are designing competing kits of sensors, processors, and algorithms for installation on existing optionally piloted hel-
to have a live webcam stream from the cockpit so everyone can see that the safety pilot is not touching the controls.
where the powe where powerr line liness and towe towers rs are ver very y real. Lots of VIPs will be on hand, and a Marine Corps general yet to be named will direct the helicopter using a tablet or smartphone. “It promises to be the next-best thing to NASCAR,” says Mary ‘Missy’ Cummings, an MIT professor and former Navy F-18 pilot
is onto assemble the The contractorsThe arerace starting mix of sensors, software, and algorithms they will need to install on their helicopters. They are still debating many key decisions, including which sensors are necessary for the flyoff and which can wait until later phases of the five-year, roughly $98million program. Arguably Arguab ly the bigge biggest st chal challenge lenge is the software, which must interpret the sensor data and figure out how to react to dynamic situations. “Essentially, we’re mimicking responses that typically an operator would have...and then embedding them in the
who on assignment to ONR ON R as the propr ogram is manager. She is only half joking. Cummings, who has appeared on national TV shows, understands how to employ the media better than most program managers: She wants
code,” says Jon McMillen, manager Lockheed tin’s business development forMarunmanned systems. ONR has awarded $28 million in contracts for the flyoff phase. Aurora will receive $13.4 million, Lockheed $13.5 million.
icopters. W eighing no moreincluding than 30 power lb, the kits must Weighing sense obstacles, lines and towers, and figure out how to steer around them for a landing less than a meter from a predesignated landing spot. Just in case thin things gs go badly badly,, a safe safety ty pilo pilott will be aboard each helicopter during the flyoff at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia,
by Ben Iannotta Contributing writer
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013 35
ONR also has small contracts with the Army Aeroflight Aerof lightdynami dynamics cs Direc Directorate torate at Ames and JPL to provide technical advice to the competitors. The winner will stay on to install its navigation package onto a completely different model of helicopter, a test version versio n of the UH-60 Blac Black k Hawk calle called d RASCAL (rotorcraft aircrew systems con-
be the first step toward figuring out what an operational version of the navigation system should include.
cepts airborne laboratory). That demo will happen in California, 11 months after the Quantico flyoff. Eleven months, particularly for a risky R&D project, is a very short timeframe in which to provide essentially essentially the same same capability on a completely new aircraft, notes Cummings. The Navy, which is leading this program on behalf of the Marine Corps, wants a modular system that can be installed on all sorts of vertical takeoff and landing planes, possibly including V-22 tilt-rotors. One task for the contractors will be to figure out where the sensors and processors
mid-2000s by Kaman Aerospace and Lockheed. Two of them are in Afghanistan delivering supplies to troops in the field. The goods are packed in cargo nets and dangled by long-line tethers — K-MAX K-MAX does not have to land in difficult settings; it can just drop its cargo and return to base. It has great payload lifting power, though. It can carry 6,000 lb at sea level, and 4,313 lb at a 15,000-ft density altitude; the latter is an aviation term describing the thinness of the air in high-altitude regions like Afghanistan, where flights just a few hundred feet above the ground mean flying thousands of feet above sea level. At some
should be installed on multiple aircraft. If AACUS succeeds, a Marine without any aviation training could tap on a tablet or smartphone in the midst of a firefight and tell an autonomous helicopter to deliver ammunition or evacuate the wounded. There would be no one on the ground with a joystick, and no need to send other Marines scrambling over foot trails or onto roads that could be laced with improvised explosive devices. “Whether it’s a resupply mission or a casualty evacuation, we see a real game
point, the air gets so thin that a helicopter with too heavy a load would have to turn its rotor blades impossibly fast to maintain lift. AACUS calls for an altitude density of 12,000 ft, which K-MAX easily meets. K-MAX helicopters have flown many unmanned missions in Afghanistan since 2007. They perform well but do not yet have the computing power or autonomy ONR wants for the flyoff. They fly predetermined routes that are loaded into onboard computers ahead of time: “There’s a certain flight path that you’re going to fly. There’s a certain landing zone, and everything is known throughout — — what’ss going to hap what’
changer helicopters go into settings by thathaving are very risky forthat humans,” Cummings says. “The goal is to enable the sensing to do both obstacle avoidance and landing zone detection onboard the helicopter with no human in the loop.” The five-year program is meant to get the technology ready for the real world. An autonomous helicopter would have to figure out where to land amid boulders and moving objects like trucks and people. It might need to distinguish hard ground from soft marl that could swallow its skids or wheels and keep keep it from taking off again. It would need to see through dust kicked up
pen, and how the system’s going to react,” says McMillen. Lockheed calls its autonomous navigation package OPTIMUS (open-architecture planning and trajectory intelligence for managing unmanned systems). “We’ll leverage everything we have from K-MAX, with the goal of having something built in an openarchitecture way that can really be poured into many platforms,” McMillen says. Aurora Flight Sciences has no shortage of experience building unmanned aircraft, but most are fixed-wing planes: the optionally piloted Centaur, the experimental longendurance Orion, and the hand-launched
by its rotor blades, and any rain orallsnow nature throws at it. Accomplishing that will requi require re a mix of electr electrooptic ooptical al video cameras, radars, and lidars, plus onboard algorithms to turn those perceptions into wise autonomous decisions. The demo will
Skate. company also made thearmed composite The airframe for Sikorsky’s S-97 scout demonstrator helicopter. Auroraa chose to team with Boein Auror Boeing, g, maker of the H-6U Unmanned Little Bird helicopter. Little Birds were first designed in
Fly-by-app
“Every time this aircraft delivers a payload, we’re taking one more truck off the road,” says Cpl. Ryan Venem, detachment aerial vehicle operator.
