Federal award (DELIVERY ORDER, fiscal year 2023)
Recipient: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AEROSPACE ASSOCIATES
Awarding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Funding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Period of performance: 2018-05-02 to 2019-09-30
Current total value of award: $10171.81
Description: AUGMENTOR-EJECTOR REFERENCE COMPILATION.  A LARGE NUMBER OF VERTICAL TAKEOFF AND LANDING (VTOL) AIRCRAFT WERE DEVELOPED ACROSS THE WORLD, AND PARTICULARLY IN THE U.S. DURING THE 1950S THROUGH 1980S THAT EXPLORED DIVERSE CONFIGURATION APPROACHES TOWARDS ACHIEVING FEASIBLE OPERATIONS. HOWEVER, ACROSS THESE HUNDREDS OF DESIGN STUDIES AND FLIGHT DEMONSTRATORS ONLY THE V-22 OSPREY AND AV-8B HARRIER HAVE ACHIEVED OPERATIONAL STATUS AS FEASIBLE CONCEPT APPROACHES. THE DEVELOPMENT OF DISTRIBUTED ELECTRIC PROPULSION REPRESENTS A FUNDAMENTALLY NEW PROPULSION TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL LIKELY CHANGE THE FEASIBILITY OF PREVIOUSLY ATTEMPTED CONCEPT APPROACHES, DUE TO THE SCALE-FREE NATURE OF THE ELECTRIC PROPULSION TO BE APPLIED ANYWHERE ACROSS THE AIRCRAFT SYSTEM. IT IS HIGHLY DESIRABLE TO RE-EVALUATE PRIOR VTOL CONFIGURATION ATTEMPTS TO UNDERSTAND THE POTENTIAL OF THIS TECHNOLOGY TO ALTER THE FEASIBILITY. MUCH OF THE RESEARCH RELATING TO VTOL AIRCRAFT HAS BEEN DISAPPEARING AS THE RESEARCHERS WHO PERFORMED THIS RESEARCH ARE RETIRING AND COMPANIES FAIL TO RETAIN THE DETAILED RESEARCH RESULTS. THIS RESEARCH WILL DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE SET OF REFERENCES RELATING TO PRIOR FIXED WING VTOL CONFIGURATIONS EMPLOYING HIGH MASS FLOW AUGMENTORS AND AUGMENTOR-EJECTORS AND DOCUMENT THE LESSONS LEARNED RELATING TO THE APPLICATION OF DISTRIBUTED ELECTRIC PROPULSION AS A NEW TECHNOLOGY ENABLER THAT PROMOTES FEASIBILITY OF SPECIFIC CONCEPT APPROACHES. THIS RESEARCH WILL ALSO GATHER A NUMBER OF ORNITHOPTER REFERENCES THAT COULD APPLY TO THE APPLICATION OF DISTRIBUTED ELECTRIC PROPULSION (DEP).