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Latest Wind Tunnel Test to
Advance Civil Tiltrotor Technology
L.A. Young
December 29, 1999
Just before the holidays, on December 21, 1999, NASA
Ames engineers and technical support personnel installed the Full-Span
Tilt Rotor Aeroacoustic Model (FS TRAM) in the 40-by-80 Foot test section
of the National Full-scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC). The NFAC, located
at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, CA, is a world premier
low-speed aerodynamics and acoustics research facility, and boasts, in
addition to the 40-by-80 test section, the world'9s largest wind tunnel
test section (the 80-by-120 Foot Wind Tunnel).
TRAM is a newly developed research facility that
will enable the improved understanding and advancement of tiltrotor technology,
with emphasis on noise reduction for a future generation of civil tiltrotor
aircraft. TRAM is two test stands in one: an isolated rotor configuration,
which has been previously tested in the Duits-Nederlandse Windtunnel in
The Netherlands in 1998 (when the NFAC was undergoing an acoustic modification/upgrade),
and a Full-Span configuration, which will be tested for the first time
in the NFAC.
In its full-span configuration (dual rotors with
an airframe) the TRAM is approximately a 1/4-scale representation of the
Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor. After baseline aeroacoustic testing
in the NFAC in 2000, advanced quiet rotors will be tested in later years
on the full-span TRAM test stand.
Hopefully one day, in part through the successful
efforts of the TRAM test team, taking a ride home for the holidays on
a civil tiltrotor aircraft will be a commonplace event.
The following are a series of pictures showing the
installation of the Full-Span TRAM in the 40-by-80 Foot Wind Tunnel. The
TRAM rotors and some of fuselage fairing panels have been removed for
ease of transport/installation into the tunnel and to aid in the checkout
of the model.
Moving TRAM from the Model Preparation Building
Lifting TRAM into the NFAC 40-by-80 Foot Wind Tunnel
TRAM Installed in 40-by-80 Foot Wind Tunnel Test Section
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