Free Republic

ITHACA -- A Tompkins County legislator is facing a misdemeanor charge related to an outstanding traffic violation. Martha Robertson, who also is the chairwoman of the legislature's public safety committee, said her arrest last week was the result of a paperwork mix-up and that the Ithaca Police shouldn't have taken her into custody, "They could've issued me a ticket right there," she said, adding that police refused her request to go to her house and see the paperwork. At the station, Sgt. Andy Navarro told her they were waiving her bail based on her community connections, and Patrick Kimmich --...

EDWARDS AFB - The latest research aircraft to join the fleet at Dryden Flight Research Center arrived May 31. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, consists of a 2½-meter (8.2-foot) in diameter infrared telescope mounted inside the 747 airliner, chosen for its ability to house the 45,000-pound telescope. The long-range airliner is capable of remaining airborne for six hours at altitudes higher than 41,000 feet, above much of the atmospheric water vapor. SOFIA will be used to study the universe in the infrared spectrum, as well as to develop observational techniques, instruments and for educational purposes. The aircraft...

NASA has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Air Force to support abort flight test requirements for the Orion Project. The Air Force has contracted with Orbital Sciences Corp. of Chandler, Ariz., to provide launch services for the flight tests. The agreement with the Air Force's Space Development and Test Wing at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., provides for abort test boosters that will serve as launch vehicles for Orion ascent abort flight tests that are set to occur from 2009 through 2011 at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The first abort test is scheduled for...

EDWARDS AFB - NASA Dryden Flight Research Center is studying using surplus Navy Phoenix missiles as hypersonic test platforms. The missiles, with the explosives and targeting systems removed, would be launched from the center's F-15 at speeds nearing Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound. The missile, carrying a test article, would then speed to Mach 5, the threshold of hypersonic speeds. The project is intended to provide a new capability to flight test research payloads at hypersonic speeds, Dryden project manager Tom Jones said. It will bridge the gap between wind tunnel and ground model tests and full-scale...

EDWARDS AFB - NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center will once again participate in the Edwards Air Force Base Open House and Air Show, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 28 and 29, with one of its high-altitude ER-2 Earth science aircraft in the airand several other NASA aircraft on static display. The Lockheed-built ER-2, a civil version of the U-2S military reconnaissance aircraft, is flown by NASA in Earth resources research and satellite sensor validation. Several of NASA Dryden's research and mission support aircraft will also be on display, either along the flight line or in the NASA exhibit area...

Early fighter pilots were sometimes called knights of the air, a reflection of medieval times when knights used blunted lances in jousting tournaments to dismount competitors from their horses. Now, jet-borne jousting is combating supersonic shockwaves, hopefully enough to lessen the resulting sonic boom heard on the ground. Gulfstream Aerospace and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center have teamed in a project called Quiet Spike to investigate the suppression of sonic booms. The project centers around a retractable, 24-foot-long lance-like spike mounted on the nose of NASA Dryden's F-15B research testbed aircraft. The spike, made primarily of composite materials, creates three...

EDWARDS AFB - NASA engineers are working on a means of training pilots in new methods to successfully fly and land airplanes in emergencies. The project, a joint effort with the Department of Homeland Security and United Airlines, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is meant to study the effectiveness of using an aircraft's engines to control its flight when the usual flight controls are ineffective. In a technique known as throttles-only control, pilots of an aircraft in which the flight surfaces are inoperable instead use the aircraft engines to direct the airplane. For instance, increasing the...

EDWARDS AFB - Drawing on 60 years of flight test history, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has been tasked with testing the launch abort system for the space agency's new manned spacecraft designed to return the nation's astronauts to the surface of the moon and beyond. The system, similar in concept to an airplane's ejection system, will be used to remove the manned spacecraft module from the launch vehicle in case of an emergency during launch, either on the pad or once the vehicle is airborne. National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials Monday announced the assignments to each NASA center...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EDWARDS AFB - NASA Dryden Flight Research Center is preparing to flight test a prototype blended wing body aircraft as part of a joint program with the Air Force Research Laboratory and The Boeing Co. This unusually-shaped aircraft design - described as a cross between a conventional aircraft and a flying wing - is believed to offer greater fuel efficiency by providing more lift and better aerodynamics. The aircraft is shaped as an elongated triangle, with a smooth line from the fuselage extending out into the wings. The Air Force is interested in the technology, should it prove viable,...

