Looking Ahead... and Back

e [Music] hello I'm Jim Bernett bringing you this eth program in our series NASA and Aeronautics in this program we take a look at the future and what it holds in store for NASA we also take a look back at some past aeronautical accomplishments however right now our series takes us to January of 1978 this film deals with researchers who are conducting tests in Hope of extending the lifespan of aircraft tires [Music] scenes like this are repeated thousands of times daily at busy Metropolitan airports throughout the country again and again aircraft tires touch down brakes are applied the plane taxes and takes off once more keeping a fleet of planes and tires is a definite economic problem since the lifetime of a tire tread can range from 300 takeoff and Landing Cycles all the way down to 10 or 15 depending on the aircraft and the nature of its operations one Airline uses more than 700 tires a month just on its 727 Jets and that's only half its leak in contrast to automobile tires aircraft tires are retreaded five or six times before being strapped mainly because the tire body does not deteriorate as quickly as the thread does 7 years ago chemist at NASA's as Research Center in California began working on a new synthetic rubber an effort to increase the safety and durability of aircraft tires here at the Thompson Tire and Rubber Company in San Francisco technicians retreaded a number of aircraft tires with the NASA compound by using an experimental polymer the chemists were able to create a rubber compound with different physical properties properties that give the tread both strength and Longevity an ideal combination for aircraft tires first stop for the newly fabricated tires after the successful laboratory tests high-speed dynamometer qualifications taxi takeoffs even aborted takeoffs can be simulated to qualify a tire for use on an airplane it must pass 150 of these rigorous Cycles and the pre-flight testing doesn't stop there to find out if the tires had any wear or traction deficiencies they were repeatedly put to the test at the langle research Center's Landing load strke tires can be exposed to braking including locked wheel skins and tested on both dry and flooded concrete Runway surfaces at speeds up to 100 knots with help from the FAA Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City the new polymer Tire moved through another research step for these tests tires with experimental rubber were installed on the inboard wheel of One landing gear of a 727 jet and the outboard wheel of the other for comparison they mounted standard tires on the remaining Wheels periodically taken tread depth measurements help to determine the extent of tread wear now the research has moved full circle at their maintenance hanger in Miami Easter Airlines mechanics mounted the fully certified NASA polymer tires side by side with their standard tires initial finding show the new polymer compound's wear performance is better than conventional tires and the results look very promising this NASA research is part of a continuing effort aimed at seeking new materials to improve aircraft tire tread wear traction and blowout resistance and ultimately to improve the safety and economy of aircraft ground operations now we see a film that illustrates NASA's concern with improving the technique of crop dusting this type of research is important since a large portion of worldwide crops are lost each year to [Music] pests small crop spraying aircraft like this have made significant contributions to this country's ability to produce food the National Science Foundation estimates that more than onethird of worldwide crops are lost each year to various pests as of last year some 8600 fixed and rotary Wing aircraft dispensed insecticides as well as seeds and fertilizers over 180 million Acres of crop lands in the us alone although the aircraft themselves have improved they still use applications technology developed in the 1940s [Music] now NASA is involved in a research effort using fullscale wind tunnels and other facilities in an attempt to solve some of the problems that crop dusting Pilots have faced for years Dr Bruce Holmes in the flight research division at NASA's Langley Research Center is manager of the program we're studying several different areas different aspects of the a application industry problems these areas include studies of airplane Wes and how materials are affected in this how sprays for example are affected in the Wake behind the airplane we're also studying airplane aerodynamics and handling qualities characteristics to try and improve handling qualities and fuel efficiency as well as overall airplane performance we're also studying the uh dispersal systems and how they perform both liquid and dry systems in addition we would like to look for better ways ways to measure spray patterns from airplanes all of these areas of work we hope will lead to both near-term solutions to some of the existing problems I've described as well as provide airplane designers in the future with better techniques for designing a airplanes that are specifically suited for a applications work at the vortex research facility engineers study the swirling patterns of air that trail along behind the aircraft because these air currents affect the uniformity of application and cause chemicals to drift during spraying they are prime targets for improvement researchers are hopeful they can make the vortices work for them as the plane flies along loading the scale model with polystyrene or glass beads then applying double-sided tape to the floor researchers can simulate spray patterns by actually counting the particles that stick to the tape in addition to the fullscale tunnel and Vortex facility work promising Concepts come coming out of that research will become part of actual flight tests in the near future from these will come important pilot comments as well as a chance to measure effects on dispersal patterns and overall airplane performance research on crop dusters aircraft that fly as close as possible to Earth to increase agricultural [Music] productivity this next film we