Questions tagged [nasa]

For questions regarding the aeronautical work of NASA. Questions focused on the space aspects should be asked on the Space Exploration site.

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How does conical camber decrease roll due to sideslip?

I was reading Ray Whitford's Design for Air combat and came upon a passage that said that on the SR-71 conical camber "gives a useful reduction in the otherwise very high rolling moment due to ...
Battery's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
312 views

What were the forces imparted by the chicken gun?

How hard does the chicken gun hit? Putting aside the apocryphal story of the British engineers who forget to defrost the chicken before firing it, what is the peak force the average chicken imparts? (...
Kenn Sebesta's user avatar
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-3 votes
3 answers
1k views

Why astronauts during launch fly faster than jets but experience less Gs? [closed]

The NASA Space Shuttle used to lunch astronauts into spaces at high speeds, supersonic speeds. When you google whats the Gs force they experienced while departing or simply “Gs forces astronauts” You ...
YamchaAviator's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
177 views

How was the AeroVironment Helios able to fly to the edge of space at no more than 23.5 kn?

The NASA/AeroVironment Helios holds the FAI record for the highest sustained horizontal flight at 96,900 ft (29.5 km) MSL. It reportedly spent more than 40 min above 96,000 ft. It could fly no faster ...
Giovanni's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
438 views

What does it mean exactly when an aircraft is "35% unstable"? (aircraft stability factor)

CNN's Grumman X-29: The impossible fighter jet with inverted wings contains several interesting photos, and says: It was unflyable -- literally -- without a digital flight computer on board, which ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 5,758
11 votes
3 answers
420 views

Could the Mars helicopter Ingenuity have been test-flown outdoors at JPL just for the heck of it? (not that they would)

The Ingenuity helicopter that has flown on Mars is designed for roughly 0.01 bar pressure and a colder atmosphere made of mostly CO2. See links (including video) in this answer to What JPL laboratory ...
uhoh's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
328 views

On video equipment used to help assemble the X-59

On 2020 Dec 14, NASA reported on Lockheed Martin's construction of the X-59. NASA’s supersonic X-59 assembly team marks wing milestone. The report's photos include an unexplained apparatus, ...
Camille Goudeseune's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
1k views

What astronauts and/or pilots had their "own" T-38 for transportation and practice?

It appears that the T-38 was used as a means of transportation for certain personnel. Astronauts, and certain pilots? It appears it was also used for training in some cases. From some articles ...
AlphaCentauri's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
553 views

How did pilots maintain the Vomit Comet's parabolic trajectory?

How did the Vomit Comet maintain its free-fall trajectory? Careful trimming? Custom autopilot software? Or just good stick and rudder technique? Wikipedia, citing references but without ...
Camille Goudeseune's user avatar
-3 votes
1 answer
172 views

Did NASA just broke the world record for fastest aircraft by going over 10 times faster than the previous record?

The current world record is held by the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. In 1976, this aircraft reached a top speed of 3,529.6 km/h, according to Wikipedia. Fast forward 44 years, and NASA just launched the ...
J. van Leeuwen's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
41 views

How is NASA going to get high fuel economy on the X-57? [duplicate]

This X-plane is meant to fly soon. It's a modified Tecnam. The propeller direct wash over the wings, increasing lift. This allows the use of a smaller, high-aspect ratio, low drag wing. But this isn'...
Abdullah's user avatar
  • 3,524
1 vote
1 answer
195 views

How to reproduce NASA/Langley airfoils for general aviation with long chord lengths?

I have scaled a NASA/Langley LS(1)-0413 airfoil to a 90 inch chord length, and now the trailing edge is 0.5in. Any longer chord length would have a larger trailing edge thickness. (90in*(0.0071-0....
MyopicVisage's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
64 views

Calculating Lift of a closed-wing drone

A group of students and I are designing a theoretical closed-wing drone and need to calculate lift based on the NASA lift equation. We've designed fixed-wing aircraft before and when it came to ...
CaptainAmerica16's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
177 views

Why Apollo 11 was launched in summer? (Performance question) [closed]

The question could seems stupid, but i think that best moment to launch a rocket is when temperature is lowest in order to achieve the best performance in a reaction engine. I do not know if there is ...
Miguel Hernández's user avatar
41 votes
2 answers
7k views

How did NASA Langley end up with the first 737?

This answer shows N515NA, CN/MSN: 19437 as an early 737, and mentions that it may be the first one. Was this a special design built for NASA, or perhaps a prototype that nobody wanted for commercial ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 5,758
12 votes
2 answers
1k views

How is the camera positioned for these plane-to-plane Schlieren images of shock waves?

These two popular press articles discuss the use of schlieren photography to image shock waves of jets during flight using a special schlieren camera on a third plane. Gizmodo: NASA Captures First-...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 5,758
-4 votes
1 answer
351 views

How many B747s SCA does NASA have?

How many B747s that used as Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) does NASA have? Please include: The number of B747 SCAs that are still in service. The number of B747 SCAs that have already been retired (...
AirCraft Lover's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why was F-18 chosen to escort Space Shuttle Endeavour?