Northrop Grumman Corp. will design a supersonic experimental aircraft that employs a wing that varies position for most efficient flight performance under a $10.3 million contract from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The oblique flying wing program aims to design and conduct the first-ever flight tests of a tailless, supersonic, variable sweep oblique flying wing... In an oblique wing aircraft, one wing of the aircraft is swept forward and the other backward in an asymetrical configuration, which varies with flight speed. The wing, also known as a "scissors wing," pivots over a center point, shifting angle as the...

YUKON, Okla. - NASA engineer and champion aerobatic pilot Marta Bohn-Meyer was killed Sunday when her plane crashed during practice for next week's National Aerobatic Championships. The crash occurred shortly before noon near Oklahoma City, where she was piloting her home-built Giles G-300 airplane. She had been joined there by her husband and fellow aerobatic pilot, Bob Meyer. "Flying and doing things with airplanes is my passion," she once said. "Given a choice, I'll go fly airplanes." According to the International Aerobatic Club, Bohn-Meyer had pulled into a vertical maneuver when the cockpit canopy came off. The airplane then crashed...

EDWARDS AFB - Two-and-a-half years after the last space-shuttle mission ended in catastrophe, NASA again is preparing to send an orbiter and crew of seven astronauts into space. Much of the return-to-flight attention and preparations have been focused on the launch phase, during which Columbia sustained damage that ultimately led to its breaking apart upon reentry. However, improvements have also been made to the other end of the mission - the landing and orbiter processing that follows. Dryden Flight Research Center is also preparing to resume its role as the shuttle's primary alternate landing site, should weather or other contingencies...

MOJAVE - The X-37, an unmanned technology concept demonstrator for future space vehicles, made its first aerial foray Tuesday into the skies over Mojave. Slung beneath Scaled Composites' White Knight carrier, the X-37 was carried to an altitude of 37,800 feet in the 81-minute flight, said Jan Walker, spokesman for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which oversees the program. All systems performed as expected and the captive-carry flight was deemed a success. Additional such captive-carry flights - in which the vehicle remains attached to the White Knight - are expected before three planned drop tests that will test the...

Two teams, one led by Lockheed Martin Corp. and the other by the pairing of Northrop Grumman Corp. and The Boeing Co., will compete to build the nation's next manned spacecraft, NASA announced Tuesday. The agency's requirements for the spacecraft, known as the crew exploration vehicle, or CEV, have yet to be precisely defined, however, as the program itself undergoes a re-evaluation in order to hasten its operational capability. The vehicle is envisioned as the centerpiece of NASA's plans for manned spaceflight, returning to the moon and eventually traveling to Mars and beyond. The two teams were chosen based on...

EDWARDS AFB - Calling Dryden Flight Research Center "a magical place," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin assured a future role for the agency's historic center of flight research. "Dryden is an important center with an important role," he said. "We're not even thinking about not having Dryden. We're not going to let anything bad to happen to it." Forty days into his tenure at the head of the space agency, Griffin visited Dryden on Tuesday, learning of ongoing projects and speaking with center employees. "This is the place where real things happen in the world of flight," Griffin said, noting he...

PALMDALE - Federal judges and aerospace-engineering instructors have replaced the Superior Court judges who used to preside over civil cases at the Palmdale Courthouse. Instead of ruling on family law and civil matters, the federal judges are handing down rulings on disagreements over Social Security benefits. The judicial officers are administrative law judges who hear appeals concerning federal retirement, survivors, disability and supplemental-security income benefits, city spokeswoman Barbara La Fata said. The judges are employed by the Social Security Administration's Office of Hearings and Appeals, La Fata said. Since late November, the judges have been traveling to Palmdale to hear...

EDWARDS AFB - The old saying "birds of a feather flock together" can now be applied to a couple of small uninhabited aerial vehicles, or UAVs, flown at Edwards Air Force Base using principles derived from studies of fish and bird motions. Engineers and technicians from NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, and Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards recently conducted flight tests over a "virtual" forest fire to evaluate new flight-control software that will allow UAVs the ability to autonomously react to obstacles as they fly pre-programmed missions. The tests were conducted via a remote, to investigate cooperative flight...

PALMDALE - NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, historic home to much of the agency's flight test activities, is looking at smaller budgets now and into the future as NASA directs its focus on space exploration. However, the center at Edwards Air Force Base is positioning itself to play a large part in the agency's remaining aeronautics work as well as take on contracts from outside NASA. In the presidential budget for the 2006 fiscal year unveiled Monday, NASA as a whole was one of the very few federal entities to receive a budget increase next year, up 2.4% to $16.4...

