Spinoff: Transportation

Orbital Trajectory Analyzer Takes Mission Planning to New Heights

NASA Technology

There’s some wizardry involved in sending a rocket or other spacecraft beyond the oppressive reach of Earth’s gravity. Long before the first...

Spinoff: Transportation

Flight Controller Software Protects Lightweight, Flexible Aircraft

NASA Technology

Since its founding in 1958, NASA has made profound contributions to aviation, including advancing our understanding of flight mechanics—the...

Spinoff: Transportation

IonoSTAGE Ensures Accuracy of Pilots’ GPS

NASA Technology

To permit safe and reliable aircraft navigation over North America using the Global Positioning System (GPS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has developed the...

Spinoff: Transportation

Aircraft Geared Architecture Reduces Fuel Cost and Noise

NASA Technology

Just 12 years after the Wright brothers became the first to take to the skies in a powered airplane, in 1915 Congress established the National Advisory...

Spinoff: Transportation

Ubiquitous Supercritical Wing Design Cuts Billions in Fuel Costs

NASA Technology

By the time he was visiting what is now known as Armstrong Flight Research Center to witness the first tests of his latest creation, Richard T....

Spinoff: Transportation

Cabin Pressure Monitors Notify Pilots to Save Lives

NASA Technology

Typical cruising altitudes for business and commercial aircraft are up to 50,000 feet or more. At such altitudes, the oxygen concentrations in the air are much...

Spinoff: Transportation

NASA Standards Inform Comfortable Car Seats

NASA Technology

In the beginning, safety trumped comfort in spacecraft designs for human space travel. Mihriban Whitmore, a manager in the Human Research Program at NASA’s Johnson...

Spinoff: Transportation

Data Mining Tools Make Flights Safer, More Efficient

NASA Technology

When an aircraft experiences catastrophic failure, it’s not difficult to tell that something has gone wrong. But even if an airplane reaches its destination...

Spinoff: Transportation

Experiments Result in Safer, Spin-Resistant Aircraft

NASA Technology

James M. Patton Jr. completed a whopping 8,000 spin turns throughout his career at NASA. As a research pilot at Langley Research Center, Patton and his...

Spinoff: Transportation

Heat Shield Paves the Way for Commercial Space

NASA Technology

Comets are beautiful, and apparently it’s a youthful kind of beauty, because they look about the same from the time they were born. Often referred to as dirty...

Spinoff: Transportation

Interfaces Visualize Data for Airline Safety, Efficiency

NASA Technology

It was Henry Ford who said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” Following such an adage,...

Spinoff: Transportation

Anti-Icing Formulas Prevent Train Delays

NASA Technology

In the winter of 2009, Washington, DC, workers faced the prospect of a difficult commute due to record-setting snowfalls. But thousands of the city’s Metrorail riders...

Spinoff: Transportation

Shuttle Repair Tools Automate Vehicle Maintenance

NASA Technology

Successfully building, flying, and maintaining the space shuttles was an immensely complex job that required a high level of detailed, precise engineering. After...

Spinoff: Transportation

Speech Recognition Interfaces Improve Flight Safety

NASA Technology

“Alpha, Golf, November, Echo, Zulu.” “Sierra, Alpha, Golf, Echo, Sierra.” “Lima, Hotel, Yankee.”

It looks like some strange word game, but the...

Spinoff: Transportation

Polymers Advance Heat Management Materials for Vehicles

NASA Technology

For 6 years prior to the retirement of the Space Shuttle Program, the shuttles carried an onboard repair kit with a tool for emergency use: two tubes of...

Spinoff: Transportation

Wireless Sensors Pinpoint Rotorcraft Troubles

NASA Technology

Helicopters present many advantages over fixed-wing aircraft: they can take off from and land in tight spots, they can move in any direction with relative ease, and...

Spinoff: Transportation

Cameras Improve Navigation for Pilots, Drivers

NASA Technology

After 10 months of traveling through deep space to Mars, the Phoenix Lander finally approached its destination. The last 7 minutes of the spacecraft’s 423...

Spinoff: Transportation

Integrated Design Tools Reduce Risk, Cost

NASA Technology

As NASA designs new spacecraft for its science missions and begins designs for the next generation of human spaceflight vehicles, it also works to revolutionize Earth’s...

Spinoff: Transportation

Advisory Systems Save Time, Fuel for Airlines

NASA Technology

Heinz Erzberger never thought the sky was falling, but he knew it could benefit from enhanced traffic control. Throughout the 1990s, Erzberger led a team at Ames...

Spinoff: Transportation

Modeling Programs Increase Aircraft Design Safety

NASA Technology

“Flutter” may sound like a benign word when associated with a flag in a breeze, a butterfly, or seaweed in an ocean current. When used in the context of...

Spinoff: Transportation

Fly-by-Wire Systems Enable Safer, More Efficient Flight

NASA Technology

In 1961, not long after NASA received the imperative from President John F. Kennedy to land a man on the Moon within the decade, then-NASA administrator...

Spinoff: Transportation

Sensor Systems Collect Critical Aerodynamics Data

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

The next time you blow out a candle, watch how the smoke behaves. You will see that it rises first in an even stream. At a certain point,...

Spinoff: Transportation

Coatings Extend Life of Engines and Infrastructure

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Every time a jet engine is started, it goes through a thermal cycle of extreme temperatures, reaching as high as 2,700 °F within the...

Spinoff: Transportation

Programs Model the Future of Air Traffic Management

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Try describing the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS), and you will inevitably end up rattling off a series of large numbers. There are...

Spinoff: Transportation

Tail Rotor Airfoils Stabilize Helicopters, Reduce Noise

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Given the eye-catching nature of space shuttle launches, deep-space imagery, and Mars exploration, it can be easy to forget NASA’s...

Spinoff: Transportation

Personal Aircraft Point to the Future of Transportation

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

In the late 1970s, general aviation (GA) in the United States was experiencing its heyday. In 1978, as many as 18,000 GA aircraft...

Spinoff: Transportation

Ducted Fan Designs Lead to Potential New Vehicles

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

From the myth of Icarus, who flew too close to the Sun on wings made of wax, to the designs Leonardo da Vinci drew of flying machines that...

Spinoff: Transportation

Winglets Save Billions of Dollars in Fuel Costs

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Anyone who has made a paper airplane knows that folding the wingtips upward makes your plane look better and fly farther, though the reasons...

Spinoff: Transportation

Tools Lighten Designs, Maintain Structural Integrity

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

While working on designs for a new high-speed aircraft, a group of software engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center developed a...