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Briefs Materials
Integrated Aircraft Oxygen Sensor
Shortly after its takeoff from New York City on July 17, 1996, Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 800 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean and crashed. The accident investigation board determined that the center wing fuel tank caught fire and exploded. Although the ignition source remains unknown, it was unquestionably...
Briefs Materials
Friction Stir Welding of Aerospace Materials
AFRL scientists are studying a unique metal joining process— friction stir welding (FSW)—for building major structural assemblies. FSW is a solid-state welding process that forces a spinning tool...
Briefs Materials
Enhanced Blast-Resistant Windows
AFRL entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Dlubak Technologies, Inc., of Freeport, Pennsylvania, to pursue ongoing research in blast-resistant window and glazing...
Briefs Manned Systems
Corrosion Suppression Technologies and Techniques
Members of AFRL's Air Force Corrosion Prevention and Control Office (AFCPCO) teamed with corrosion experts from Warner Robins Air Logistics Center to assess environmentally induced damage to...
Briefs Materials
Composites Design and Structural Analysis Tool
AFRL researchers developed a unique design and structural analysis tool for composite materials, and they subsequently transitioned their product to manufacturers of helicopters and other...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
AFRL Proves Feasibility of Plasma Actuators
AFRL is laying the groundwork for the development of revolutionary hypersonic aerospace vehicles (see Figure 1). Accordingly, AFRL engineers are examining the feasibility of replacing an air vehicle's...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Remote-Controlled Aerial Vehicle for Application of Pesticides
AFRL demonstrated its Remotely Controlled Aerial Vehicle for Application of Pesticides (RCAVAP) at the Force Protection Equipment Demonstration (FPED) conducted at Quantico Marine...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Improved Accuracy of Computational Fluid Dynamics Calculations
Understanding how air flows over the surfaces of an air vehicle can help AFRL designers maximize the vehicle's performance and minimize its cost. AFRL scientists recently developed...
Briefs Aerospace
Blended Wing Body Aircraft
Scientists from Boeing Phantom Works, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and AFRL are testing a new aircraft with the potential to realize up to 30% better fuel efficiency because of its unique...
Briefs Aerospace
Near-Precision Soft Landing Resupply Dispenser
AFRL munitions experts teamed with engineers from Systima Technologies, Inc., under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop a Covert Resupply (COVRES) dispenser. The team...
Briefs Software
Materials Knowledge Base
A team of scientists, engineers, and developers from AFRL and RJ Lee Group, Inc., recently completed functional prototype development of the Materials Knowledge Base (MKB), an object-based data repository for laboratory...
Briefs Materials
Ground-Penetrating Radar
AFRL engineers used prototypes of recently developed ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electronic cone penetrometer (ECP) devices to determine whether voids and anomalies in a particular airfield's subsoil were...
Briefs Materials
Nonchromated Treatment for Aluminum Surfaces
AFRL scientists and engineers recently completed development of a nonchromated treatment for aluminum aircraft surfaces and structures. The new treatment method is the result of a collaborative...
Briefs Materials
Textile Capacitor
The Air Force (AF) is evolving from a Cold War-era force with a large, containment- focused infrastructure to a smaller, more responsive and affordable Air and Space Expeditionary Force. In support of this transformation, AFRL...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Film Cooling Using Pulsed Coolant
Turbine engine designers routinely use film cooling to cool engine components in the hot-gas flow-path. Film cooling is the process of injecting coolant fluid at one or more discrete locations along a surface...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The Propulsion - Safety, Affordability, and Readiness Program
Propulsion - Safety, Affordability, and Readiness (P-SAR) is a new and unique program effort intended to achieve common engine sustainment goals across the Army, Navy, and Air Force...
Briefs RF & Microwave Electronics
Unmanned SkyTote Demonstrates Capabilities
AFRL scientists are working on SkyTote, a novel unmanned air vehicle (UAV) that will take off and land vertically like a helicopter (see figure) but also transition into horizontal flight like a...
Briefs Aerospace
AFRL Finding Ways to Decrease Unmanned Air Vehicle Costs
In support of the Aeronautical Systems Center's (ASC) Global Hawk Systems Group, AFRL has undertaken a program to study manufacturing tolerances for laminar flow on aircraft wings. On the...
Briefs Software
Computational Model of a Plasma Actuator
Controlling subsonic aerodynamic flow through the use of plasma actuators is an active area of research in both the Air Force (AF) and the general scientific community. A typical plasma actuator consists...
Briefs Nanotechnology
Automated Material Deposition Chamber
AFRL materials scientists have acquired an automated deposition chamber (see figure on next page) that enables them to simultaneously or sequentially deposit solid-lubricant coatings onto target objectives...
Briefs Materials
Composite Material Fire Safety Training Course
AFRL scientists and engineers, working cooperatively with experts from academia and the firefighting community, have developed a Composite Material Fire Safety training program designed to improve...
Briefs Materials
Conductive Polymeric Nanocomposite Materials
AFRL scientists have developed a method for uniformly dispersing carbon nanofibers throughout polymeric materials to increase their conductivity. Engineers will be able to employ the resulting...
Briefs Materials
Strain-Induced Porosity Model
AFRL scientists developed advanced computer models to improve the processing and quality of titanium alloys used in manufacturing gas turbine engine parts and critical structural components for military aircraft....
Briefs Electronics & Computers
Microelectromechanical Systems Switch Simulator
AFRL materials scientists developed a highly sophisticated laboratory instrument that simulates the effects of physical forces and electrical current on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)...
Briefs Aerospace
AFRL Supports C-5A Evaluation Program
AFRL materials integrity experts are collaborating with the Aeronautical Systems Center's C-5 Systems Group, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center (WR-ALC), and Air Mobility Command (AMC) in an effort to...
Briefs Software
Dynamic Air Battle Planning
An air tasking order (ATO) implements air operations supporting the joint force commander's campaign by assigning aircraft and munitions to targets and specifying the timing and grouping of air missions. Currently,...
Briefs Sensors/Data Acquisition
Advanced Hardware-in-the-Loop Sensor Simulation
AFRL researchers and their counterparts at CG2, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Quantum3D, Inc., are collaborating through a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to...
Briefs Manned Systems
AFRL Supports Desert Hawk Program
AFRL aeronautical engineers collaborated with the Electronic Systems Center's (ESC) Force Protection Program Office, Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB), Massachusetts, to conduct an in-house effort assessing the...
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...
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