Northrop Grumman Corp. and The Boeing Co. have finalized an agreement to team together to compete for development of NASA's planned Crew Exploration Vehicle. The vehicle is envisioned as the central human space-transportation system within NASA's Project Constellation, a broader organization of human and robotic space systems required for exploration of the Moon and beyond. Specific requirements for the CEV project will not be available until NASA makes its formal request for proposals in March. The agency will award contracts to teams to compete for the project in September, with a "fly-off" planned for 2008, said NASA spokesman Michael Braukus...

EDWARDS AFB - Already holding the world speed record for an air-breathing engine, NASA's X-43A hypersonic research aircraft will aim to top itself with a flight to nearly 10 times the speed of sound next week. The unmanned aircraft's record-setting March flight to Mach 7 - about 5,000 mph - was the first flight test of a supersonic combustion ramjet - or scramjet - engine integrated with an airframe. "We set one (world record) in March, and we're going to do it again next week," said Vince Rauch, Hyper-X program manager at NASA's Langley Flight Research Center in Virginia. The...

EDWARDS AFB - NASA aeronautics researchers are looking forward to flying the X-43A research aircraft at speeds up to 10 times the speed of sound later this fall, following a successful "captive carry" dress rehearsal flight from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Monday. According to X-43A lead operations engineer David McAllister, who served as test director for the mission, the captive carry flight duplicated all operational functions of the planned 7,000-mph - or Mach 10 - flight and served as a training exercise for staff, except that the X-43A and its modified Pegasus booster were not released from NASA's...

LANCASTER -Antelope Valley College played host to educators and a few NASA Dryden Flight Research Center employees as part of a two-day workshop to demonstrate to the educators how to teach composites technology to their students. Composites are known to many in the "Aerospace Valley" as those materials that make the stealth bomber stealthy and SpaceShipOne a contender for getting a featherweight rocket ship into space. Participants created B-2 bomber models out of shaped foam core and a carbon fiber outer skin. The resultant models measured about 16 inches tall and weighed less than a large apple. The workshop was...

EDWARDS AFB - An experimental aircraft from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center made aviation history Saturday when the unmanned X-43A hypersonic vehicle became the first non-rocket, air-breathing aircraft to fly more than seven times the speed of sound. "Today was a grand slam at the bottom of the 12th," X-43A project manager Joel Sitz said. The successful flight was met with cheers in the Dryden control room and from those gathered to witness the historic event. Nearly three years ago, the first attempted flight of the X-43A ended in failure when the rocket booster went out of control. "I think...

EDWARDS AFB - More than two years after their first unsuccessful attempt, NASA researchers are preparing for a record-setting flight of an air-breathing hypersonic scramjet vehicle. The unmanned X-43A research vehicle is scheduled for a one-time flight Saturday. If successful, its engine will be the first air breather to operate at Mach 7, seven times the speed of sound. "It's taken us 2½ years to get back to this point," said Vincent Rausch , Hyper-X program manager . "What we're talking about this Saturday is an aviation first, an air-breathing engine capable of Mach 7." The X-43A is a small,...

EDWARDS AFB - Someday, aircraft will be able to learn from past experiences and apply that knowledge to make changes in the way they fly. The first steps to that science fiction-like notion are under way at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. "We're edging ever so slowly towards somewhat living, breathing, thinking vehicles of the future," said John Carter, Dryden program manager for intelligent flight controls. "We expect someday almost all vehicles will have some aspect of learning software." An early version of such a system made a flight test last summer on a specially...

The future of supersonic flight is taking shape in the very skies where the sonic boom first signaled the conquest of the sound barrier. This time, however, researchers hope to make a much quieter mark on history. The Shaped Sonic Boom Experiment uses a specially modified F-5E Tiger fighter jet to show that aircraft may be shaped so as to lessen the force of the shock wave created as it goes supersonic, thus producing a quieter sonic boom. "It is the forerunner of the future of supersonic flight," said Northrop Grumman chief test pilot Roy Martin, who piloted the modified...

Marking 100 years of man's success in conquering the skies, 2003 saw milestones for both what has been done and what is yet to come. Celebrations throughout the year culminated in the Dec. 17 anniversary of the Wright brothers' first successful powered flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., a feat which set in motion changes that are still being felt and improved upon today. In the century since that flight, worldwide air travel has become common; space travel has moved from science fiction to reality; and air power has altered warfare. Although the Centennial of Flight marked a success, the year...

EDWARDS AFB - Fifty years ago this month, A. Scott Crossfield became the first fastest man alive. On Nov. 20, 1953, shortly before the 50th anniversary of powered flight, Crossfield piloted the Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket research aircraft to Mach 2 - twice the speed of sound, or more than 1,290 mph. Crossfield's milestone in aeronautical history came at a time when the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy were pushing the frontiers of flight, flying a stable of exotic experimental research airplances from Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California's high desert. Higher, faster, farther was the mantra as...

