Feb 29 2016

From The Space Library

Release 16-022 NASA Begins Work to Build a Quieter Supersonic Passenger Jet

The return of supersonic passenger air travel is one step closer to reality with NASA's award of a contract for the preliminary design of a “low boom” flight demonstration aircraft. This is the first in a series of ‘X-planes’ in NASA's New Aviation Horizons initiative, introduced in the agency’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced the award at an event Monday at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.

“NASA is working hard to make flight greener, safer and quieter – all while developing aircraft that travel faster, and building an aviation system that operates more efficiently,” said Bolden. “To that end, it’s worth noting that it's been almost 70 years since Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 as part of our predecessor agency's high speed research. Now we’re continuing that supersonic X-plane legacy with this preliminary design award for a quieter supersonic jet with an aim toward passenger flight."

NASA selected a team led by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company of Palmdale, California, to complete a preliminary design for Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST). The work will be conducted under a task order against the Basic and Applied Aerospace Research and Technology (BAART) contract at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

After conducting feasibility studies and working to better understand acceptable sound levels across the country, NASA's Commercial Supersonic Technology Project asked industry teams to submit design concepts for a piloted test aircraft that can fly at supersonic speeds, creating a supersonic "heartbeat" -- a soft thump rather than the disruptive boom currently associated with supersonic flight.

“Developing, building and flight testing a quiet supersonic X-plane is the next logical step in our path to enabling the industry's decision to open supersonic travel for the flying public," said Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission.

Lockheed Martin will receive about $20 million over 17 months for QueSST preliminary design work. The Lockheed Martin team includes subcontractors GE Aviation of Cincinnati and Tri Models Inc. of Huntington Beach, California.

The company will develop baseline aircraft requirements and a preliminary aircraft design, with specifications, and provide supporting documentation for concept formulation and planning. This documentation would be used to prepare for the detailed design, building and testing of the QueSST jet. Performance of this preliminary design also must undergo analytical and wind tunnel validation.

In addition to design and building, this Low Boom Flight Demonstration (LBFD) phase of the project also will include validation of community response to the new, quieter supersonic design. The detailed design and building of the QueSST aircraft, conducted under the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's Integrated Aviation Systems Program, will fall under a future contract competition.

NASA’s 10-year New Aviation Horizons initiative has the ambitious goals of reducing fuel use, emissions and noise through innovations in aircraft design that departs from the conventional tube-and-wing aircraft shape.

The New Aviation Horizons X-planes will typically be about half-scale of a production aircraft and likely are to be piloted. Design-and-build will take several years with aircraft starting their flight campaign around 2020, depending on funding.

Release M16-016 NASA Technology Transfer Roadshow Stops in Texas, New Mexico

NASA’s Technology Transfer program will host events on March 9 and 10 in the El Paso, Texas, area and Las Cruces, New Mexico, to discuss how students and entrepreneurs can capitalize on NASA’s technology research and development.

Technology Transfer program executive and Innovation Office director Daniel Lockney will hold public lectures discussing NASA’s technology portfolio and the agency’s Space Race partnership with the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI).

The events are:

• 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. MST, March 9, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces,
• 10 a.m. to noon, March 10, Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad, Juarez, Mexico
• 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., March 10, University of Texas, El Paso

Media are invited to attend and should contact Gina Anderson at 202-306-5289 or gina.n.anderson@nasa.gov no later than 5 p.m. on March 8.

NASA has a long history of finding new, innovative uses for its space and aeronautics technologies. Lockney, who grew up in the El Paso region, will discuss the process of moving these technologies from the launch pad and laboratory into the hands of the public and how local business can access this wealth of technology for commercial and research applications. The challenge will feature NASA inventions from the fields of: medical devices; robotics; unmanned aerial vehicles; optics and imaging; power generation, distribution, and storage; and advanced materials coatings.

Lockney also will explain NASA’s role in Space Race, a global competition designed to bring commercially viable, NASA-developed technologies to market. It provides competing teams access to patented NASA technology as well as business mentoring. Winning teams also will have access to significant seed funding provided by a third-party venture fund for start-up businesses.

Teams, which require at least two undergraduate, graduate or post-doctoral students, accepted into the challenge will have the opportunity to receive training through CAI’s accelerator program and network with CAI mentors, advisors and judges. Teams must enter by March 27 to participate. Up to ten finalists will be selected, and may be awarded between $100,000 and $1.2 million in start-up funding.

“Meet the Competition” Event Presents Cube Quest Challenge Second Round of Competitors

DATE: Thursday, March 3, 2016

 TIME: 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. PST

 LOCATION: NASA's Ames Research Center, via Adobe Connect

On March 3, 2016, NASA's Cube Quest Challenge, part of the agency's Centennial Challenge program, will host a "Meet the Competition" online event for the public to learn about the competitors of Ground Tournament 2 (GT-2). The “Meet the Competition” event is also an opportunity for the teams participating in the $5 million small satellite technology competition to use an interactive platform to present their mission concepts, technologies and mission designs, and promote their plans for winning the Lunar Derby and Deep Space Derby prizes.


During the event, which will be live-streamed via Adobe Connect, starting at 1 p.m., social media and members of the public can ask questions to the new teams and learn more about the challenge details. To participate, visit: https://ac.arc.nasa.gov/cqc.

This event follows the closed face-to-face team presentations for GT-2, which is the second in a series of competition checkpoints that allow the judges to review the teams' progress. Following completion of the ground tournaments, Cube Quest will continue with the Lunar and Deep Space Derbies. Competing teams will navigate their own CubeSats into lunar orbit for the Lunar Derby, or up to a range ten times greater than the distance to the moon, referred to as the Deep Space Derby.

NASA's Cube Quest Challenge is a prize contest for non-government CubeSat developers to be selected as one of three allocated slots on NASA's Orion capsule's first unmanned lunar flyby, Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), planned for launch in 2018. To date, ten teams have submitted their plans and designs and are vying for the top five ranks to be announced at a public event scheduled at the end of March.