watch is about winglets winglets are devices that are added to planes to cut down fuel consumption they can be useful in Saving dollars as well as helping preserve some of our petroleum resources the 3 and 1/2t high vertical fins added to the wing tips of this Lear jet are intended to cut down drag on the plane as it moves through the air reducing fuel consumption at the same time they're called winglets Dr Richard T Whit of NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia is the winglets engineer inventor the flow around the wing tip is such that the air is moving inward here and outward here when we put the winglet on this stops or reduces the flow into the wing tip above the upper surface of the wing and as a result reduces The Vortex strength Downstream it's interesting to note that because this little wing like device is in a cross flow it acts like a sailboat tacking up wind there is a force forward on the winglet just as there as there is on a uh sailboat and it's this that reduces the drag this device has now been applied to several airplanes after the basic idea for winglets was developed the theory was put to the test using wind tunnel models like this since the theory has been verified the wind tunnel test are now primarily investigating winglets for different applications these include placing winglets on an Air Force KC 135 jet cargo tanker the expected 8% Improvement in performance could result in an annual fuel Savings of 45 million gallons for the fleet Dr whittam the winglets inventor believes the New Concept can be applied to existing aircraft ranging from commercial transports to business Jets and even smaller General Aviation airplanes winglets are also being installed on agricultural type aircraft used to spray insecticides and other materials on crops the winglets are expected to allow a much smoother and more uniform swath as the chemicals are applied to the [Music] crops the place is a research and development facility at the Mojave Airport port in California and this is the very easy a small two-place CrossCountry type airplane made for the homebuilt market [Music] there are several hundred of these being constructed in people's garages around the world it too uses the NASA developed winglets to improve the airplane according to designer Bert Routan the airplane's cruise efficiency is approximately equivalent to adding another uh 5% of range or getting 5% less fuel used to go the same distance because of the use of the NASA winglets winglets devices that can be added to existing airplanes to reduce the amount of fuel needed now we turn our attention to a series of aircraft spin tests conducted by NASA This research is helpful for improving spin qualities in existing planes as well as that are still in their early design stages for men like Wayne Lee Bill Mims and the rest of the ground crew it's a job they've done many times in the past even so it's a job they don't rush to finish above all what they do is thorough the data that will be gathered in today's test flight and safety of the man who will fly the plane are dependent on how well they prepare the plane and its instrumentation for flight the place is NASA's wups Island Virginia the plane the ground crew has been working on since 5:30 a.m. is a typical general aviation light aircraft and this is the man who will fly it 50-year-old engineering research pilot Jim Patton CLE when Jim Patton takes the plane up for a spin that's exactly what he'll be doing making the plane spin on purpose the research is being done because about 30% of all general aviation fatalities can be traced to stall spin problems [Music] controls repeatedly Patton noses the aircraft Skyward till the small plane stalls it then pitches over and the spins begin 2 3 4 stay fa steep five six stable seven it's slowly a typical flight lasts about an hour and a half okay occasionally when he can't recover from a spin a parachute mounted in the tail is popped to stabilize the spinning plane much of the data that may one day help researchers find better ways to design stall proof aircraft returns to this Telemetry station on the ground here Paul sty and his team of Engineers monitor and record results of the day spins research pilot Jim Patton pointed out some of the many modifications that have been tested on the plane this F fuselage stke the so-call soda straws under the edges of the fuselage and the pairing back here which acts as a ventril were all sized and uh uh located on the airplane in the spin tunnel on models we investigate these singly and in combination in full scale flight the full scale testing is only one part of the overall effort at the Langley Research Center Engineers test models in a spin tunnel and several other wind tunnel facilities there on an unused runway in West Point Virginia south of Richmond another group of Langley engineers and technicians fly radio controlled model of the same general aviation plane results of these tests are correlated with results from both the spin tunnel studies and the full scale flight tests stall spin research an intensive program aimed at improving stall and spin characteristics of both presently flying aircraft and for planes designed in the future pre stabilized still spinning have five in this next film we examine some of the advances that NASA has made in the area of avionics avionics are the electronic systems and aircraft that provide communication and flight data and control the strides made in avionics are important in raising the standards of performance and safety [Music] the electronic systems in aircraft that help Pilots communicate with the ground and provide navigation guidance and flight control are called avionics by taking advantage of advances in electronics and microcomputers the ease and safety of flying in the future may be greatly enhanced one of the places involved in advanced avionic studies is NASA's as Research Center in California right now the pilot and in particular the Sportsman pilot has a lot of things to do and uh he's the Navigator he's the pilot he's the crew chief uh he has to load the aircraft properly and so forth so the thought is that