EDWARDS AFB - Although it is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the space shuttle program, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base still will feel the effects of Tuesday's released Columbia Accident Investigation Board report. Agencywide reforms are promised by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe in response to the recommendations of the accident board. Precisely how those reforms will play out at the individual centers is not yet known, said Bob Meyer, acting deputy director at Dryden. One way Dryden likely will be affected is by an independent safety organization. This safety center, recommended by the...

LANCASTER - The five latest additions to Lancaster's Aerospace Walk of Honor will bring to 70 the number of aviation pioneers honored since the walk's inception in 1990. The experience of this year's honorees - James D. Eastham, Robert C. Little, Bruce Peterson, the late Russell M. "Rusty" Roth and Rogers Smith - all flew in the skies above the Antelope Valley during their careers in a series of firsts. Eastham tested and developed the world's first three Mach 3-plus aircrafts, the A-12, YF-12A and SR-71 Blackbird and Little took the F-101A Voodoo supersonic on its very first flight at...

EDWARDS AFB - A NASA F/A-18 experienced a 29% fuel savings in late June while flying in the wingtip vortex of a DC-8. Both aircraft are based at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. The June 27 DC-8/F-18 flight was an exploratory investigation of large aircraft vortex-induced performance benefits on a fighter-type aircraft. The aircraft flew at 25,000 feet with a separation of about 200 feet nose-to-tail. The F/A-18 slowly moved in laterally to explore the vortex effects. NASA Dryden's Autonomous Formation Flight project earlier studied fuel and drag savings of a trailing F/A-18 aircraft during...

EDWARDS AFB - Living in space can make a person more appreciative of the Earth's variety. It also can increase one's capacity to tolerate hot sauce. Remarks ranging from the holistic to the humorous were downlinked Tuesday from the crew of the International Space Station to a group of educators gathered at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. Teachers attending a workshop at NASA Dryden asked the two-person crew of the International Space Station how being in space has changed their lives. The 25 teachers, representing five schools, are participating in the new NASA Explorer Schools...

At celebrations commemorating the 100th anniversary of powered flight this summer, there will be replicas of the famous Wright Flyer, and there will be many modern examples of flying machines. However, at three events in the Midwest in the coming weeks, there will be an aircraft that combines both. NASA's Active Aeroelastic Wing is an F/A-18 fighter jet modified to use the same wing-warping techniques employed by Orville and Wilbur to control their 1903 Wright Flyer. The aircraft, crew and engineers - based at Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base - will travel to Dayton, Ohio; Kokomo,...

Despite the loss of its $15 million, one-of-a-kind aircraft, the Helios program will continue in its drive to achieve high-altitude, long-endurance flight using innovative fuel cell systems. The remotely-controlled, solar-powered Helios Prototype aircraft was destroyed June 26 when it crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii during a check flight. Built by AeroVironment Inc. as part of NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program at Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Helios was preparing for a nearly two-day endurance flight next month. The craft was tested at Edwards and is still managed at Dryden. With a...

LANCASTER - The Wright Brothers may have chosen the wind-swept dunes of Kitty Hawk, N.C., for their historic flight, but in the later half of the first century of flight, it has been the windy skies of the Antelope Valley where aviation history has been made. Nestled at the edge of the natural runway of Rogers Dry Lake, the facility that began as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' High Speed Flight Research Station evolved into today's NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, making history all the way. "The Antelope Valley should be very proud of its contributions to the first...

LANCASTER - He has flown 240 different kinds of aircraft, logging 16,700 hours of flight time while setting records and performing test piloting feats that are the "right stuff" of aviation history. Contrary to the popular image of high-flying test pilots, however, the one thing that everyone who has met Fitzhugh "Fitz" Fulton notes is his courtly "Southern gentleman" manner. Despite his many noteworthy accomplishments and awards, Fulton remains "so humble," said Paula Smith, executive director of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. "He always seems surprised when someone honors him." Fulton's already long list of awards was lengthened recently...

From the early days of supersonic flight to the current space shuttle era, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center has been on the cutting edge of the aerospace frontier. "What we have here is the story of one of the most important institutions in the history of space flight," Dryden chief historian Michael Gorn said. "There are very few throughout the world that have witnessed so many milestones of flight." That storied history will be the subject of a free program at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, 750 West Lancaster Blvd. The evening will feature...