This question is kind of a continuation to Why does NASA have F/A-18s? The accepted answer states that "NASA uses them for pilot training and as chase planes for research aircraft." So, why ...
anshabhi's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
282 views

What might the business model be for a hypersonic jet? [closed]

According to this video, NASA and Boeing are doing research into a new generation of hypersonic passenger planes that can travel at Mach 5. The designs look really cool and I would love to see them in ...
lespaul's user avatar
  • 143
9 votes
2 answers
525 views

How unusual is it for remotely piloted aircraft to fly through commercial or general aviation airspace?

According to the Phys.org article NASA flies large unmanned aircraft in public airspace without chase plane for first time: Flights of large craft like Ikhana, have traditionally required a safety ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 5,758
4 votes
3 answers
4k views

How to draw NACA 6-Series Airfoils?

In relation to the question on the NACA 64-2A015 airfoil I would like to know how to draw this airfoil. At least these two reports [1,2] by NASA provide the equation for it. However, I am not able ...
rul30's user avatar
  • 1,547
1 vote
1 answer
496 views

Is there an analytical description of the NACA 642-015A profile?

While searching for symmetric profiles I stumbled across different definitions (point-clouds) of the NACA 642-015A profile. http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/seligdatfile?airfoil=n64015a-il http://www....
rul30's user avatar
  • 1,547
5 votes
1 answer
694 views

Is it viable to put an engine at the rear of the plane like in this photo?

I saw this image on a NASA page talking about hybrids and I was wondering if the back-engine placemente is actually viable and if it is why hasn't been done yet?
José Alfredo Rosas Córdova's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
626 views

Why does the NASA GL-10 Greased Lightning run on diesel?

I've been reading about NASA's experimental GL-10 Greased Lightning tilt-wing aircraft with interest. My understanding is that this is a diesel-electric hybrid aircraft uses stored electrical energy ...
Digital Trauma's user avatar
34 votes
5 answers
9k views

What's the point of using T-38 to instill flight proficiency in Space Shuttle pilots?

As discussed in this Q&A, NASA pilots had to fly 15 hours a month on T-38 to maintain flight proficiency. NASA Dryden's T-38 Talon trainer jet in flight over the main base complex at Edwards Air ...
DVK's user avatar
  • 795
41 votes
2 answers
10k views

Why does NASA's B-52 008 have a smoking engine in this photograph?

This is a photograph from the launch of an X-43 from the NASA owned and operated B-52 '008'. It appears that one engine is producing a plume of smoke in the photograph. Why is this? Source
Eric Urban's user avatar
  • 1,606
4 votes
2 answers
721 views

Could the vertical stabilizer be removed on the NASA X-57?

I was reading this article about how NASA will develop this new X-57 X-plane which has many tiny electric motors mounted on the wing. Now, I wonder: How come this aircraft still has a vertical ...
Hugh Keller's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
447 views

What are the design goals for NASA's X-57? [duplicate]

There have obviously been work going on prior to the X-57 announcement (see LEAPTech and Joby Aviation http://www.jobyaviation.com/LEAPTech/). However, what does NASA actually think they will achieve ...
David's user avatar
  • 1,349
0 votes
1 answer
716 views

How do I interpret these values in NASA's C-MAPSS dataset files?

I was studying a dual-speed, high-bypass ratio turbofan engine dataset which I happened to obtain from NASA's website. This dataset was generated from C-MAPSS simulator where dataset has nominal and ...
Rachana's user avatar
11 votes
4 answers
5k views

How is the D8 Double Bubble aircraft by NASA so efficient?

How does the 'double bubble' fuselage cross-section of the "Double Bubble D8" aircraft (developed by MIT for NASA) help improve overall efficiency by around 70%? Image credit: NASA/MIT/Aurora Flight ...
Victor Juliet's user avatar
26 votes
2 answers
8k views

Why does NASA have F/A-18s?

I always remember playing FSX as a kid and using the NASA F/A-18, and never thought much about it. And then I saw the picture of the Space Shuttle on top of the 747 being escorted by these planes. ...
Keegan's user avatar
  • 6,867
7 votes
0 answers
4k views

Why were the toggle switch guards in the Space Shuttle titanium? [closed]

I recently found out that the little protective rails over the toggle switches in the space shuttle were made out of titanium. I'm not sure of which alloy specifically, but probably 6AL4V (or "Grade ...
Keegan's user avatar
  • 6,867
12 votes
1 answer
4k views

Does NASA use T-38's to train all crew members of a space flight as pilots?

Did all NASA flight crew recruits learn to fly when preparing for Space Shuttle missions? Obviously, the pilot — and I am guessing the commander, too — would be USAF / USN / USMC pilots, but what ...
user1352057's user avatar
  • 1,445
38 votes
2 answers
7k views

Did the Space Shuttle really wait until 50 feet above the ground before they put the gear down?

I saw a sign at the Smithsonian about the Space Shuttle where it said that their gear was not extended until 50 feet above the ground. I've searched and searched for something definitive that had the ...
Lnafziger's user avatar
  • 58.6k