![]() NASA is still sifting through the information gathered from the sensors and isn’t ready to release findings yet, Bard said, but plans to publish those results in the next year or two in engineering papers. An additional sensor measures winds aloft by emitting sound pulses, according to the agency. Those include a 40-meter-tall tower outfitted with ultrasonic wind sensors and several smaller weather stations that sample wind flows through the area. NASA said ground instruments at the facility also detected weather conditions during the drone flights. While Armstrong isn’t an urban area, researchers said its buildings provided a suitable environment to gather data about flying in cities.Īrmstrong is inside Edwards Air Force Base, which has nearly constant strong winds coming down from nearby mountains into the surrounding desert basin. The 3-meter wingspan drone has been deployed for many experiments at the center by switching out instruments on board to gather various types of weather and aircraft information.ĭuring the project, sensors on the aircraft and on the ground measured temperature, pressure and relative humidity, along with wind speeds. ![]() I viewed the drones in Armstrong’s Model Lab during a visit there in September, such as the fixed-wing DROID 2, Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone. ![]() “They will help us understand how larger air taxis will be affected by weather in dense urban areas.” ![]() “It’s like sending in the canary in the coal mine first, you know, the smaller vehicles used in these tests,” Bard said. Over the span of two months, they flew remotely controlled drones - a quadcopter and a fixed-wing airplane - and weather balloons outfitted with sensors near Armstrong buildings in Southern California to measure how wind gusts and air swirling from rotors or propellers were affected by the proximity to those buildings. The goal was to fill in knowledge gaps about urban wind characteristics to improve weather prediction models and computer-based simulations. Better prediction could enhance safety and also help the industry anticipate how frequently wind conditions might ground flights in some cities.īard and others at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in July initiated their Advanced Exploration of Reliable Operation at Low Altitudes: Meteorology, Simulation and Technology campaign. Wind turbulence and wind shear can cause extreme turbulence and has, on occasion, led to air crashes. Predicting wind environments is a “very important hurdle for to cross if we want to see widespread urban service” because there are “very complex wind flows in an urban setting,” explained Luke Bard, a NASA meteorologist who is conducting wind research. As far as NASA knows, no one can yet predict the impact of wind and turbulence on air taxi operations, or what kinds of cityscapes and locations drive the strongest winds. While helicopters have served as air taxis in some large cities, the anticipated proliferation of electric air taxi rotorcraft would represent a new scale of aviation in such environments. If hundreds of air taxis are ever to ferry passengers or cargo around major cities, they will have to contend with urban wind environments - the most extreme being urban canyons between high-rise buildings that can funnel and accelerate wind and cause turbulence on city rooftops. NASA researchers seek to define how wind, buildings interact so conditions can be predicted Credit: NASA One headwind facing urban air taxis is, well, the wind By Paul Brinkmann | October 25, 2023 NASA's Red Jensen lands an Alta-X drone at the agency's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, as part of a research campaign to study wind and improve weather predictions for air taxis.
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