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Completed TRL 6 (started at 3, targeting 6)
New aircraft configurations are now possible where the vehicle geometry is no longer constrained by the physics of natural aerodynamic stability, computing capability for flight control, or internal combustion propulsion physics. The proposed unmanned flight vehicle concept development will explore a variable geometry, electric flight vehicle that can radically change shape during flight for specific flight modes and weather conditions such as a low aspect ratio hovering configuration that can reconfigure in flight to an ultra-high aspect ratio vehicle for extreme endurance. This concept will also explore the separation of the main vehicle into multiple flight vehicles for placement of earth science or weather sensors. This type of flight vehicle could support missions such as hurricane or forest fire observation where a combination of extreme endurance, hovering for ease of takeoff and landing, and formation flight for distributed environmental measurements is desired.
This innovation is targeted at STIP Grand Challenge 1. Safe and Reliable on-Demand Mobility Vehicles. Specifically , this proposed CIF/IRAD innovation is a cross-cutting technology that could not only enable safe, efficient operations like package delivery and infrastructure inspection, but also allow improved placement of Earth science sensors like distributed sensors within a hurricane, observation of a forest fire from multiple vantage points or long range atmospheric flights that could be used for calibration of orbital earth sensing satellites. One of NASA’s charters is to “develop sensing techniques to precisely capture regional and global measurements that aid in science community studies of winds, CO2, clouds, aerosols, and other key atmospheric processes.” NASA Langley has a unique combination of expertise in the areas of both earth science and aerodynamics research. This project would combine these strengths to develop an earth atmospheric flight sensor platform for in-situ placement of a variety of sensors for measurement within Earth’s atmosphere. Historically, there has been significant collaboration between Langley’s Science Directorate and the Research Services Directorate to fly missions on manned aircraft for atmospheric measurements. Recent advances in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) technology has opened the possibility for a dramatic increase in the amount of atmospheric data that could be gathered at a significantly lower cost compared to manned flight. The long-term impacts of the proposed technology development are 1) improvement in the quantity, quality, and cost of earth atmospheric measurements and 2) improvement in the weather tolerance and endurance of small UAS that could be used on missions like hurricane surveillance and forest fire observation.
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