[1]. The Administration’s fiscal year 2010 budget request for NASA is $507 million, compared with the 1998 aeronautics budget of $1.5 billion. Opening Remarks of Senator Barbara Mikulski, Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies. Hearing of the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request for NASA. U.S. Congress. May 21, 2009.
[2]. Joseph Chambers, Innovation in Flight (SP-2005-4539), p. 46.
[3]. The author thanks Robert Arrighi, archivist, Wyle Information Systems, History Program at Glenn, for providing instrumental documents, and Air Force Capt. Jarrett S. Lee, for providing insights and support.
[4]. Virginia P. Dawson, Engines and Innovation: Lewis Laboratory and American Propulsion Technology, NASA SP-4306 (1991), ch. 9.
[5]. Neal T. Saunders and Arthur J. Glassman, “Lewis Aeropropulsion Technology: Remembering the Past and Challenging the Future,” NASA Lewis Research Center, 1991.
[6]. Ibid.
[7]. Ibid.
[8]. Phone interview of Dennis Huff by Caitlin Harrington, Mar. 31, 2009. See also Valerie J. Lyons and Arlene S. Levine, “An Overview of NASA’s Contributions to Energy Technology,” NASA AIAA-2008-5641 (Jan. 2009).
[9]. Ibid.
[10]. Ibid. See also Arnold Engineering Development Center, Propulsion and Wind Tunnel Facility, http://www.nimr.org/systems/images/pwt.html, accessed July 29, 2009.
[11]. Statistics available from Energy Information Administration, U.S. Imports by Country of Origin, http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_epc0_im0_mbblpd_a.htm,accessed July 29, 2009.
[12]. Mark D. Bowles and Virginia Dawson, “The Advanced Turboprop Project: Radical Innovation in a Conservative Environment,” From Engineering Science to Big Science, Pamela Mack, ed., (Washington, DC: NASA, 1998), p. 7.
[13]. Ibid.
[14]. General Electric, “Keeping a Bold Promise,” GE Aviation, Evendale, OH, Sept. 12, 1983.
[15]. “The Energy Conservative Engines Program at Lewis,” Lewis News, Aug. 3, 1979, History Office archives, NASA Glenn Research Center.
[16]. Lyons and Levine, “An Overview of NASA’s Contributions to Energy Technology.”
[17]. Erick M. Conway, High Speed Dreams (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), p. 166.
[18]. Chambers, Innovation in Flight.
[19]. Phone interview with Dan Bulzan, NASA’s Associate Principle Investigator for the Subsonic Fixed Wing and Supersonic Aeronautics Project, by Harrington, Mar. 12, 2009.
[20]. International Panel on Climate Change, “Fourth Assessment Report,” 2007.
[21]. Ibid.
[22]. IPCC’s forecasts are based on projections regarding the future economy and the development of new energy-saving aircraft technology, so they are inherently uncertain. See U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Aviation and Climate Change: Aircraft Emissions Expected to Grow, but Technological and Operational Improvements and Government Policies Can Help Control Emissions,” GA0-09-544 (Jan. 2009).
[23]. Phone interview of David Ed Crow by Harrington, Pratt & Whitney Customer Training Center, Hartford, CT, Mar. 27, 2009. For noise concerns related to Advanced Turboprop, see also Bowles and Dawson, “The Advanced Turboprop Project,” From Engineering Science to Big Science, Pamela Mack, ed., p. 27.
[24]. Phone interview of John Baughman, General Electric’s Manager of Military Advanced Systems Design, by Harrington, Apr. 24, 2009.
[25]. For example, see U.S. Patent No. 4,550,561, “Method for Improving the Fuel Efficiency of a Gas Turbine Engine,” Nov. 5, 1985, awarded to NASA Lewis researcher George A. Coffinberry and assigned to the U.S. Government.
[26]. International Civil Aviation Organization, Environment Section: Civil Aircraft Emissions, http://www.icao.int/icao/en/env/aee.htm, accessed July 29, 2009.
[27]. U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Aviation’s Effects on the Global Atmosphere Are Potentially Significant and Expected to Grow,” GAO/RCED-00-57 (Feb. 2000) available at http://www.gao.gov/archive/2000/rc00057.pdf, accessed July 29, 2009.
[28]. “The Energy Conservative Engines Program at Lewis,” Lewis News, Aug. 3, 1979.
[29]. Ibid.
[30]. Ibid.
[31]. General Electric, “Keeping a Bold Promise,” GE Aviation, Evendale, OH, Sept. 12, 1983.
[32]. Jeffrey Ethell, “Fuel Economy in Aviation,” NASA SP-462 (1983), p. 42.
[33]. Harrington, Baughman interview.
[34]. Harrington, Crow interview.
[35]. Harrington, Baughman interview.
[36]. Ibid.
[37]. Harrington, Crow interview.
[38]. Ethell, “Fuel Economy in Aviation,” p. 30.
[39]. Ibid., p. 31–42.