The helicopters
Lockheed plans to install its system onto a K-MAX helicopter, specifically the 1,800-lb optionally piloted variant created in the
36 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
1958 by Hughes Aircraft (now Boeing Rotorcraft Systems) as light reconnaissance vehicles. Despite the word ‘Unmanned’ in the newest version’s name, it is actually an optionally piloted craft that can be flown by two pilots, one pilot, or a ground operator. Unlike K-MAX, the Unmanned Little Bird has not seen much real-world action
says Cummings, plus the power lines and even some water. And, of course, a safety pilot ready to take control if necessary. Having a nonexpert direct the aircraft introduces a variable that is absent from most demonstrations — especially especially one with millions of dollars in additional funding at stake. “That’s just something we’ll have to
and often flies with a safety pilot. It made its maiden flight in 2004 and its first unmanned flight in 2006. It is used mainly to test unmanned aircraft concepts of operations, according to Boeing. Last year it took off and landed from a moving ship in a series of demonstrations. Auroraa exudes conf Auror confidence idence about its choice, given the flyoff criteria listed in the broad agency announcement Cummings released back in November 2011: The aircraft must be able to carry 1,600-5,000 lb while traveling at speeds between 110 kt and 250 kt, in an altitude density of 12,000 ft. “We went through a fairly involved
deal with, and it does interject an interesting element into the overall program; we’re looking forward to it,” says Wissler. The Marines are not the only government entity that operates in rugged, hostile terrain. JPL engineers are working to improve the precision of the next Mars landings or new missions to asteroids. The technologies overlap so much that ONR structured the program for each flyoff contractor to work with with a separate team of JPL engineers. The JPL teams have been testing relative terrain navigation algorithms for rapidly
source selection and evaluated a number of different aircraft from a [perspective of] feasibility, risk, performance, and the experience of whoever owned the airplane,” says John Wissler, AACUS program manager at Aurora. “The Boeing Unmanned Little Bird was the one that fit what wh at we’re trying to do.” One of the goals is modularity, so both contractors will have to design their equipment to be compatible with multiple airframes. Aurora plans to tuck the processor behind the two pilot seats of the Little Bird. For other aircraft there are different possibilities; Cummings says one would be to at-
crunching data into flight control decisions. Close to the ground, lidars would bounce lasers off the surface to find obstacles in three dimensions. Cummings expects lidar to be among the core technologies in the AACUS sensor suites, too. Learning about the state of the art of lidars and their limits is a top goal. go al. “Some lidars do better at looking through dust,” Cummings says. “One of the things that we’re trying to assess is just how well can they — and and I’m doing air quotes — see through dust and rain and weather.” She does not think lidar alone will be the answer, although settling that question
tach the equipment to a strut. Lockheed not said for sure where it will install has its processor. The sensors would most likely be on the noses of Little Bird and K-MAX, because they need to have good views of the ground and the air ahead. The big test will come in the Quantico flyoff. Remember that Marine Corps general? Cummings wants him or her to have no aviation background. The person calling for the helicopter will use a ‘telestrator’ to trace where the aircr aircraft aft shoul should d and shoul should d not fly, along with some preferred approaches. The flight is meant to be challenging
will saved laterit’s phases the have program.be“At someforpoint likely ofwe’ll to integrate some kind of millimeter wave radar to be able to see through dust or particulates,” she says. Figuring out the exact mix of sensors for an operational helicopter is not the goal of the flyoff phase. “The focus here for the first 18 months is really developing the enabling technologies,” says McMillen. In fact, picking a technology too soon would be a big mistake, in his view. “As we get further down the path and later in the program, a lot of these technologies that we’re looking at — sensors — will be smaller, with much bet — sensors
for helicopters, for the general. Boththe vehicles will do not the calculating based on supervisory-level directions from the general. “There’s a big tower, actually several towers that they’re going to have to avoid,”
ter capability, so you hate he to says. limit yourself to one form factor today,”
Inspired by Mars
Long-term implications
The program’s ultimate goal would be an autonomous casualty evacuation helicopter
Boeing’s Unmanned Little Bird will demonstrate Aurora’s navigation package in the flyoff.
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013 37
K-MAX features Kaman’s high-altitude, heavy-lift K-1200 airframe and Lockheed Martin’s mission management and control systems.
that could be flown into battle zones or into civilian areas after earthquakes, tsunamis, or other disasters. Aside from the techni technical cal challe challenges, nges, these aircraft would test the human psyche. People instinctively want the person in charge of an aircraft to be physically present. Human factor experts call this shared
compete for AACUS in 2011, it described its goals in terms pulled directly from Marines’ experience in Afghanistan. There was an urgent need to resupply remote combat outposts, and to reach out hundreds of miles from large forward operations bases, without witho ut riski risking ng ambush ambushes es or improvi improvised sed explosive devices by taking land routes.
fate. Attitudes toward robotic vehicles are evolving, however, and reactions can be surprising. Cummings says Marines generally feel okay about putting a wounded comrade on a robotic helicopter with no one else onboard if that’s the only way to get them help within the golden hour. But if you suggest putting the wounded on a robotic helicopter occupied by a medic, some Marines back-pedal and feel uncomfortable, for reasons that are not entirely clear. This is not a problem for the Marines, because their casualty evacuation helicopters do not carry medics, Cummings notes. The bottom line is that attitudes are chang-
Cummings does not expect the AACUS technology will be ready in time to help in Afghanistan Afghan istan,, given the U.S. plan to pull combat troops out by the end of 2014. The first spinoff probably will be the modular sensors and processors. Those could be added to existing, traditionally piloted airplanes to enable pilots to steer through ex — ‘degraded treme weather or dust — ‘degraded visual en vironments’ viron ments’ (DVEs) in aviati aviation on parla parlance. nce. Lidars and millimeter wave radars obviously can sense things humans cannot. “The Marine Corps is losing $66 million a year in aircraft crashes in these DVE conditions, so we consider this an urgent, ur-
ing: “Lots of us have ridden a train with no engineer!,” she adds by email. When all this can happen is an open question. When ONR invited the industry to
gent need,” Cummings says. “I would say that within a few years that could definitely make its way to some field. I’m not sure where we’ll be in the next few years.” years.”
