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Briefs Materials
Composites Affordability Initiative
AFRL and Boeing have developed an innovative structural inspection technique for testing bonded structures. This technique provides materials engineers a first-time, validated, nondestructive capability to...
Briefs Materials
Dielectric Coolants
The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is the Department of Defense's affordable next-generation strike aircraft designed to meet the needs of the Air Force (AF), Navy, Marines, and US allies. Currently in development by Lockheed...
Briefs Electronics & Computers
Low-Cost Transmit/Receive Module for Satellite Control and Communications
A multidisciplinary team led by AFRL scientists is developing a geodesic dome phased-array antenna (GDPAA) for a proposed future Air Force (AF) technology demonstration.1...
Briefs Electronics & Computers
The Next Frontier of Networking—The Airborne Network
It is the next frontier of networking—a frontier where communication nodes may move at Mach speeds, wireless line of sight covers hundreds of miles, and weather affects communications...
Briefs Information Technology
Military Worth Analysis of New Concept Weapons
Weapon systems analysts traditionally conduct military worth analysis (MWA) to evaluate the warfighter payoff resulting either from the development and implementation of new assets or from the...
Briefs Information Technology
Developing Condition-Based Maintenance
Like any manufacturing equipment, semiconductor fabrication systems have a finite lifetime. Technicians normally perform maintenance on these hardware systems according to preset schedules and regardless...
Briefs Materials
Design of Lightweight and Durable Composite Structures
In the field of engineering design, "factors of safety" are derivatives of inadequate knowledge and therefore are a necessary, but costly, element of engineering design. Designing...
Briefs Materials
Monazite Deformation Twinning Research
AFRL scientists have significantly advanced the understanding of a phenomenon called deformation twinning, a major materials deformation mechanism that is particularly important at low temperatures and...
Briefs Photonics/Optics
Dynamic Cavity Formation Imaging
When an Air Force bomber drops a penetrating munition, what happens as the warhead travels underground to the target? AFRL researchers at the Advanced Warhead Experimentation Facility (AWEF) recently captured...
Briefs Automotive
AFRL Teams With Indy Racing League® for Neck Protection
The bulletlike, open-wheel Indy racing cars hurtle around oval tracks at breakneck velocities, often approaching speeds of 220 mph or higher. While a crash at this speed is a violent,...
Briefs Medical
Scientists Create Optically Equivalent Synthetic Human Tissue
Lasers are an integral part of the modern battlefield, used for applications as diverse as point-to-point communications and ballistic missile defense. Their widespread use increases...
Briefs Information Technology
Response Surface Mapping Technique Aids Warfighters
When weaponeering a target, military planners pinpoint a detonation location that will result in the desired damage to the entire target, or even a particular area within the target. The...
Briefs Photonics/Optics
Surface-Emitting Laser Arrays Bring Light to the Top
Laser diodes are an integral part of everyday life, incorporated into commonplace items as diverse in function as laser pointers, fiber-optic communications systems, and DVD players....
Briefs Electronics & Computers
Weapon Data Link Demonstration
One of the US Air Force's goals is to reduce the time needed to strike time-sensitive targets, thus minimizing the adversary's perceived mobility advantage and leaving concealment as that enemy's primary defensive...
Briefs Electronics & Computers
RASCAL Facility
AFRL's Radiation and Scattering Compact Antenna Laboratory (RASCAL) enables researchers to develop and evaluate advanced aperture technologies that support electronic warfare, radar, communication, and navigation— technologies...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Microelectromechanical Systems Inertial Measurement Unit Flight Test
AFRL and Boeing engineers conducted successful flight tests of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) inertial measurement units (IMU) on the Joint Direct Attack Munition...
Briefs Aerospace
Fruit Flies
He refers to them as "nature's fighter jets" and has devoted his life's work and an entire lab to monitor their every move. Thus is the relationship existing between Dr. Michael Dickinson and the objects of his attention—fruit...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Active Flow Control Demonstrated on “Airborne Wind Tunnel”
AFRL engineers, collaborating with aerospace manufacturers and other Air Force groups, recently demonstrated the first-ever airborne active flow control system when they manipulated...
Briefs Unmanned Systems
Coordination of Autonomous Unmanned Air Vehicles
Future autonomous unmanned air vehicles (UAV) will need to work in teams to share information and coordinate activities in much the same way as current manned air systems. Funded by AFRL,...
Briefs Software
Geo*View
Visualization of geospatially correct, remotely sensed data is a key element of many government and commercial applications. It enables a user to analyze and assess ground activities and other conditions of interest. Because remotely...
Briefs Materials
New Capability to Characterize the Mechanical Properties of Explosive Materials
Improved targeting accuracy and the long-standing desire to minimize collateral damage are causing current and future munitions to become much smaller. As munitions...
Briefs Materials
Ceramic Matrix Composites Research
AFRL scientists characterized and evaluated the high-temperature mechanical behavior of fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials used in aerospace structural applications. Researchers examined...
Briefs Aerospace
Characterizing Mechanical Properties at the Microscale
Scientists from AFRL, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, and General Electric Aircraft Engines, working under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Accelerated Insertion of Materials...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Total In-Flight Simulator 50th Anniversary
AFRL's Total In-Flight Simulator (TIFS), a Convair C-131 Samaritan aircraft, entered service on March 22, 1955. The C-131 aircraft had performed various transport operations for approximately a decade...
Briefs Electronics & Computers
F-35 Antenna Measurement Program
Engineers are conducting sophisticated performance testing of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) antennas at the AFRL Newport Research Facility, New York. Through an agreement with the F-35 Joint Program Office,...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A New Method for Determining Aeroballistic Parameters From Flight Data
Dr. Gregg Abate, an AFRL exchange engineer, developed a new method for determining aeroballistic parameters from projectile flight data. Assigned to the Fraunhofer Institute...
Briefs Materials
Fire-Resistant Hydraulic Fluid
An AFRL-developed fire-resistant hydraulic fluid recently completed a B-52 flight test, and based on successful test results, systems engineers from Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC) will adopt the fluid...
Briefs Materials
Predicting the Composition of Metallic Glasses
AFRL scientists made significant progress in developing bulk metallic glasses to improve the durability and performance of aerospace components. They also successfully created working scientific...
Briefs Materials
Innovative Processes Strengthen F-15E Vertical Stabilizers
AFRL materials engineers resolved a potentially serious problem that affects the operational life of F-15E vertical stabilizers. Working with engineers from Warner Robins Air Logistics...
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