[40]. Harrington, Baughman interview.
[41]. Ibid.
[42]. Harrington, Crow interview.
[43]. NASA, NASA’s High Speed Research Program, http://oea.larc.nasa.gov/PAIS/HSR-Overview2.html, accessed July 29, 2009.
[44]. Ibid.
[45]. Committee on High Speed Research, Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, National Research Council, U.S. Supersonic Aircraft: Assessing NASA’s High Speed Research Program (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1997), p. 53.
[46]. “Advanced Subsonic Technology Program Plan,” Office of Aero-Space Technology, NASA (May 1999).
[47]. John Rohde, “Overview of the NASA AST and UEET Emissions Reductions Projects,” Mar. 1, 2002, http://www.techtransfer.berkeley.edu/aviation02downloads/JohnRohde.pdf, accessed July 29, 2009.
[48]. Ibid.
[49]. U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Aviation’s Effects on the Global Atmosphere Are Potentially Significant and Expected to Grow.”
[50]. “Advanced Subsonic Technology Program Plan.”
[51]. NASA, “Ultra Efficient Engine Technology Program,” June 25, 2001, http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/RT/RT2000/2000/2100shaw.html, accessed July 29, 2009.
[52]. Joe Shaw and Catherine Pettie, “NASA Ultra Efficient Engine Technology Project Overview,” NASA Glenn Research Center NASA CP-2004-212963, vol. 1.
[53]. Ibid.
[54]. NASA, Industry Roundtable: Aerospace Industry Enterprise, NASA Headquarters, http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/events/showcase/environ.htm?goto=index.htm, accessed July 29, 2009.
[55]. Ibid.
[56]. Committee on High Speed Research, Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, National Research Council, U.S. Supersonic Aircraft: Assessing NASA’s High Speed Research Program (1997), p. 55.
[57]. U.S. Supersonic Aircraft, p. 54.
[58]. Ibid.
[59]. Harrington, Crow interview.
[60]. Harrington, Bulzan interview.
[61]. Bowles and Dawson, “The Advanced Turboprop Project,” p. 10.
[62]. NACA/NASA Research and Development Projects Receiving the Robert J Collier Trophy, http://history.nasa.gov/Timeline/collier.html, accessed July 29, 2009.
[63]. Bowles and Dawson, “The Advanced Turboprop Project.”
[64]. Edwin J. Graber, “Overview of NASA PTA Propfan Flight Test Program,” NASA Glenn Research Center, Nov. 1, 1987, CASI Doc. 19880006423; and B.H. Little, D.T. Poland, H.W. Bartel, C.C. Withers, and P.C. Brown, “Propfan Test Assessment (PTA) Final Project Report,” NASA CR-185138 (1989).
[65]. Bowles and Dawson, “The Advanced Turboprop Project.”
[66]. Harrington, Baughman interview.
[67]. Ibid.
[68]. James J. Haggerty, “Propfan Update,” Aerospace, fall/winter 1986, pp. 10–11.
[69]. Graber, “Overview of NASA PTA”; Harrington, Baughman interview.
[70]. Bowles and Dawson, “The Advanced Turboprop Project.”
[71]. Harrington, Crow interview.
[72]. Bowles and Dawson, “The Advanced Turboprop Project.”
[73]. Harrington, Crow interview.
[74]. United Technologies, Inc., Leading Change: The Geared Turbofan Engine, Pratt & Whitney Customer Training Center, Hartford, CT, 2009.
[75]. Harrington, Baughman interview.
[76]. General Electric, “GE Launches Engine Core for New Commercial Airplanes,” July 13, 2008, available at http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080713005020, accessed July 29, 2009.
[77]. Harrington, Huff interview.
[78]. Harrington, Huff interview.
[79]. Chambers, “Concept to Reality: Contributions of the NASA Langley Research Center to Civil Aircraft of the 1990s,” NASA SP 2003-4529 (2003), http://oea.larc.nasa.gov/PAIS/Concept2Reality/composites.html, accessed July 29, 2009.
[80]. Ibid.
[81]. Ibid.
[82]. Ethell, “Fuel Economy in Aviation,” p. 59.
[83]. Ibid., p. 71.
[84]. “NASA Technology,” Dryden Flight Research Center, Oct. 21, 2008, available at http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/X-Press/stories/2008/10_08_technology.html, accessed July 29, 2009.
[85]. Ethell, “Fuel Economy in Aviation,” p. 77; see also N.A. Radovich, D. Dreim, D.A. O’Keefe, L. Linner, S.K. Pathak, J.S. Reaser, D. Richardson, J. Sweers, and F. Conner, “Study for the Optimization of a Transport Aircraft Wing for Maximum Fuel Efficiency,” vol. 1: “Methodology, Criteria, Aeroelastic Model Definition, and Results,” NASA CR-172551 (1985).
[86]. Dryden Flight Research Center, “NASA Technology.” Whitcomb’s work is thoroughly discussed by Jeremy Kinney in a companion case study.