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38 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Fundamentals of Aircraft and Airship Design, Volume 2 – Airship Design and Case Studies Grant E. Carichner and Leland M. Nicolai April 2013, 984 pages, Hardback ISBN: 97 8-1-60086-898-6 List Price: $119.95
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About the Book
Fundamentals of Aircraft and Airship Design, Volume Volume 2 —Airship Design and Case Studies examines a modern conceptual design of both airships and hybrids and features nine behind-the-scenes case studies. It will benefit graduate and upper -level undergraduate students as well as practicing engineers. The authors address the conceptual design phase comprehensively comprehensively,, for both civil and military airships, from initial consideration of user needs, material selection, and structural arrangement to the decision to iterate the design one more time. The book is is the only available source of design instruction on single -lobe airships, multiple-lobe hybrid airships, and balloon configurations; on solar - and gasoline-powered airship systems, human-powered aircraft, and no-power aircraft; and on estimates of airship/hybrid aerodynamics, performance, propeller selection, S&C, and empty weight. The book features features numerous examples, including designs for airships, hybrid airships, and a high-altitude balloon; nine case studies, including SR-7 1, 1, X-35B, B-777 , HondaJet, H ybrid Airship, Daedalus, Cessna 17 2, 2, T-46A, and hang gliders; and full -color photographs of many airships and aircraft. About the Authors
year career at the Lock heed heed GRANT E. CARICHNER’S 48- year Martin Sk un unk Wor Wor k ks includes wor k k on on SR-7 1, 1, M-21, L -1011 TSupersonic ransport, Blac k ASTOVL, ASTOVL, JASS M missile, stealth targets, Platform, ISIS high airship, and hybridQuiet airships. -altitude He was named “Inventor of the Y ear” in 1999 for the JASSM missile vehicle patent. He also holds design patents for hybrid airship configurations. He is an AIAA Associate Fellow. LELAND M. NICOLAI received
his aerospace engineering degrees from the University of Wa Washington shington (BS), the University of Ok lahoma lahoma (MS), and the University of Michigan (PhD). His aircraft design experience includes 23 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a Colonel, and 32 years in industry. He is an AIAA Fellow and recipient of the AIAA Aircraft Design Award and the Lock heed heed heed Martin Aero Star President ’s Award. He is currently a Loc k heed unk Wor Wor k s . Martin Fellow at the Sk un ks.
““Leland Nicolai and Grant Carichner have ssucceeded in providing a cutting-edge two volume aircraft design text and reference vo aaddressing probably the most productive modes oof air transportation: fixed- wing wing aircraft and the promising low -speed hybrid cargo airship.” pr – Dr Dr.. Bernd Chudoba, The University of Texas at Arlington “This volume combines science and engineering “T covering the steps required to achieve a co successful airship design. It represents an eexcellent effort to consider every aspect of the ddesign process.” – Norman Mayer Mayer,, LTA Consultant, AIAA Associate Fellow and Lifetime Member “Carichner and Nicolai have created the definitive wor k on modern airship design k on containing many techniques, ideas, and lessons learned never before published. In addition, t they have collected a set of case studies that will wi i enable tomorrow ’s designers to learn from the experience of many who have gone before th them.” th – Dr. Rob McDonald, California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo
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Gaining
Environmentalists and others have raised concerns about contrails, the long emission traces formed in the wake of jet aircraft. Pollution effects are not the only issue; these benign-looking trails alert enemies to the presence of warplanes. Under NASA’s ACCESS program, resea researchers rchers are taking taki ng a closer look at these emissions and flight testing alternative fuels to minimize their adverse impacts.
F
or over half a century, the skies over the U.S., Europe, and much of the rest of the world have been crisscrossed daily by aircraft contrails — the the white residue from military and commercial jet engine emissions. Environmentalists view these seemingly benign lines as pollution of the atmosphere. Military planners see them as a potential danger that reveals to an enemy not just the presence but also the location of warplanes, from from fighters fighters to transports. transports. — Langley In March, threeinNASA in Virginia, Glenn Ohio,centers and Dryden in California — moved moved research in this area another step forward with the first flight test segment of a project called ACCESS (alternative fuel effects on contrails and cruise
40
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
Copyright ©2013 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Exhaust contrails streaming from the engines of NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory are captured by an HU-25 Falcon flying in trail about 300 ft behind the DC-8. Instruments on the Falcon were measuring the chemical contents of the exhaust contrails at varying distances from the DC-8, which was using both standard JP-8 fuel and a mix of JP-8 and ajet plant-derived biofuel. NASA/Eddie Winstead.
