NASA SBIR SUCCESS STORY  Langley Research Center  
1998 Phase I  

Flight Tests of the Low Speed Characteristics of a Hypersonic Waverider Configuration 

Accurate Automation Corporation 

Chattanooga, TN 
 

INNOVATION 
    Accurate Automation has expanded the flight control system capabilities of  LoFLYTE® for unstable configurations and mission scenarios.
LoFLYTE® Night Taxi Test at Edwards AFB
LoFLYTE® Night Taxi Test at Edwards AFB
Optional Powerpoint file
ACCOMPLISHMENTS 
    • Conducted a series of flight tests of the LoFLYTE® aircraft, with the goals of:
      • characterizing LoFLYTE®’s aerodynamics and evaluating possible modifications and enhancements to the aircraft,
      • exploring LoFLYTE®’s flight envelope,
      • characterizing its SERN nozzle, and
      • eliminating the Dutch roll phenomenon
    • Evaluated LoFLYTE®’s neural adaptive flight control system, with the goal verifying the controller’s genericity
    • Compared the real flight data with simulated configurations
    • Developed a flight test program plan to ensure safe and efficient conduct of the flight test experiments
COMMERCIALIZATION 
    • Fully developing the low-speed characteristics of a hypersonic waverider configuration with an advanced neural vehicle management system provides several near-term applications of the resulting technologies to subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic flight vehicles. 
    • The benefits of this program exhibit tremendous longer term potential applications to operational military and civilian vehicles.

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GOVERNMENT/SCIENCE APPLICATIONS 
    • Research applications include:
      • Subsonic target drone applications,
      • Mach 2 to 4 ramjet powered vehicles, and
      • Mach 4 to 8 dual mode ram/scramjet powered vehicles. 
    • The United States Navy, in its Mission Needs Statement, has identified the requirements for hypersonic vehicle for military missions.

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