Langley Research Center
Encyclopedia
Langley Research Center (LaRC) is the oldest of NASA
's field centers, located in Hampton
, Virginia, United States. It directly borders Poquoson, Virginia
and Langley Air Force Base. LaRC focuses primarily on aeronautical research, though the Apollo lunar lander
was flight-tested at the facility and a number of high-profile space missions have been planned and designed on-site.
Established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
, the Center currently devotes two-thirds of its programs to aeronautics
, and the rest to space
. LaRC researchers use more than 40 wind tunnel
s to study improved aircraft
and spacecraft
safety, performance, and efficiency. Between 1958 and 1963, when NASA started Project Mercury
, LaRC served as the main office of the Space Task Group
, with the office being transferred to the Manned Spacecraft Center (now the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
) in Houston in 1962–63.
The current director is Lesa B. Roe
.
established Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory on Langley Field. Both Langley Field and the Langley Laboratory are named for aviation pioneer Samuel Pierpont Langley
. The Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
had established a base there earlier that same year. The first research facilities were in place and aeronautical research was started by 1920. Initially the laboratory included four researchers and 11 technicians.
Langley Field and NACA began parallel growth as air power proved its utility during World War I. The center was originally established to explore the field of aerodynamic research involving airframe and propulsion engine design and performance. In 1934 the world's largest wind tunnel was constructed at Langley Field which was able to test full scale aircraft. One of the first wind tunnels able to do this.
Early in 1943 the center expanded to include rocket research, leading to the establishment of a flight station at Wallops Island, Virginia. A further expansion of the research program permitted Langley Research Center to orbit payloads. As rocket research grew, aeronautics research continued to expand and played an important part when subsonic flight was advanced and supersonic and hypersonic flight were introduced.
Langley Research Center can claim many historic firsts, some of which have proven to be revolutionary scientific breakthroughs. These accomplishments include the development of the concept of research aircraft leading to supersonic flight, the world's first transonic wind tunnels, the Lunar Landing Facility providing the simulation of lunar gravity, and the Viking program for Mars exploration.
Langley Research Center performs critical research on aeronautics, including wake
vortex
behavior, fixed-wing aircraft
, rotary wing aircraft, air safety
, human factors
and aerospace engineering
. LaRC supported the design and testing of the hypersonic
X-43, which achieved a world speed record
of Mach
9.6 (almost 7,000 miles per hour). LaRC assisted the NTSB in the investigation of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587
.
Work began in July 2011 to remove the 1940's era 16 16 feet (4.9 m) transonic wind tunnel. The facility supported development and propulsion integration research for many military aircraft including all fighters since 1960 (F-14, F-15
, F-16, F-18 and the Joint Strike Fighter) but had been inactive since 2004. Langley retained transonic wind tunnel testing capabilities facilities in the National Transonic Facility, a high pressure, cryogenically cooled 8.2 feet (2.5 m) closed loop wind tunnel.
emitting electron
gun, (A cousin to the ones found in television Cathode Ray Tube
s), which, at high speeds, melts either aluminum or titanium
wire, (positioned by dual independent wire feeders), into the desired 3-dimensional metallic parts with material strength comparable to that of wrought products. The machine's deposition rate is 150 in³/h (690 mm³/s), similar to that of its plastic-fabricating counterpart. Metallic parts are also built directly from CAD, without molds or tools, leaving the end product with absolutely no porosity
. Other facts include:
Overall, Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication is a layer-additive technique that offers potential for improvements in cost, weight, and performance to enhance mission success for aircraft
, launch vehicles, and spacecraft
.
, and industrial
plastic parts. The fabrication of plastic parts is not all that dissimillar to the EBF³ process, except the melting apparatus is a thin, grated heating element
, but other than that they are quite similar, e.g. they are both run completely by CAD data and deal with various freeform fabrication of raw materials. Plastic reformation machines have also come to the interest of graphical artist, opening a whole new world of bringing their masterpiece
s to life, all with a 'flick' of a switch, so to speak.
, Langley was a center for training of rendezvous
in space. In 1965, Langley opened the Lunar Landing Research Facility
for simulations of moon landings with a mock Apollo Lunar Module
suspended from a gantry over a simulated lunar landscape. There was experimental work on some Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
s (LLRV).
for a Mars
landing. (see the Mars Exploration Rover
.)
research to support NASA's mission.