the computer could do a lot of this work and let the pilot be free for making decisions and gathering information for example uh information on the weather uh he can concentrate on important decisions using a small computer and television screen that's sensitive to touch like some of today's calculators the pilot is assisted with a variety of tasks including loading the plane on the screen you see a simplified photograph or I should say a top view schematic of the aircraft a diagram in the lower left hand corner which represents the forward safe limit of the balance point and the AFT safe limit as well as the maximum weight of the aircraft so that's in in an in sense a uh safety diagram of course I load it physically by putting the objects in the aircraft but here I go through the procedure of touching the screen to represent those objects in the aircraft these are people fuel baggage or cargo and so forth the computer requests the weight of the co-pilot for example and an X flashes where the co-pilot seat is enter co-pilot weight 1 8 4 184 lb and I touch go the notice that you have voice feedback or echoback as we call it I don't have to look at the screen all the time to see if that number is entered correctly I can hear it come back to me so in a sense it's a check on accuracy okay after entering that number I touch go to actually insert it in the computer once the television monitor computer and voice synthesizer are installed in the aircraft it will be possible to use them for navigation guidance and plotting the flight again Aerospace engine ER Chuck Jackson in the center panel of the instrument panel we have a fixed map but this is where the television monitor would be so for the moment we'll work with this fixed map and give you an idea of how we might plan a flight let's say for example we want to fly from San Jose California to Livermore California by way of Hayward and caleris Reservoir by the way this replaces the uh the idea of spreading charts out over the kitchen table drawing lines measuring courses and distances and all the details that normally go with uh intelligently planning a flight here you can do it right in the airplane more accurately and more simply by simply pointing to what you want okay the pen is positioned at San Jose and it asked what altitude I want there well if I'm going to take off I'll say zero feet zero and go go now the pen moves to Hayward let's say we want to make a low pass at 1,000 with an advanced avionic system the computer Tunes the navigation radios and points out the plane's location on the map so you're never lost a tremendous asset to safety or 3600 ft 3 6 and go go for our final film we return to the subject of the X15 this is a project that had been terminated in 1969 the film is a nostalgic look back on the importance of the X15 in the 1960s and the effect it has on aircraft research in 1980s there were 12 in all men like Bill Dana mil Thompson Pete Knight John McKay Joe angle and Bob rushworth they shared a occupation test pilot for 9 years these Pilots flew the rocket powered X15 research airplane 199 flights were made many along the fringes of space it was 20 years ago that the X15 now hanging in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington made its first research flight NASA astronaut Joe Engle who piloted the X15 16 times talked about the super fast rocket plane the wings of course are very small uh at the high velocities and high speeds that are obtained uh you don't need a lot of lifting surface and so uh lifting surface Wings generally mean drag and the desire was to keep the drag as low as possible the the airplane was made out of Inc canel X steel the the skin was Inc canel Inc canel steel which was a material that would resist heat up to about 1200° uh that incidentally was the temperature that the airplane had to accept at Mark 6 the aerodynamic Heat heating at at 4,000 mph got up to 1200° aluminum uh is not able to withand uh those temperatures and retain any kind of strength so the skin of the airplane had to be steel instead of aluminum in subsequent flights when the airplane went even faster uh even the Inc canel steel had to be coated with uh a protective material to keep the temperature the surface temperature from getting to the skin and getting hotter than what even the interel ex was stand the most prominent feature probably from where we're standing is the rocket engine on the back end was a 60,000 lb thrust engine liquid propelled all the propellant was carried in the fuselage and uh looking at the airplane from this from this angle you can see the bubble the cockpit bubble up toward the front end of the airplane just about the entire fuselage after the cockpit was fuel tank for propellant for the rocket engine that propellant uh would burn out in uh in 80 88 89 seconds traveling at speeds in excess of 4500 mph the X15 climbed to altitudes of over 67 Mi qualifying Pilots for astronaut wing before the first man flew into space the highly successful program returned large amounts of data about structures and heat transfer and proved that man could fly at Hypersonic speeds and adjust to control systems that are part of NASA's new space shuttle astronaut Joe Engle is scheduled to Pilot the second shuttle Orbiter into space the techniques and flight Control Systems uh the manner in which we fly of maneuvering re-entry from space back into the atmosphere manage the energy terminating in a conventional landing on a lake bed now but eventually on a Runway that technique that we're using on the space shuttle uh was pioneered and in fact very similar to the same technique that we used on the X15 20 years ago uh we've got that knowledge and knowhow and the confidence to do it the X15 Forerunner of today's spacecraft and tomorrow's airplane what we now have is a confirmation of the advances from NASA's research by referring to the past and looking ahead to the future we get a clearer understanding of aeronautical progress next week our program is built around a series of films made in the early 1980s the show is called setting the stage for the future till next week I'm Jim Bernett [Music] a [Music]