ATO #103 - April 7, 2000

PART 1: Upcoming Chats
PART 2: Project News
PART 3: Blended Wing Body Test in the 40x80 Wind Tunnel

UPCOMING CHATS

QuestChats require pre-registration. Unless otherwise

noted, registration
is at:  http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/chats/


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

Did anyone ever copy your work? How did that make you feel?
Chris Beins plays an intersting role! His job is to help engineers and
scientists work with lawyers and business people to understand ideas,
software 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"

Design a New Aircraft CONTEST Ends April 14th!  
Regimes of Flight Design a New Aircraft Contest, Grades 4-8
For more information: go to
http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/events/regimes/contest.html#design


Regimes of Flight Art Contest begins April 17, 2000

BLENDED WING BODY TEST IN THE 40x80 WIND TUNNEL

by Dale Satran

March 27,2000

A revolutionary vehicle design where the wing and fuselage are blended
together provides significant performance benefits over traditional
commercial transports. Due to the blending, the vehicle is
basically a flying wing.

Total vehicle weight is reduced and aerodynamic performance is enhanced by
this new design but the stability and control of the aircraft is
challenging. In other words it will get better gas mileage but it
might be more difficult to fly. To evaluate the total configuration, a
14.2% scale vehicle (does this mean smaller or larger?) is being designed
as a remotely piloted vehicle. Before the vehicle is flight tested, the
vehicle will be mounted in the 40x80 Wind Tunnel. It will save money to
use the same model in the wind tunnel and for flight testing.

The vehicle will have three engines each capable of producing 200 pounds
of thrust. All control surfaces on the vehicle will be remotely controlled
by the flight computer as directed by the wind tunnel data
acquisition computer. Do you think that would be a fun computer program to
write?

Since the vehicle will be a flight vehicle, there are numerous challenges
and restrictions on the modifications that can be made to the vehicle for
mounting the vehicle into the wind tunnel. Every time
trade offs, on the one hand it saves some money but now it will complicate
how we mount the model in the tunnel.