Supersonic research aircraft and legendary wind tunnels were the exotic tools being promoted by NASA engineers and pilots at Aerospace Testing Expo 2005 last week at the Long Beach, Calif., Convention Center.

The exposition gave NASA the opportunity to talk about its aeronautics research capabilities to several thousand key players in the global aerospace industry. Visitors lined up at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center booth to try their hand at piloting a jet flight simulator. Dryden, located on Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert, has the capability to make simulations for a wide variety of aircraft.

Dryden is also home to supersonic jet aircraft like an F-15B that recently helped engineers model the trajectories of divots of space shuttle fuel tank insulating foam, to help prepare the shuttle fleet to return to flight. In addition to research conducted by Dryden for NASA, the aircraft and facilities showcased at the expo can be hired by other government agencies and industry.

Representatives from NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Jose came to the Expo to talk about wind tunnels. Ames has the agency's West Coast wind tunnel facilities, storied for their pioneering research dating back to World War II. Coupled with computer modeling techniques, wind tunnels remain a viable, and less expensive, alternative to full-scale flight testing in the early stages of an aircraft development program.

Joining the Ames crew at Expo 2005 are engineers from NASA's Glenn Research Center near Cleveland, Ohio. Glenn brings a particular kind of wind tunnel expertise to the aerospace community, specializing in tests of engines and powerplant systems in tunnels built for that purpose.

Legendary among NASA aeronautical research facilities is the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. At the expo, Langley engineers Peter Jacobs, Richard Wahls and others explain Langley's various test capabilities including a transonic wind tunnel that can be pressurized and cooled with nitrogen to produce realistic flight regimes for modern tests. 

There's a noticeable linkage between the NASA centers represented at Aerospace Testing Expo 2005; advanced aeronautical concepts hatched at Langley often are flown in the desert skies over Dryden. Airframes studied at Ames and Langley can benefit from the powerplant testing at Glenn. It's all part of the first "A" in NASA - Aeronautics.

FMI: http://facilities.grc.nasa.gov, www.aeronautics.nasa.gov, http://windtunnels.arc.nasa.gov.