ACCESS ACCESS to contrails’ secrets emissions). These efforts built on ACCESS ground tests conducted in 2012, along with previous NASA emissions experiments. “All of these, including the ground tests, have been very collaborative efforts,” says Dan Bulzan, technical lead on the clean power subproject under which ACCESS is run within NASA’s Fundamental Aeronautics Program. “In the ground g round testing, we sent researchers out to help perform some of the particle and gas phase measurements.
clean power subproject, which is part of the fixed wing project at Glenn.” Bruce Anderson, ACCESS project scientist at Langley, says that the specific roles and contributions of each NASA center in ACCESS 1 will continue in follow-up experiments. These cover a range of areas, from fuel blends used in the agency’s DC-8 flying lab to its instrumented HU-25 Falcon chase aircraft. “The fixed-wing [project] at Glenn is continuing lab tests on alternative fuels. My
[Glenn] don’t flight testing, so our “We role at Dryden wasdo a lot more limited, primarily making sure we purchased the right fuels, had [the fuel] properly blended and then sent out for analysis. All of the activities at Langley and Dryden are under the
group at Langley looks at instruments and flight plans, and the Research Directorate, which operates operates the Falcon, does the aircraft aircraft modifications and certifications.” He says that the latter area “was important, because we had to cut some holes in the airplane.”
by J.R. Wilson Contributing writer
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
41
The HU-25C Guardian Falcon arrives at NASA Langley in November 2011. Courtesy NASA/Sean Smith.
Dryden, he says, owns and operates the DC-8 and is responsible for the flight tests.
Staging from Dryden’s Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, the ACCESS
ACCESS is the most in-depth study to date of how alternative jet fuels may affect engine emissions and the formation of contrails. “NASA has a program to assess alternative fuels, but there was very little information on the emissions from a jet engine — detailed detailed information modelers need to predict local area impacts,” Anderson says. “We had used the DC-8 on previous experiments, and when ACCESS came along, it was one of the few aircraft in the NASA fleet that had commercial links. So we used used it in 2009 to study fuels made made from
flights took place in restricted airspace over colocated Edwards AFB. With its four CFM56 engines burning the camelina-based hybrid, the DC-8 flew a circular pattern at altitudes up to 40,000 ft while the Falcon trailed at distances from 300 ft to over 10 mi., its instruments ‘sniffing’ the larger jet’s emissions, including its contrail. “The overarching objective is to examine the effects of blended alternative fuels on aircraft emissions in flight. We’ve done a number of ground tests. We know burning pure alternative fuel results in a significant reduction in particle emissions, but only 50/50 blends have been approved for
coal, and another [made] from natural gas. “But NASA really wants to study renewable fuels. Fischer-Tropsch (FT) fuels add to the CO2 burden in the atmosphere, so the emphasis is on using feedstocks that can be grown and harvested. The experiment in 2011 focused on those fuels, using beef tallow. The most recent [ACCESS] tests used camelina oil.” The FT process was developed in Germany in the early 1900s as a way to produce liquid fuels, such as diesel, from coal. It uses a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen as a synthesis gas that then is converted into hydrocarbons using a cata-
flight. That’s primarily because the aircraft fuel systems will leak if we load pure alternative fuel on the aircraft,” says Anderson. “In the long term, we hope [to have] these fuels in general use. The cost is coming down, and as petroleum sources become fewer and more expensive, these substitute fuels will become more important. “We’re just a small part of the big picture. A number of federal agencies are collaborating to promote the development of these alternative fuels, both to clean up the atmosphere and to make our country more energy independent. That includes looking at the different crops suitable for making
lyst. The fuel used in ACCESS however, comprised hydrotreated esters1, and fatty acids (HEFA) from the camelina plant — — a member of the mustard family native to the Mediterranean — in in a 50/50 blend with standard JP-8 jet fuel.
fuels at] the impact freshifwater supplies [and and land usage. Weonknow we could switch to pure synthetic fuels, we would really have an impact on clean air.” ACCESS 1 began with 2012 groun ground d tests at Dryden, with the DC-8 engines
Emissions up close
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AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
burning both blended and pure synthetic fuels while the aircraft remained on the ramp. Neither of those fuels contained the camelina oil synthetic used in the March flight tests, because it was not available in sufficient quantities at that time. The researchers gathered a great deal of emissions data from the ground tests, but early
way they can do that. that . That T hat remains r emains to be determined.” Future flight planning Even as they prepared for the final ACCESS 1 flights and data analysis, the research team was starting to plan for ACCESS 2, currently scheduled for 2014, and similar
analysis of the results from those and the initial flight tests were inconclusive. “During the ground tests, at medium to high power settings, we didn’t see a lot of difference between burning the blended fuels and pure JP-8. And we didn’t see much in the flight tests, either, although that is very preliminary at this point. We will be looking looking at those those over a wider wider power power range,” Anderson says. The March flights were interrupted by maintenance issues on the DC-8. The delay, say the researchers, may have been an ad vantage, giving them time time to perform perform some preliminary analyses, make adjustments to
experiments in the future. “The plan is to do a second, similar experiment, but the details will depend on the results we find from this one. We may want to expand the fuels; right now we’re only using the 50/50 blend, but we may want to use a different fuel then,” Bulzan says. “The fuels must have certain properties — the the major ones are sulfur content, hydrogen content, heat at combustion. We may want to investigate ways to take more of the sulfur out for the next round or reduce aromatics [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emissions from the combustion of alternative fuels]. We’re really just character-
plans for the remaining flights, and prepare to conduct the first ground tests of the camelina HEFA. “We made a really good start at Dryden, getting about halfway through meeting our milestones and objectives before we had to stand down while they sorted out the aircraft issues,” Anderson said in April. While the origina originall plan was to resume ACCESS 1 flights in May, officials said in an April 25 briefing that they had cancelled any additional FY13 flights. The plan now is to resume flight tests at Dryden as part of ACCESS 2 some time in FY14, although no dates have yet been determined.