[87]. Dryden Flight Research Center, “NASA Dryden Technology Facts: Winglets,” http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/about/Organizations/Technology/Facts/TF-2004-15-DFRC. html, accessed July 29, 2009.
[88]. Ibid.
[89]. Albert L. Braslow, A History of Suction-Type Laminar Flow Control with Emphasis on Flight Research, Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 13 (Washington, DC: NASA History Division, Office of Policy and Plans, NASA Headquarters, 1999), p. 1.
[90]. Dryden Flight Research Center, “Fact Sheet: F-16XL Laminar Flow Research Aircraft,” updated Mar. 1, 2008, http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-023-DFRC.html, accessed July 29, 2009.
[91]. Mary L. Sandy and H. Keith Henry, “Flight Tests Prove Concept for Jet Liner Fuel Economy,” NASA Headquarters Press Release, Aug. 23, 1990, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/1990/90-115.txt, accessed July 29, 2009.
[92]. Braslow, A History of Suction-Type Laminar Flow Control with Emphasis on Flight Research, p. 32.
[93]. Dryden Flight Research Center, “Fact Sheet: F-16XL Laminar Flow Research Aircraft.”
[94]. Graham Warwick, “NASA Steps Up Research into Fuel Efficient Aircraft,” Flight International, June 14, 2007, available at http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/06/14/214635/nasa-steps-up-research-into-efficient-aircraft.html, accessed July 29, 2009.
[95]. Warwick, “NASA Pushes Blended Wing/Body,” Aviation Week, Jan. 13, 2009, available at http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/Body011309.xml&headline=NASA%20Pushes%20Blended%20Wing/Body%20&channel=space, accessed July 29, 2009.
[96]. Travis L. Turner, Randolph H. Cabell, Roberto J. Cano, and Richard J. Silcox, “Testing of SMA-Enabled Active Chevron Prototypes Under Representative Flow Conditions,” NASA Langley Research Center, Report LAR-17332, Paper 6928-36, CASI Doc. 20080014174 (2008); Vance Dippold, III, “CFD Analyses and Jet-Noise Predictions of Chevron Nozzles with Vortex Stabilization,” NASA TM-2008-215150 (2008).
[97]. Abe Silverstein and Eldon Hall, “Research Memorandum: Liquid Hydrogen as Jet Fuel for High Altitude Aircraft,” Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory, Cleveland, OH, N63-12541, (Apr. 15, 1955).
[98]. Ibid.
[99]. Donald R. Mulholland, Loren W. Acker, Harold H. Christenson, and William V. Gough, “Flight Investigation of a Liquid-Hydrogen Fuel System,” NACA RM-E57F19a (1957).
[100]. Silverstein and Hall, “Research Memorandum: Liquid Hydrogen as Jet Fuel for High Altitude Aircraft.”
[101]. John L. Sloop, “Liquid Hydrogen as a Propulsion Fuel,” NASA SP-4404 (Washington, DC: NASA, 1978).
[102]. Ibid.
[103]. D. Daggett, O. Hadaller, R. Hendricks, and R. Walther, “Alternative Fuels and Their Potential Impact on Aviation,” NASA TM-2006-214365 (2006); see also C.G. Jay, “Hydrogen Enrichment of Synthetic Fuel,” NASA Tech Briefs, vol. 3, No. 1 (June 1, 1978), NTTC Doc. 19780000039.
[104]. Lyons and Levine, “An Overview of NASA’s Contributions to Energy Technology.”
[105]. NASA Glenn Research Center Propulsion Systems Division Combustion Branch, updated July 24, 2008, available at http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/combustion, accessed July 29, 2009.
[106]. Sloop, “Liquid Hydrogen as a Propulsion Fuel.”
[107]. Harrington, Lyons phone interview, Apr. 27, 2009.
[108]. Anita Liang, Chief, Aeropropulsion Projects Office, “Emerging Fuel Cell Developments at NASA for Aircraft Applications,” Glenn Research Center, 2003, available at http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/03/seca/Anita%20Liang.pdf, accessed July 29, 2009.
[109]. Ibid.
[110]. Boeing, “Boeing Successfully Flies First Fuel-Cell Powered Plane,” Apr. 3, 2008, http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2008/q2/080403a_nr.html, accessed July 29, 2009.
[111]. See, for example, A.L. Nagel, W.J. Alford, and J.F. Dugan, “Future Long-Range Transports: Prospects for Improved Fuel Efficiency,” NASA TM-X-72659 (1975).
[112]. Robert D. Wicofski, “Comparison of Alternate Fuel for Aircraft,” NASA TM-80155 (Sept. 1979).
[113]. Ibid.
[114]. A plant that produces Fischer-Tropsch synthetic fuel, which is being used by the U.S. Air Force to power jet engines, requires five times the capital costs as an oil refinery. See Gerrard Cowan and Harrington, “Adding Fuel to the Fire: Energy and Defence,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, Nov. 21, 2008.