NASA’s tiny aircraft speed up flight testing

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NASA is leaning on small, remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft to test new aerospace ideas faster and at lower cost before moving to full-scale flight. At the Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, those aircraft serve as flexible testbeds for everything from wildfire sensors to parachute systems and collision-avoidance technology.

The lab’s available platforms include the Alta-X quadrotor, the Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone (DROID) with a 10-foot (3-meter) wingspan, the Multi-Use Cub, a fixed-wing aircraft with a 14-foot (4-meter) span and expandable payload capacity, and the HQ-90 quadrotor for electric vertical takeoff and landing testing. Once a vehicle and experiment are approved, certified subscale pilots handle both ground operations and flight activity, including missions using one-off or modified commercial aircraft.

Recent NASA Armstrong test missions

One example is NASA’s FireSense project, which flew in the Geneva State Forest, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Montgomery, Alabama. NASA Armstrong staff mounted the instrument on an Alta-X drone, tested it ahead of deployment, then transported the aircraft and sensor to the forest for flight operations. NASA said the system showed how remotely piloted aircraft can collect localized weather data that affects smoke movement and fire behavior, potentially helping agencies make better wildfire decisions and deploy firefighters and resources more effectively.

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Another project, Enhancing Parachutes by Instrumenting the Canopy (EPIC), took place closer to Armstrong. In that effort, the Alta-X air-launched a capsule carrying a parachute and flexible sensor. Laboratory staff flew the missions and helped the EPIC team design and integrate the parachute-drop mechanism and safety system. NASA said the tests showed that flexible sensors could help researchers study supersonic parachutes, improving computer models and ultimately making those systems safer and more reliable for delivering science instruments and payloads to Mars.

Collision avoidance and aerodynamic research

The lab has also supported work with Automatic Collision Avoidance Technology, an area NASA and its partners have advanced for decades. According to NASA, the research proved that an autopilot could detect and recover from an imminent ground collision, a capability now used in high-performance U.S. military jets.

NASA Armstrong later developed a simplified version, the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System, and installed it on DROID for testing. The system, aimed at supporting general aviation pilots as well as remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft, performed well enough to lead to more research on a version that can provide alerts and steering cues. NASA said its Technology Transfer Office is now working to license the system for U.S. businesses to commercialize.

The center also designed, built and flew the Prandtl-D (Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Lower Drag) flying-wing glider. Researchers found that its twisted-wing design could reduce drag and generate thrust at the wingtips, pointing to possible fuel-economy gains for future aircraft. The original Prandtl-D is now in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, while the Prandtl-D3 is at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

Behind those projects is a lab set up for rapid prototyping, including traditional and advanced 3D manufacturing techniques, composite and conventional fabrication, custom component design, hardware and software integration, and the safety and flight-readiness work needed to get experimental vehicles airborne.