5 times. In 1929d for the development of low-drag cowling for radial air-cooled aircraft engines, 1946 to Lewis A. Rodert, Lawrence D. Bell and Chuck Yeager
for the development of an efficient wing deicing system, 1947 to John Stack
of the then Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory for research to determine the physical laws affecting supersonic flight, also shared in this trophy for their work on supersonic flight, 1951 to John Stack
for the development and use of the slotted-throat wind tunnel, 1954 Richard T. Whitcomb for the development of the Whitcomb area rule, according to the citation, a "powerful, simple, and useful method of reducing greatly the sharp increase in wing drag heretofore associated with transonic flight, and which constituted a major factor requiring great reserves of power to attain supersonic speeds."
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's field centers, located in Hampton
Hampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
, Virginia, United States. It directly borders Poquoson, Virginia
Poquoson, Virginia
Poquoson is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula, in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 12,150 according to the 2010 Census...
and Langley Air Force Base. LaRC focuses primarily on aeronautical research, though the Apollo lunar lander
Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back...
was flight-tested at the facility and a number of high-profile space missions have been planned and designed on-site.
Established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a U.S. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and...
, the Center currently devotes two-thirds of its programs to aeronautics
Aeronautics
Aeronautics is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of airflight-capable machines, or the techniques of operating aircraft and rocketry within the atmosphere...
, and the rest to space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
. LaRC researchers use more than 40 wind tunnel
Wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
s to study improved aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
and spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
safety, performance, and efficiency. Between 1958 and 1963, when NASA started Project Mercury
Project Mercury
In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
, LaRC served as the main office of the Space Task Group
Space Task Group
The Space Task Group was a working group of NASA engineers created in 1958, tasked with superintending America's manned spaceflight programs. It was headed by Robert Gilruth andbased at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. After President John F...
, with the office being transferred to the Manned Spacecraft Center (now the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's center for human spaceflight training, research and flight control. The center consists of a complex of 100 buildings constructed on 1,620 acres in Houston, Texas, USA...
) in Houston in 1962–63.
The current director is Lesa B. Roe
Lesa Roe
Lesa B. Roe is the current Director of NASA's Langley Research Center. She received her Bachelors degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida, and her Masters degree in electrical engineering from the University of Central Florida. In October 2005 she was named the Director of...
.
History
In 1917, less than three years after it was created, the NACANACA
- Organizations :* National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the forerunner of the U.S. federal agency NASA* National Association for Campus Activities, an organization for programmers of university and college activities...
established Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory on Langley Field. Both Langley Field and the Langley Laboratory are named for aviation pioneer Samuel Pierpont Langley
Samuel Pierpont Langley
Samuel Pierpont Langley was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation...
. The Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
The Aviation Section, Signal Corps, was the military aviation service of the United States Army from 1914 to 1918, and a direct ancestor of the United States Air Force. It replaced and absorbed the Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps, and was succeeded briefly by the Division of Military...
had established a base there earlier that same year. The first research facilities were in place and aeronautical research was started by 1920. Initially the laboratory included four researchers and 11 technicians.
Early in 1943 the center expanded to include rocket research, leading to the establishment of a flight station at Wallops Island, Virginia. A further expansion of the research program permitted Langley Research Center to orbit payloads. As rocket research grew, aeronautics research continued to expand and played an important part when subsonic flight was advanced and supersonic and hypersonic flight were introduced.
Langley Research Center can claim many historic firsts, some of which have proven to be revolutionary scientific breakthroughs. These accomplishments include the development of the concept of research aircraft leading to supersonic flight, the world's first transonic wind tunnels, the Lunar Landing Facility providing the simulation of lunar gravity, and the Viking program for Mars exploration.
Aeronautics
Wake turbulence
Wake turbulence is turbulence that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. This turbulence includes various components, the most important of which are wing vorticies and jetwash. Jetwash refers simply to the rapidly moving gases expelled from a jet engine; it is extremely turbulent,...
vortex
Vortex
A vortex is a spinning, often turbulent,flow of fluid. Any spiral motion with closed streamlines is vortex flow. The motion of the fluid swirling rapidly around a center is called a vortex...
behavior, fixed-wing aircraft
Fixed-wing aircraft
A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...
, rotary wing aircraft, air safety
Air safety
Air safety is a term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorization of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through regulation, education and training. It can also be applied in the context of campaigns that inform the public as to the safety of air travel.-United...
