NASA S CONTRIBUTIONS TOAER○NAUT|CS
w the Naca and nasa advancedgas turmilitary and civilian aircraft
How NASa has contributed to the quest for fuel-efficieand environmentally friendly aircraft teching combustion processes, alternative fuels, and pollutint transfer into the upper atmosphere, searching foappropriate technological solutions, and resulting in lesless wasteful, and more efficient aircraft designsood stewardship by applying its scientific and technicato wind and solarfficient energy-producing wind turbinesigh-altitudeThe record of NACa-NASa accomplishmenstrates the value of consistent investment in aeronautical research asa means of maintaining the health and stability of America's aerospacedustrial base That base has generated an Aboth civil and military aeronautics, but one that is far from assured asthe Nation enters the second century of winged flight It is hoped thatthese stuhe inner workings of the ageprove of value to the men and women of NASa,tothose who benefit across the United states and overseas from their dedicated work, and to students of aeronautics and members of the largerthenel of Nasa, and the nacabefore them, that this volume is dedicated, with affection and respeRichard p halliAugust 4, 2
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9%The x-48B subscale deWing-Body (BWB)
The BWB may represenight awaytube and wing"jeti2
weep and swinReshaping the Wing forthe Jet and rocket AgeRichard p halliond deltapractical attainment of the high speeds promised by thethe turbojet engine and the solid-and-liquid-fueled rocket Refining theswept and delta planforms from theoretical constructs to practicalies involved many challenges and problems requiring creative analysisance led to the swept wing becoming the iconic symbol of the jet agePROGRESSIVE EVOLUTION OF AIRCRAFT DESIGN HAS WITNESSEDd reinterprettions The canard wood-and-fabric biplane launched the poweredflight revolution and gave way to the tractor biplane and monoplane, andbothtoplane of the interwar era, The tur-Djet engine set aside the piston engine as the primary motive power forong-range commercial and military aircraft, and it has been continuallyturbofans of the present era,some with afterburning as well The increasing airspeed of aircraft drovets own transformation of configurad fineness ratios Across the prinpropeller-driven era, from the beginning of the 20th century to the end ofthe interwar era, wingspan generally far exceeded fuselage length
Thatchanged early in the jet and rocket era By the time military and test pilotsfrom the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics(NACA)first probedthe speed of sound with the Bell XS-1 and Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak,ingspan and fuselage length were roughly equal within a decade, asaircraft speed extended into the supersonic regime, the ratio of wingspanfuselage length dramatically reversed, evidenced by aircraft suchthe douglas X-3, the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, and the anglo-lTransport(SST) Nicknames handily captured the
transformation: the rakish X-3 was known informally as the"Stiletto"andhe only slightly less sleek F-104 as the"Missile with a manell another manifestation of profound design transfomation, one that gave to the airplane a new identity that swiftly becamea global icon: the advent of the swept wing If the biplane constituted thermative airplane of the first quarter century of flight and the straighting cantilever monoplane that of the next quarter century, by the time ofhe golden anniversary of Kitty Hawk, the swept wing airplane had sup-planted both, its futuristic predominance embodied by the elegant northAmerican F-86 Sabre that did battle in"MiG Alley, "high over North Koreasing Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 jet airliners replaced what historeter Brooks termed the " DC-4 generation"of straight wingller -drivenbodiment of the entirhe high-speed swept wing is the commonly accepted global highway symbol for airports, whether an intercontinental center such as Los angelesrankfurt, or Heathrow; regional hubs such as Dallas, CopenhagenCharlotte or any of the myriad general aviation and business aviation air-fields around the world, even those still primarily populated, ironically, bysmall, straight wing propeller-and -piston-driven airplanesThe Tailless Imperative: The Early History of Swept and Delta WingsThe highelements in aircraft design, was European by birth But this did nothe swept wings first appearance in the worlds skies
The swept wing datedbefore the First World War, when John Dunne had developed a seribiplanes using the swept planform as a meensuring inherent longitudinal stability, imparting"self-correctingy gustinduced pitching motions, dunne s aircraft, whilefreakish, did enjoy some commercial success He sold manufacturingter W Brocks, The Modern Airliner: ts Origins and Develpment(london: Putnam &Co9describe a calegory of largdefined byshared design characteristics, induding circular crosssection constantdameteselages, four-engines, tricycle anding gear, and propellardriven (pisiturbopropeller, from theDC 4 through the Bristl Britannia, and predominant in the ime periodfough 1958 Thoughring and his concept of such ageneration"both historicaly vald and of enduring valve
irculation pattern around a swept wing that, essenflying at lower velocities As wellhe presented a sketch of an aircraft with such a "Pfielformiges tragwerkfting Surface ), though one that had, by the standardsof subsequent design, very modest sweep and very high aspect ratioTheodoKarman recallite two decades later that afterward, at the conference banquet, "General [Arturo] Crocco, the orgazer of the congress and a man of far-reaching vision, went further whilecodling on the back of the menu card, drawing a plane with sweptback wings and tail, and evpt propeller blades, laughingly callingbevond mere dinner conversation for afterward Guidonia researchersth a"push-pulwin-engine fuselage configuration Howentional, reflecting the Italian air ministryIncreding emphasis upon building a large and powerful air armalreadyld dependable technolDelegates from other nations present at Busemann's briefing missed itsperhapsbecause histhe era of the dc-2 and DC-3, which had pronounced leading edge taper-looked far less radical than the theory and purpose behind it impliedNACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory researchers had alreadyfasharplLangleing taper study the laboratory issued the next yearfirst glandBusemann d
