The X-36 Program: A Test Pilot's Perspective on UAV Development Testing

The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) has been a partner in many uninhabited-aerial-vehicle (UAV) test programs. Our participation has largely been in the areas of...

Advanced Measurement of Angle of Attack and Sideslip

Nearly every military and commercial aircraft in the United States today uses pitot-static probes for accurate, repeatable airdata measurements. Recently, local angle-of-attack- and...

Measurements of Radiation in the Atmosphere

The recent summit meeting held in Kyoto, Japan, has brought world-wide attention to the issue of global climate change. For the past 5 years, the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation...

Adaptive Performance Optimization of Transport Aircraft

Adaptive performance optimization (APO) is an approach for improving aircraft performance without the need for extensive modifications of hardware. In this approach, one exploits existing...