izing these fuels, not developing or producing them. We are looking at developing future combustors that reduce emissions and so have a strong interest in what effect these synfuels have on both current and future combustors.” Future tests, possibly including some to close out ACCESS 1, will look more closely at the formation and atmospheric impact of contrails. Plans include sending the Falcon out to gather data from modern commercial jetliners flying in the national airspace be yond Edwards Edwards AFB. “We’re waiting for some additional instruments and software the FAA requires in
International efforts International Bulzan says the first results from that analysis will be presented at an international workshop this summer summer.. Presentations Presentations by attendees from other countries on related research may include follow-up data from limited synfuel flight tests conducted by Canada and South Africa. “The Canadians used a Falcon [similar to the NASA chase plane] as the emissions source and a smaller aircraft for chase. NASA’s associate administrator has said there is truly worldwide interest in this, but no one else is actually doing these experi-
ments; so there iswe great in getting the information areinterest developing,” he adds. “On our last telecon, we had representatives from 10 or 12 other nations, and I suspect some of those would like to participate in future experiments if there is a
order to do that,” Anderson says. “Then we can fly in the NAS [National Airspace System] above 28,000 ft.” NASA has also obtained a Guardian jet from the Coast Guard and is modifying it to do atmospheric sampling. Part of that is a reduced vertical separation
Test instrumentation is set up behind the inboard engines of NASA’s DC-8 during alternative fuels emissions and performance testing at the NASA Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale. Courtesy NASA Dryden/Tom Tschida.
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013 43
Flying some 500 ft behind the DC-8, the Falcon measures chemical components of the exhaust streaming from the DC-8’s engines burning burn ing a 50/50 mix of conventional jet fuel and a plant-based biofuel. Courtesy Cour tesy NASA/Lori Losey. Losey.
module; they used to space aircraft at 2,000 ft above 28,000, and now it’s 1,000. So we have to get the aircraft certified for that.” Some of the Guardian’s equipment is different from that of the civilian Falcon on o n which it is based, he adds. Balancing the heat budget The team also hopes the combination of their own DC-8 flight tests and data ob-
and how they are related to soot emissions. Some people believe if there is no sulfur in the fuel, the black carbon particles would not be dense enough to form water and thus contrails. As we go along, maybe we can get fuels with very little sulfur.” The initial ACCESS flights did not seem to show any significant difference between contrails formed by pure jet fuel and those from engines burning a hybrid fuel.
tained from trailing commercial air traffic will enable them to build on previo previous us NASA studies and extensive modeling on how contrails affect the Earth’s heat budget. Certain constituents in the atmosphere trap heat, including long-lived greenhouse gases, of which water vapor is a major component; clouds formed by water vapor block incoming solar radiation, and temperatures drop. The Radiation Sciences Branch at NASA Langley measures both incoming and outgoing radiation to determine the atmospheric heat balance, or heat budget. If that balance is in equilibrium, then Earth is neither heating nor cooling.
“But that will take a great deal of statistical analysis, and we’re just not there yet. This is something that takes extensive systematic study, which is something we hope ho pe to do in the coming year,” he explains. “We’re learning a lot about how to sample emissions and what instruments are needed to really nail down the characteristics of the contrails. So we’re in the process of building up and, as we go along, we’ll have more data and statistics to pull out these more subtle effects. So from the Langley perspective, ACCESS has gone well.”
“Contrails affect that balance, reflecting light and trapping heat. As other sources of pollution go away, [as a result of] using low-polluting technologies, the contrails of aircraft can have an impact on the Earth’s heat budget. And where there is a substantial number of contrails, that impact is measurable,” urabl e,” Anderson Anderson says. says. “There “There has been speculation that if you remove all particles from emissions, you can mitigate the creation of contrails. So part of our objective is to build links between particle emissions and the formation of contrails, making precise measurements. “Soot typically warms the atmosphere;
While any blend or even pure synthetic/alsynthetic/alternative fuel can be used in ground tests, NASA is restricted to using FAA-certified fuels and blends for its flight tests. “At the moment, only those two types [FT and HEFA] are certified for use with commercial aircraft, so we are pretty limited at the moment,” Bulzan says. “However, a number of fuels are being looked at for certification, and that is something we might look into for ACCESS 2. The specifications say you can use up to a maximum 50/50 blend for the certified fuel. There are certain limits in the specs that the blended fuel has to meet, but even if a higher blend
ice typically reflect radiation back intoclouds space and so cool the atmosphere. But — a lot also depends on the surface below snow, forest, desert, ocean, etc. We’re hoping to build on the current base of information on what conditions contrails form under
did meet all50/50 of those, you’re not allowed allow ed to go beyond for commercial flight. “There are companies trying to develop pure drop-in biofuels that are not blended with JP-8. For now, those are not certified, but a South African company [Sasol] is try-
Living with limitations
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AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
ing to certify a pure Fischer-Tropsch fuel. For ACCESS 2, though, we may even try a fuel that is not certified, if it meets all the parameters and we can get approval from Dryden, which operates the aircraft. We’re also limited to what NASA has [in its aviation fleet], but are in discussions with others on getting access to newer aircraft.”
nized as an approved fuel by the international standards organization ASTM. Four aircraft — — a Boeing 737-200 and three Hawker 4000s — conducted conducted the first FSJF-fueled flights in September 2010, from Johannesburg to Cape Town. “They landed and parked, then a few hours later flew back to Johannesburg on
The Falcon probes the exhaust contrails from the DC-8 as both aircraft enter a turn at about 35,000 ft during the first data-collection flight in the ACCESS biofuels flight test project in restricted test airspace over California's high desert. Courtesy Cou rtesy NASA/Lori Losey. Losey.
