ATO #102 - March 31, 2000

PART 1: Upcoming Chats
PART 2: Project News
PART 3: The B777 high lift test in the 12-Foot Pressure Wind Tunnel

UPCOMING CHATS

QuestChats require pre-registration. Unless otherwise
noted, registration
is at:  http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/chats/


Tuesday, April 4, 2000 10 - 11 AM Pacific
Regimes of Flight Aerospace Team Online Chat with Dale Satran

Dale Staran is responsible for guiding a team involved in the high lift
research program. The team develops new tools for industry to use in
designing high lift systems on commercial transports.
Read his bio at http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/satran.html

Thursday, April 19, 2000, 9 - 10  AM Pacific
Aerospace Team Online QuestChat with Chris Beins

Chris Beins plays an intersting role! His job is to help engineers and
scientists work with lawyers and business people to understand ideas,
sofware and computer programs are protected and safe from hackers!
Read his bio at http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/beins.html

Tuesday, April 25, 2000 10 - 11 AM Pacific
Regimes of Flight Aerospace Team Online Chat with Steve Smith

As an aerospace research engineer, Steve Smith spends his time doing
experimental research in wind tunnels and applying computer flow
simulations to evaluate new ideas for airplanes.
Read his bio at 
http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/smith.html

PROJECT NEWS

"Regimes of Flight"

Consider joining the chats with Dale Satran, April 4 or Steve Smith, April
25. They can answer questions about the New Aircraft Designs!!

A New Regime, by Susan Ashby is now online! This is the story of Chuck
Yeager's flight that broke the Sound Barrier! It now has movies and
interactive vocabulary as well and will soon have an audio version.

For more information see
http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/events/regimes/new.html

- - - - - - -


Design a New Aircraft CONTEST!!!

Regimes of Flight Design a New Aircraft Contest, Grades 4-8
March 3 - April 14, 2000
Choose one regime of flight: low, medium, high, supersonic, or hypersonic.
design an new aircraft for the regime you pick!   
For more information: go to
http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/events/regimes/contest.html#design

THE B777 HIGH LIFT TEST IN THE 12-FOOT PRESSURE WIND TUNNEL

by Dale Satran

February 1998

There were several research goals for this test. The B777 aircraft was
already certified and in public use but there were some discrepancies
between previous wind tunnel test data and the flight test results. The
research goals were to establish a high Reynolds Number database for a
full-span model in the 12-Foot Pressure Wind Tunnel, to evaluate stability
and control characteristics, and to evaluate a new high lift design.

The model mounting system is different in the 12-Foot from the
mounting system used in other wind tunnels where the B777 had
previously been tested. The 12-Foot mounting system created some wind
tunnel entry. In other words, the data could not be compared directly
with data from previous wind tunnel tests. The data from the test was  
useful to the B777 program but only incrementally. A future test was  
planned to account for the model mounting interference by testing the
model upright and inverted. Unfortunately at this time, that test has been
canceled due to budget cuts.

The incremental data from the test provided Boeing with some new
insights into the performance of the B777. A large matrix of different
control deflections were documented for different tunnel conditions.  
Several minor configuration changes were evaluated for future
incorporation into the B777 configuration. The advanced high lift design
work was unfortunately eliminated due to budget cuts.

As a part of this test, we built a semi-span model to be tested in the
National Transonic Facility, NTF, which is a cryogenic wind tunnel. The
NTF has the capability of testing the B777 model at flight Reynolds
Numbers. When the data from that test is available, it will be compared to
the full-span data from the 12-Foot and other wind tunnel tests. One of
the results will be to determine what Reynolds Number is required to  
accurately predict the performance of an aircraft.