, human factors
Human factors
Human factors science or human factors technologies is a multidisciplinary field incorporating contributions from psychology, engineering, industrial design, statistics, operations research and anthropometry...
and aerospace engineering
Aerospace engineering
Aerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...
. LaRC supported the design and testing of the hypersonic
Hypersonic
In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that is highly supersonic. Since the 1970s, the term has generally been assumed to refer to speeds of Mach 5 and above...
X-43, which achieved a world speed record
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
of Mach
Mach number
Mach number is the speed of an object moving through air, or any other fluid substance, divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance for its particular physical conditions, including those of temperature and pressure...
9.6 (almost 7,000 miles per hour). LaRC assisted the NTSB in the investigation of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587
American Airlines Flight 587
American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300, crashed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens, a borough of New York City, New York, shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport on November 12, 2001. This is the second deadliest U.S...
.
Work began in July 2011 to remove the 1940's era 16 16 feet (4.9 m) transonic wind tunnel. The facility supported development and propulsion integration research for many military aircraft including all fighters since 1960 (F-14, F-15
F-15 Eagle
The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is a twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter designed by McDonnell Douglas to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat. It is considered among the most successful modern fighters with over 100 aerial combat victories with no losses in dogfights...
, F-16, F-18 and the Joint Strike Fighter) but had been inactive since 2004. Langley retained transonic wind tunnel testing capabilities facilities in the National Transonic Facility, a high pressure, cryogenically cooled 8.2 feet (2.5 m) closed loop wind tunnel.
Electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF³)
The EBF³ process produces structural metallic parts with immense strength, and is conducive to performing repairs in remote locations. In addition, the ability to build functionally graded, unitized parts directly from CAD data offers enhanced performance in a great number of applications. Just recently LaRC has become home to this new type of machining process, which is used by their new room-sized electron-emitting device. This machine uses a High Frequency 42 kW, X-rayX-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
emitting electron
Electron
The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
gun, (A cousin to the ones found in television Cathode Ray Tube
Cathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
s), which, at high speeds, melts either aluminum or titanium
Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....
wire, (positioned by dual independent wire feeders), into the desired 3-dimensional metallic parts with material strength comparable to that of wrought products. The machine's deposition rate is 150 in³/h (690 mm³/s), similar to that of its plastic-fabricating counterpart. Metallic parts are also built directly from CAD, without molds or tools, leaving the end product with absolutely no porosity
Porosity
Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0–1, or as a percentage between 0–100%...
. Other facts include:
- A 6-axis positioning
- Heated or cooled platen
- 1x10^-6 torrTorrThe torr is a non-SI unit of pressure with the ratio of 760 to 1 standard atmosphere, chosen to be roughly equal to the fluid pressure exerted by a millimetre of mercury, i.e., a pressure of 1 torr is approximately equal to 1 mmHg...
vacuumVacuumIn everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...
capability (needed for the high power Electron beam gun) - 72 x 24 x 24 inch build envelope
- Power efficiency in excess of 90%
- Near 100% feedstock efficiency
- Can deposit reflective materials not processable with lasers
- Potential portable EBF³ system (Under Development)
- Potential Fabrication & repair from the plants to the planets
- Research assistance for developing large scale fabrication in space
Overall, Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication is a layer-additive technique that offers potential for improvements in cost, weight, and performance to enhance mission success for aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
, launch vehicles, and spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
.
Plastic fabrication
LaRC also houses a large collection of various, inexpensive plastic reformation machines. These machines are generally very critical in the freeform fabrication department for faster timing, better precision, and larger quantities of low-cost toy, modelModel (physical)
A physical model is a smaller or larger physical copy of an object...
, and industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
plastic parts. The fabrication of plastic parts is not all that dissimillar to the EBF³ process, except the melting apparatus is a thin, grated heating element
Heating element
A heating element converts electricity into heat through the process of Joule heating. Electric current through the element encounters resistance, resulting in heating of the element....
, but other than that they are quite similar, e.g. they are both run completely by CAD data and deal with various freeform fabrication of raw materials. Plastic reformation machines have also come to the interest of graphical artist, opening a whole new world of bringing their masterpiece
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
s to life, all with a 'flick' of a switch, so to speak.
Moon
Since the start of Project GeminiProject Gemini
Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of NASA, the civilian space agency of the United States government. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, with ten manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966....