Allowing Allow ing NASA to use an uncer uncertified tified fuel in future flight tests within restricted Air Force airspace would give the agency a jump on determining how such fuels may meet long-term emissions goals if and when they are certified. certified.
the same fuel. Totally uneventful, as expected,” Bulzan recalls. “It has not gone into production, because the economics changed from the time of the beginning of the evaluation to approval.” Remaining unknowns
“It’s a long process to get new fuels certified. Pure synfuels don’t meet jet fuel specs; they have issues with aromatic content and seals, which don’t swell as much as they should. They typically are less dense than current specs [require], and there also are issues with conductivity, so gauges don’t work right,” he says. “The goal is ‘drop-in’ fuels, so you can put them in anything and they will work just like petroleum-based fuels. After the ACCESSS 1 news release went out, I was ACCES asked if we could use a new fuel that did not have to be blended with JP-8 in ACCESS 2. That’s the fuel that was used by the
Even with the current alternative fuel certifications and continuing ground and flight tests, some important considerations have been left out of the research programs. One is engine performance (the DC-8 is 1960s technology, so results would not be fully applicable to modern aircraft and engines); another consideration is how long-term use might affect maintenance requirements or engine life. “I think it’s too early to tell, because these [factors] have not been studied for long periods, but I have not heard any issues to date,” Bulzan concludes. “Certifica-
Canadians. They calledsomething it 100% biofuel, but they may have added to make it meet all jet fuel specs.” Sasol’s fully synthetic jet fuel (FSJF) was approved as a Jet A-1 fuel under British military standards in 2008 and was later recog-
tion is a anything pretty stringent andthat it’s unlikely would process, be certified would incur significant changes. But, again, long-term use is required to fully determine that, and those are not something we are looking at in our program.
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
45
25 Years Ago, June 1988 June 9
The Kuiper Airborne Observatory Observatory,, flying
at 41,000 ft over the South Pacific, makes the first direct observation of an atmosphere on the planet Pluto. NASA, Astronautics and Aeronautics, Aeronaut ics, 1986-90 , p. 176. The Ariane 4 rocket makes its maiden flight, a test mission. It carries PanAmSat 1 (PAS-1), the world’s first private international geosynchronous satellite; the amateur radio spacecraft OSCAR 13; and a meteorological satellite. PAS-1 initiates the multibillion-dollar international commercial satellite services industry. Its owner, PanAmSat, was formed on April 23, 1984. PAS satellites are used for broadcasting, business communications, and, later, the Internet. NASA, Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1986-90, pp. 176-177. June 15
50 Years Ago, June 1963
Sixteen NASA astronauts undergo jungle survival training at the USAF’s Caribbean Air Command Tropic Survival School at Albrook AFB, Canal Zone. The training includes classroom classroom instruction and a three-day field practice in a local jungle. NASA NA SA Marshall press release 63-96. 63- 96.
Soviet air force. She remains in orbit for almost three days. During the mission she comes within 3 mi. of the Vostok 5 in a ‘tandem flight’ and Vostok communicates by radio with its lone cosmonaut, Valery Bykovsky. Although Tereshkova has little formal technical training, she became interested in parachuting, was trained in skydiving, and made her first jump in 1959. Her expertise in skydiving led to her selection as a cosmonaut, but she also had some pilot training. She later reaches the rank of major general. D. Baker, Spaceflight and Rocketry , p. 153; Valentina Tereshkova Tereshkova file, NASM.
June 3-6
The California Institute of Technology announces the “first conclusive detection” of water vapor on Mars, based on findings made by the Mt. W ilson and Mt. Palomar observatories in California. The planet’s water supply is found to be as small as half a cubic mile, mi le, compared with the millions of cubic miles on Earth. New York Times, June 5, 1963, p. 17. June 4
The first of six T itan II ICBM squadrons based at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., becomes operational. By December 31, the six squadron squadrons’ s’ missiles total 357. The Titan II, with storable propellant, propellant, is fitted with a 9-megaton warhead and has a range of 9,325 mi. D. Baker, Spaceflight and Rocketry , pp. 152-153. June 8
North American Aviation awards spacesuit manufacturing company David Clark a contract for Project Gemini suits, known as the G3C for intravehicular operations and the G4C extravehicular type, for ‘space walks.’ The G4C is to have added micrometeoroid and thermal protection. D. Baker, Spaceflight and Rocketry , p. 153.
June 13
The Vostok 5, carrying Soviet cosmonaut Valery F. Bykovsky, is launched and remains in orbit for four days 23 hr 6 min, still the longest solo spaceflight on record. D. Baker, Spaceflight and Rocketry , p. 153.
John C. ‘Cliff’ Garrett, founder of Garrett Corp. and a pioneer in the pressurization of aircraft and life-support systems, dies. In 1936 he founded a company that later was known as Garrett AiResearch, a manufacturer of turboprop engines and turbochargers. In 1939 he established a small research lab that conducted ‘air research’ in the development of pressurized flight for passenger aircraft. During WW II, Garrett developed and produced the cabin pressure system for the B-29, the first production bomber pressurized June 22
for high-altitude flying. From the 1960s, his AiResearch Environmental Control Systems developed life-support systems for Projects Mercury, Apollo, and Skylab spacecraft. New York Times, June 24, 1963, p. 27; John C. Garrett file, NASM.
June 14
For the first time, six satellites are orbited in one launch, by a Thor-Agena D from Vandenberg AFB. The six are a classified 3,307-lb military satellite, the 57-lb Lofti 2A, the 86-lb Solrad 6, the 55-lb Radose, a 77-lb classified satellite, and the 7-lb Surcal 1C surveillance calibration satellite. D. Baker, Spaceflight and Rocketry , p. 153. June 15
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, age 26, becomes the first woman in space when her Vostok 6 is launched from the Tyuratam complex in the USSR. She is also the first civilian to fly in space, although she later joins the June 16
Flown by Maj. Robert A. Rushworth, USAF, the X-15 rocket research aircraft penetrates space, climbing to 285,000 ft, or almost 54 mi. It also reaches a speed of Mach 4.89, or
June 27
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AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013
An Aerospace Chronology by Frank H. Winter and Robert van der Linden
3,425 mph. Rushworth now qualifies for military ‘astronaut wings.’ D. Jenkins, X-15: Jenkins, X-15: Extending the Frontiers Fronti ers
June 7
of Flight , pp. 408-410, 624, 630.
carry 42 passengers and a crew of five. Powering the aircraft are four 1,400-hp Pratt & Whitney Twin Hornets. Hampered by complexity and mediocre performance, the plane never enters service; however, its failure results in an entirely new design, the DC-4/C-54, that later proves very successful. Aero successful. Aero Digest , July 1938, p. 43.
