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ATO # 94 - January 28, 2000 PART 1: Upcoming Chat UPCOMING CHATS
QuestChats require pre-registration. Unless otherwise noted, registration is at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/chats/#chatting Tuesday, February 1, 2000, 10:30 - 11: 30 AM Pacific Low Speed Regimes of Flight QuestChat with Gavin Botha Gavin Botha uses two of the world's largest wind tunnels to test full size aircraft. A Regimes of Flight Chat! Read Gavin's biography at http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/botha.html Thursday, February 10, 2000 10 AM - 11 AM Pacific Aerospace Team Online QuestChat with Kelly McEntire Kelly McEntire manages a small group of mechanical, aerospace and structural engineers, responsible for supporting the aeropropulsion engineers (a.k.a., rocket scientists) in their lab. Read his biography at http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/mcentire.html Wedmesday, February 16, 2000, 1:00 PM Regimes of Flight Chat with Steve Smith Steve Smith is an aerospace research engineer who studies how airplanes will perform at different speeds. Right now he's researching supersonic flight and he uses computers, wind tunnels and is build his own plane. Read his bio at http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/smith.html Thursday, March 2, 2000 10 AM - 11 AM Pacific Earl Duque studies how air flows around, through, and under objects such as wings, propellers and aircraft vehicles. Read his biography at http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/duque.html BLACK HISTORY MONTH CHAT SERIES
February is Black History Month. To celebrate, NASA Quest will host a series of QuestChats and forums with African American scientists and engineers who contribute their work in support of NASA's mission and goals. The schedule which may be added to over time can be found at http://quest.nasa.gov/qchats/special/mlk00/ Some of these are of special interest to Aerospace Team Online participants! Thursday, February 3, 2000, 1:00 AM Pacific Laurie Marshall, Aerospace Engineer, Dryden Flight Research Center Laurie is an Aerospace Engineer. Her recent work included a laminar flow study of the wings of the F-16XL#2. Read her biography at http://quest.nasa.gov/women/bios/lm.html Tuesday, February 8 - Thursday, February 10, 2000 Pacific Forum(questions not answered live during a three day period) with Julie Williams-Byrd Electronics Engineer/Aerospace Technologist, Langley Research Center Julie designs and builds lasers to investigate the makeup of the atmosphere. Read her biography at http://quest.nasa.gov/women/bios/jwb.html Tuesday, February 8, 2000, 9:00 AM Pacific Chat with Kim Hubbard, Computer Scientist Kim works on system engineering and software development. She has helped to network computers in space. Read her biography at http://quest.nasa.gov/women/bios/kh.html Thursday, February 24, 2000, 9 AM Pacific Chat with Aprille Ericsson-Jackson, Ph.D., Aerospace Engineer Aprille works on guidance, navigation and control, and design analysis at Goddard Space Flight Center Read her bio at http://quest.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/ericsson.html PROJECT NEWS
NEW CONTENT Sneak preview the "Regimes of Flight" a new resource for teachers and students about flight at different speeds. This will be targeted for grades 4-8. You will find background material, lesson plans, chats and contests!! For more information see http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/events/regimes - - - - - - CONTESTS Regimes of Flight Class Mural Contest, Grades 4-8 January 25 - March 2,2000 Choose one of the regimes of flight: low, medium, high, supersonic, hypersonic. Classes submit a mural that visually depicts not only the definition and description of the category, but also visually depicts aircraft from that category (Note: Key word "visually" means no words). For more information: go to http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/events/regimes/contest.html [Editors Note: Gavin Botha is an aerospace engineer who has worked as a test manager for a wind tunnel that simulates low speed flight conditions. Read his bio at http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/botha.html ] LOW SPEED WIND TUNNEL TESTS by Gavin Botha January 19, 2000 I have been involved with several fixed wing aircraft tests, as well as helicopter tests. These include: Fixed Wing: F-18 High Angle of Attack Test, where we tested a Navy Blue Angles Aircraft at slow flight speeds with the nose of the aircraft flying at a very high attitude. We tested different types of devices mounted to the front of the aircraft to aid in controlling the fighter at these radical attitudes. Results: During the F-18 test we learned what type of devise provided the best control for the F-18 flying at these nose high angles. These designs, which were little wings that popped out of the sides of the nose, were built and tested on an actual F-18. Someday this may become standard equipment on certain aircraft. Helicopters: Sikorsky Bearingless Main Rotor Test This was a new design in helicopter blades, that used modern composite materials for the blade structure. These new materials allowed the helicopter blades to bend and twist to the proper control positions without using a bearing device that is normally needed for a standard rotor blade to rotate. Results: The Bearingless Main Rotor test proved that helicopter blades can be built without using bearings for blade rotation. This would save in manufacturing costs and is much easier to maintain. Sikorsky Helicopter Company now has a production helicopter that uses bearingless main rotors. Tilt Rotor Aeroacoustic Model This is a 1/4 scale model of the V-22 Military Tilt Rotor Aircraft. The tilt rotor aircraft combines the best features of an aircraft and helicopter. A propeller on each wing can rotate forward, so that it becomes an airplane, and can then tilt backwards until both propellers are acting as helicopter rotors, and can hover like a helicopter. Results: We are still testing the 1/4 scale Tilt Rotor, but have already learned valuable information on the performance and noise characteristics of the propellers. We are trying to lower the noise produced from the blades so that the aircraft can take off and land from buildings without being too noisy. |
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