, Langley was a center for training of rendezvous
Space rendezvous
A space rendezvous is an orbital maneuver during which two spacecraft, one of which is often a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance . Rendezvous requires a precise match of the orbital velocities of the two spacecraft, allowing them to remain at a constant...
in space. In 1965, Langley opened the Lunar Landing Research Facility
Lunar Landing Research Facility
In 1965, Langley Research Center opened the Lunar Landing Research Facility for simulations of moon landings with a mock Apollo Lunar Module suspended from a crane over a simulated lunar landscape....
for simulations of moon landings with a mock Apollo Lunar Module
Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back...
suspended from a gantry over a simulated lunar landscape. There was experimental work on some Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
The Bell Aerosystems Lunar Landing Research Vehicle was an Apollo Project era program to build a simulator for the Moon landings. The LLRVs, humorously referred to as "flying bedsteads", were used by the FRC, now known as the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, at Edwards Air Force Base,...
s (LLRV).
Mars
Langley Research Center supported NASA's mission by designing a spacecraftSpacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
for a Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
landing. (see the Mars Exploration Rover
Mars Exploration Rover
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission is an ongoing robotic space mission involving two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars...
.)
Earth science
Langley Research Center conducts earth scienceEarth science
Earth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, the Earth being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth sciences...
research to support NASA's mission.
Awards
LRC scientists and engineers have has won the Collier TrophyCollier Trophy
The Collier Trophy is an annual aviation award administered by the U.S. National Aeronautics Association , presented to those who have made "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space...
5 times. In 1929d for the development of low-drag cowling for radial air-cooled aircraft engines, 1946 to Lewis A. Rodert, Lawrence D. Bell and Chuck Yeager
Chuck Yeager
Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired major general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He was the first pilot to travel faster than sound...
for the development of an efficient wing deicing system, 1947 to John Stack
John Stack
John Stack was an American x-ray engineer, competition rower and Olympic champion. He won a gold medal in coxed eights at the 1948 Summer Olympics with the American team.-References:...
of the then Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory for research to determine the physical laws affecting supersonic flight, also shared in this trophy for their work on supersonic flight, 1951 to John Stack
John Stack
John Stack was an American x-ray engineer, competition rower and Olympic champion. He won a gold medal in coxed eights at the 1948 Summer Olympics with the American team.-References:...
for the development and use of the slotted-throat wind tunnel, 1954 Richard T. Whitcomb for the development of the Whitcomb area rule, according to the citation, a "powerful, simple, and useful method of reducing greatly the sharp increase in wing drag heretofore associated with transonic flight, and which constituted a major factor requiring great reserves of power to attain supersonic speeds."
See Also
- NASA DEVELOP at Langley Research CenterNASA DEVELOP National ProgramDEVELOP is a training and development program sponsored by NASA's Earth Sciences Applied Sciences Program. Headquartered at NASA Langley Research Center, DEVELOP has teams at nine locations around the country, and one in Mexico...
- Aerospace engineeringAerospace engineeringAerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...
External links
- Langley Research Center website
- Langley Research Center Photographs and Movies
- Langley Research Center images at Library of Congress Built In America website
- James R. Hansen: Spaceflight Revolution: NASA Langley Research Center from Sputnik to Apollo (NASA SP-4308, 1995) PDF version
- Crafting Flight: Aircraft Pioneers and the Contributions of the Men and Women of NASA Langley Research Center (NASA SP-2003-4316)
- Engineer in Charge: A History of the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory,1917-1958 (NASA SP-4305, 1987)
- Langley Research Center EBF³ Process Information Site
- (PDF) Concept to Reality: Contributions of the NASA Langley Research Center to U.S. Civil Aircraft of the 1990s (NASA SP-2003-4529)
- (PDF) Partners in Freedom: Contributions of the Langley Research Center to U.S. Military Aircraft of the 1990s (NASA SP-2000-4519)
- Journey in Aeronautical Research: a Career at NASA-Langley Research Center, Monographs in Aerospace History # 12
- Journey Into Space Research: Continuation of a Career at NASA Langley Research Center (sequel to above, PDF link)
- http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL780FEF865B9EF604&feature=viewallvideo presentations from NASA LaRC engineers during 2011 NASA TweetupNASA TweetupNASA has hosted many events for its Twitter enthusiasts called NASA Tweetups. These events provide guests with VIP access to NASA facilities and speakers with the goal of leveraging participants' social networks to further the outreach requirements of NASA as laid out in the National Aeronautics...
]