75 Years Ago, June 1938
Routine launching of balloon radiosondes begins at the Anacostia NAS in Washington, D.C. These craft, which carry radio meteorographs, will be in use in Navy fleet operations by year’s end. E. Emme, ed., Astronautics ed., Astronautics and Aeronautics 1915-60, 1915-60, p. 36. June 1
A new world record for altitude with a 5,000-kg payload is set by pilots Karlheinz Kindermann and Ruprecht Wendel, with Werner Hotopf. They ascend to 30,551 ft at Dessau, Germany, in a Junkers Ju 90. Aircr 90. Aircraft aft Year Book, 1939, 1939, p. 466.
Douglas Aircraft’s Aircraft’s largest plane p lane to date, the Douglas DC-4E, is test flown by Carl Cover in a 90-min flight. The 65,000-lb transport can
The British government announces it will purchase 400 U.S. planes, including 200 Lockheed Hudsons and 200 North American Harvard aircraft, for training by the RAF. The $28-million order is the largest ever received from abroad for U.S. aircraft. E. Emme, ed., Astronautics ed., Astronautics and Aeronautics, Aeronau tics, 1915-60, 1915-60 , p. 36; Aero 36; Aero Digest , July 1938, pp. 18-19. June 9
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June 5
German pilot Maj. Gen. Ernst Udet breaks the world land-plane speed record over 100 km. He flies 394 mph from Rostok in a Heinkel He 112U (DB 601 engine), 50 mph faster than Italy’s Furio Niclot Doglio.
Karl Bode sets a world helicopter distance record of 143 mi., piloting an FW 61-VI from Fassberg to Rangsdorf, Germany. Aircraft Germany. Aircraft Year Book, 1939, 1939, p. 467. June 20
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the McCarran-Le McCarran-Lea a Civil Air Authority Act, abolishing the Bureau of Air Commerce and canceling jurisdiction over aviation matters by five other government agencies. Regulation of air commerce is now placed under a single agency called the Civil Aeronautics Authority. E. Emme, ed., Astronautics and Aeronautics, Aerona utics, 1915-60, 1915-60 , p. 36. June 23
The Navy’s most ambitious mass flight ends when 47 twin-engined Consolidated Consolidated PBY-1 PBY -1 patrol bombers arrive at the Sand Point NAS in Seattle after a 1,100-mi. nonstop flight from San Diego. Approximately 300 officers and men are involved in the flights. June 25
Aero Digest, July 1938, p. 38.
Aero Digest , August 1938, p. 26. 100 Years Ago, June 1913
In the first test flight of the Boeing 314 flying boat, pilot Eddie Allen takes off from Puget Sound, circles over Seattle, and lands on Lake Washington. The 82,000-lb ship is the largest transport plane in the U.S. and accommodates 74 passengers. It has a maximum range of 2,400 mi. and features four 1,500-hp Wright Cyclone engines. Aero engines. Aero Digest , July 1938, p. 42. June 7
De Lloyd Thompson, the first man to loop-the-loop in the U.S., races in his plane against a racing car driven by Barney Oldfield at the Maywood Speedway in Chicago, before 20,000 spectators. Aerial Age Weekly , June 28, 1915, p. 344. June 13
Georgia ‘Tiny’ Broadwick becomes the first woman to parachute from a plane when she jumps from an aircraft flown by Glenn L. Martin over Griffith Field in Los Angeles. F. Mason and M. Windrow, Know Aviation, Aviation, p. 15. June 21
AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2013 47
43rd International Conference 43rd on Environmental Systems (ICES) Confirmed Speakers Include:
Co-Founder,, CEO, and CTO, Paragon Space Co-Founder Development Corporation
Director, Spacecraft Advanced Development, Space Exploration Systems, Sierra Nevada Corporation
Technical Topics Include:
Aerospace Human Factors Environmental Control and Life-Support System Technology Environmental Monitoring and Controls Planetary Protection EVA System Technology Life Sciences Planetary Habitats and Systems Thermal Control Systems Technology for Manned and Unmanned Vehicles
14–18 July 2013 V ail ail Marriott V ail, ail, Colorado #ICES2013
Supported by AIAA Life Sciences and Systems Technical Committee AIAA Space Environmental Systems Program Committee American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Environmental Systems Committee American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Crew Systems S ystems Technical Committee ICES International Committee (INT)
Hotel Information: AIAA has made arrangements for a block of rooms at:
Vail Marriott 715 West Lionshead Circle Vail, Colorado 81657 Room rates are $179 – available through 21 June 2013
REGISTER TODAY! Early-Bird Registration ends 17 June 2013 www.aiaa.org/ices2013 13-0143
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Credit: ISS Expedition 30/NASA
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AIAA Fluid Dynamics and Co-located Conferences and Exhibit
Continuing Education Short Courses Verification Verific ation and Validation Validation in Scientific Computing Computing
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Instructors: Instructors: Summary: Summary:
William Ober k ampf and and Christopher Roy k ampf Techniques Techni ques and practical procedures for assessing the credibility and accuracy of simulatio ns in science and engineering. Application examples, techniques and procedures are primarily tak en en from fluid dynamics, sol id mechanics, and heat transfer.