esign certainly did not look like a shape that would transform aviation from the firmly subsonic to the transonic, making possiblthe potential of the jet engine, and the jet age (with its jet set)that followedAdot BAerodynamische Auftrieb bei Uberschallgeschwindigkeit, luffahrtforschung,6(c319356 Theodre von Kaman, Aerodynamics INewcGrawHil Book Company, Inc, 1963 edDivisione Sezione aerodindouble-endDo 335 Pfei['Arethe ate wo936 I thank Professor Claudio Bruno of the Universita deali studi di roma"la saand Brigadier General Marcello di lauro and Lieutenant Colonel Massimiliano Baratthe Stato Maggiore dell Aeronoutica Militare(SMdAM, Rome, for their very great assistance inne to examine this study at the Uificio Storico of the2009Charocteristics of Tapered Wings, NACA Report936: see in particular Figs
Copyright e 2010 by the National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationThe opinions expressed in this volare those of the authors and do notnecessarily reflect the official position of the United States Government or ofhe National Aeronautics and Space Administratwe(-lsBN9780160846359sBN978016-0846359
NASA S CONTRIBUTIONS TOAER○NAUT|CSVOLUMAERODYNAMICSSTRUCTURESPROPULSIONCONTROLSDR, RICHARD P HALLION EDITORashington, DC 20546NASA/SP-2010-570-Vol
Library of Congressloging in- Publicatiobpropulsion, and controls /Richard P Hallion, editorIncludes bibliographical references and indexNASASP-2011
United States National Atics and Space administratioHistory 2 Aeronautics-Research-United States--History I HallionRichardTL521312N382629130973-dc222009044645
ContentsSweep and Swing: Reshaping the Wing for the Jet and Rocket AgeRichard P
hallion2Richard Whitcomb and the Quest for Aerodynamic EfficiencNACA-NASA and the Rotary Wing Revolutionftening the Sonic Boom: 50 Years of NASA ResearchToward Transatmospheric Flight: From V-2 to the X-516Physical Problems, Challenges, and Pragmatic SolutionsRobert G Hoey859NASA and Computational Structural analysisHigh-Temperature Structures and materials
0Abert C
PiccirilloJames BankeCaitlin ho78413Bruce larimerIndex
ForeworASpace Administration(NASA)has passed beyond the half century mark, its loPresidential administrationsd the american people whom theserve-have come to regard its scientific and technological expertise Inthat half century, flight has advanced from supersonic to orbital velocr has bithe deeans of intercontinentalobility, astrod robotic spacecraftdeveloped by the Agency have explored the remote corners of the solarsystem and even passed into interstellar spaceBorn of a crisis- the chaotic aftermath of the Soviet Union s spacetriumph with Sputnik--NASA rose magnificently to the challenge of thWithof Nasas establishment teamsastronauts would be planning for the lunar landings, first acceplished with Neil Armstrongs"one small step on July 20, 1969
Fewents have been so emotionally charged, and none so publicly visibler fraught withfrom thplain of Tranquillity BaseIn the wake of aNASA embarked on a series of space inititives that, if they might have lacked the emotional and attention-gettingof apollo, were nevertheless remarkable for thent and daring The Space Shuttle, the International Space Stationechnical personnel, and its dedication to space science and explorationther aspect to nasage wheand when its most visible employ
rocket into space, continuing humanity's quest into the unknownThat hidden aspect is adflight within the atmospheredistinct from the ballistic flight of astronaAgency's technical competencies, dating to the formation, in 1915, ofNASAs lineal predecessor, the National adviCommitteeAeronautics(NACA) It was the naca that largely restored Americasaeronautical primacy in the interwar years after 1918, deriving the airfoilprofiles and configuration concepts that defined successive generationsble aircraft as ameried from the subing the naCa after the shock of Sputnik, took American aeronauticshe hyward into thstructures, electronic flight contenergy-efficient flighthis volume the first of a two-yolume set, traces contributions by nasa and the post-Second world War NACa to the fieldthat work that enabled the exploitation of theturbojet and high-speed aerodynamic revolution that led to the gasbine-powered jet age that followed, within which we still live
The subiects covered in this first volume are an eclectic mix of surveys, case studies, and biographical examinations ranging acrossmultiple disciplines and technical competencies residing within theNational aeronauticSpace Administration Tdiehk and the capabilities of its staffThey includeThe advent of the sharply swept-back wing, which enabledof the turbojet revolutihereby launched the era of high-speed global mability, becoming itself thesymbol of the jetThe contributions and influence of Richard T whitcomba legendary NACA-NASa researcher who gave to aero-autics some of the key methods of reducing drag andproving flight efficiencithe challetransonicrsonic nlightThe work of the NACA and NASA in furthering the rotaryorcraft from autogiros through helicopters, convercraft
rewordHow NASa worked from the earliest days of the super-ing effects of the sonic boom, deves, and then methods to alleviate boom formatioand impingement, leadingel aircraft shapingand methods thaoday prorgthe design of transonic anIc citary aircraftHow the NACA and NASA, havingextending lift-borne flight into the hypersonic regiontransatmosphelhicles such as the legendary x-15, various liftingers of air- breathing propulsion with the Mach 9d x-4The physical problems and challenges that forced naSAarchers to study and find pragmatic solinstabilities forcing development of increasingly sophiscated artificial stability systems, flight simulation fogh-performanceospace vehicleand aerothedynamic structural deformation and heatingNASAs role in advancing and maturing computationalfluid dynamics(CFD) and applying this new tool to aero-research and aerospace vehicle design
e exploitation of materials science and developmentof high-temperature structures to enable design of practical high-speed military and civil aircraft and spacecrafthe advent of computerized structural loads predictiondeling, and simulation, which, likeized aerospace design practices, enhancing both safety(“ywire), from rudimentary testbeds evolved from apolloarchitectures and softwareeasinglyhisticated systems integrating aerodynamic and propulsion controls