| AURORA FLIGHT SCIENCES CORP.
9950 Wakeman Drive Manassas, VA 20110 | |
| Phone:
PI: Topic#: |
(617) 500-4800
Mr. Joel Pedlikin DARPA 07-044 Awarded: 16AUG07 |
| Title: | Reduction of Structural Mass Fraction for Extreme Solar HALE Flying Wings |
| Abstract: | Extreme HALE (high-altitude, long-endurance) aircraft typically require very long and thin wings. These super-lightweight wings tend to be highly susceptible to elastic instability (i.e., buckling). The maximum load such wings can sustain before buckling is generally much lower than the maximum load they can experience before yielding. Furthermore, for the critical high-altitude portion of a mission, the gust loads are very small, and the characteristic dimension of the gusts is large compared to a HALE aircraft. However, during ascent and descent, the aircraft must handle much stronger gusts as well as gusts that may be small compared to the aircraft wingspan. Designing for these peak gust loads can substantially increase an aircraft's structural mass fraction. The goal of this proposed effort is to use inflatable technology to either provide a temporary increase in strength to a flying-wing aircraft that is structurally optimized for the low loads of high-altitude flight, or, alternately, to allow the structure to deliberately buckle and self-recover when it encounters a wind gust. Aurora Flight Sciences, teamed with Vertigo, Inc., proposes to develop wing structures suitable to HALE flying wings that use inflatable components to achieve this goal with no degradation in aircraft performance or reliability. |
| AURORA FLIGHT SCIENCES CORP.
9950 Wakeman Drive Manassas, VA 20110 | |
| Phone:
PI: Topic#: |
(617) 500-4800
Mr. Tim Dawson-Townsend DARPA 07-045 Awarded: 22AUG07 |
| Title: | Very-High-Altitude Propulsion System (VHAPS) |
| Abstract: | There is interest in an unmanned aircraft that can be deployed to a target via unconventional means and operate at very high altitudes for very long periods of time. These aircraft are envisioned to be stored in a sealed container for many months at a time, possibly folded up, stowed or deflated in a fashion more similar to a zodiac marine craft than an aircraft. A key technology required for such an aircraft is an engine capable of providing the required thrust at altitude and also meeting stringent weight and volume requirements. Deployment options may mean that traditional multistage-compressor jet or internal combustion engines are not appropriate for the aircraft. Alternative, non-traditional options must be investigated. Aurora Flight Sciences proposes to address the need for compact, highly efficient aircraft propulsion at very high altitudes by analyzing the engineering of the Mini-Sniffer engine and looking for ways to improve upon it. The Mini-Sniffer is an attractive starting point for research into very-high-altitude aircraft propulsion because of its relative simplicity, leading to reduced system mass and volume. In the 35 years since the Mini-Sniffer work was done, there have been technology advances that might increase the engine thermal efficiency without impacting the attractive simplicity of the system, in areas such as propellant, material and mechanical improvements. |