NASA's Strategic Plan for the Aerospace Technology Enterprise includes ambitious objectives focused on affordable air travel, reduced emissions, and expanded aviation-system capacity. NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, in cooperation with NASA Ames Research Center, the Boeing Company, and the University of California, Los Angeles, has embarked on an autonomous-formation-flight project that promises to make significant strides towards these goals. For millions of years, birds have taken advantage of the aerodynamic benefit of flying in formation. The traditional "V" formation flown by many species of birds (including gulls, pelicans, and geese) enables each of the trailing birds to fly in the upwash flow field that exists just outboard of the bird immediately ahead in the formation. The result for each trailing bird is a decrease in induced drag and thus a reduction in the energy needed to maintain a given speed. Hence, for migratory birds, formation flight extends the range of the system of birds over the range of birds flying solo. The Autonomous Formation Flight (AFF) Project is seeking to extend this symbiotic relationship to aircraft.


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    Title :

    Autonomous Formation Flight


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2004-02-01


    Type of media :

    Miscellaneous


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English


    Keywords :


    Autonomous formation flight

    Giulietti, F. / Pollini, L. / Innocenti, M. | Tema Archive | 2000


    Autonomous Formation Flight: Project Overview

    Cole, Jennifer / Cobleigh, Brent / Vachon, Jake et al. | NTRS | 2008


    Autonomous Formation Flight: Project Overview

    J. Cole / B. Cobleigh / J. Vachon et al. | NTIS | 2008


    Autonomous State Estimation in Formation Flight

    Sabatini, Marco / Reali, Fabrizio / Palmerini, Giovanni B. | IEEE | 2007


    Autonomous state estimation in formation flight

    Sabatini, M. / Reali, F. / Palmerini, G.B. | Tema Archive | 2007