Sponsored by: by: The AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Technical Technical Committee Summary: Summary: Learn to assess the numerical prediction capability of current -generation CFD technology/codes for swept, medium to high aspect ratio wings for landing/tak e-off (high-lift) configurations; develop practical modeling guidelines for CFD prediction; determine the elements of high-lift flow physics that are critical for modeling; and enhance CFD prediction capability.
FREE! admittance to technical and plenary sessions; receptions, luncheons, and online proceedings. 12-00 70
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A CHIE CHIE V E MORE THE AIAA CAREER CENTER – With thousands of job postings, it’s your best source for finding the ideal job. And now, with its expanded services, it’s also your best source for career advice and development. This AIAA member benefit includes professional development tools to help you in your career. career. CAREER TIPS – Free access to articles on job hunting, interview and negotiation techniques, networking, work-life balance, and other career-related topics. PROFESSIONAL RESUME WRITING – Hire a professional writer to critique, create, or enhance your resume and cover letter letter.. CAREERyour COACHING – Work with an experienced and certified career coach to plan, develop, and manage career goals. SOCIAL NETWORKING/PROFILE DEVELOPMENT – Ensure your professional presence on LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Twitter Twitter.. REFERENCE CHECKING/EMPLOYMENT VERIFICA VERIFICATION TION – Identify questionable references before they speak with prospective employers. DISCOUNT TEST PREP SERVICES/PR SERVICES/PRINCETON INCETON REVIEW TEST PREP COURSES – Work with the industry leader to t o prepare for the SAT, ACT, MCAT, MCAT, LSAT, GRE, or GMAT.
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Courses Open to Everyone at Every Level
STANDALONE COURSES 10–11 June 2013
Ohio Aerospace Institute, Cleveland, OH
AIAA is proud proud to partner with the following organizations as they host our short courses at their facilities:
29–30 July 2013
National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, VA 23–24 September 2013
Te AERO Institu Institute, te, Palmdale, CA
Register Today! National Institute of Aerospace
www.aiaa.org/Stand www.aiaa .org/Stand A lone lone AA Contact Megan Scheidt, at 703.264.3842 or
[email protected], for any questions about AIAA’s Continui Continuing ng Education Education offerings. offerings.
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Lifetime Member Karen Copper has a message for recent graduates and young professionals: “Now is the time to consider … joining AIAA as a Lifetime Member. It is the least expensive membership dues will ever be … a time in your life that is usually pre-mortgage, and … an important time to establish career net working working contacts.”
Any AIAA member can choose a Lifetime Membership. For a young pers person, on, it can result result in considerable savings over the course of a career! The cost is $1,650*, equivalent to 15 years of annual dues, and several convenient payment plans are available. (*$1,800 for Associate Fellows; $2,100 for Fellows)
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49th Joint Propulsion Conference and 11th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference
Continuing Education Short Courses Liquid Propulsion Systems – Evolutions and Advancements
Register TODA Y ! www.aiaa.org/ JPC2013AA
Instructors: Alan Frank el, Instructors: el, Ivett Leyva, and Patrick Alliot Alliot Summary: This course Summary: course will cover propulsion propulsion fundamentals fundamentals and topics of interest in launch vehicle vehicle and spacecraft propulsion; non-toxic propulsion; microsat and cubesat propulsion; propulsion system design and performance; and human rating of liquid engines.
A Practical Introduction to Preliminary Preliminary Design of Air-Breathing Engines H
k
Instructors: Instructors: Ian co alliwell Bec el of the preliminary design Summary: This Summary: course urse will wiand ll beSteve an overview design of air -breathing engine systems that is determined primarily by the aircraft mission, which defines the engine cycle – and different types of cycles are investigated. Preliminary design activities are defined and discussed in the context of the overall engine development process and placed in perspective.
Missile Propulsion Design and System Engineering Instructor: Eugene L. Fleeman Instructor: Summary: This course Summary: course will cover missile propulsion system design, design, development, development, analysis, analysis, and system engineering activities in addressing requirements such as cost, performance, risk , and launch platform integration.
FREE! 12-0070
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AIAA Webinars Webinars Sharpen your skills with our 90-minute webinars, taught by some of our most popular instructors. Webinars start at $60!
UPCOMING WEBINARS:
REGISTER EARLY—SPACE IS LIMITED.
Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion: Advanced Concepts in Rocket Propulsion, Nuclear Systems, Advanced Physics, and High-Energy Density Propellants Bryan Palaszewsk i
Missile Defense: Past, Present and Future Peter Mantle
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Advanced Composite Materials and Structures CADAC++ Framework for Aerospace Simulations Deciding on the Form of Missile Defense Flight Dynamics and Einstein’s Covariance Principle Fundamentals of Communicating by Satellite Introduction to Bio-Inspired Engineering Introduction to Communication Satellites and their Subsystems Lessons from Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Study Overview of Missile Design and System Engineering Risk Analysis and Management Space Radiation Environment UAV Conceptual Design Using Computer Simulations
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13th International Conference on Space Operations
SpaceOps 2014 Exploring Innovation Abstract Submission Deadline: 5 August 2013 Hosted by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), SpaceOps 2014 will bring together the space operations community to address state-of-the-art operations principles, methods, and tools.
5–9 May 2014 Pasadena Convention Center Pasadena, California
Technical Program Mission Design and Management Operations Concepts, Methods, Systems, and Automation Flight System Monitor and Control Planning and Scheduling Guidance, Navigation, and Control Communications, Data Management and Processing Human Systems and Operations Cross-Support, Interoperability Interoperability,, and Standards Launcher, Rockets, and Balloon Operations Launcher, University Space Operations
Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technolo Technology gy
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10–12 September 2013 San Diego Convention Center San Diego, California
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