By Melissa
Soave
There's
a well-known song that begins, "Almost heaven, West Virginia,"
and it is in the heavens above West Virginia that new possibilities
for far-reaching technological advancements in aircraft flight
are being tested. It's not the first time West Virginia skies
have been used for field tests: remember Homer Hickam and his
rocket boys? It's also not the first time West Virginia has had
a connection to flight-testing, since General Chuck Yeager, the
first man to break the sound barrier, is a native son.
This time, the test "pilots" are Dr. Marcello Napolitano, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University, and his team of fellow researchers, coordinated by research assistant professors Brad Seanor, Giampiero Campa, and Mario Perhinschi. Unlike Chuck Yeager, these test pilots will never leave the ground. Instead, they have developed computer programs to do the flying for them. In fact, Dr. Napolitano and his research group specialize in flight simulation, flight controls, and flight-testing. In one of their research projects, they are designing, manufacturing, and flight-testing a class of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) to develop new computer software that will make both manned and unmanned planes safer.
Unmanned aerial vehicles are fundamentally remote-controlled aircraft, but are much more sophisticated than the model airplanes flown by hobbyists. They've been around for over a decade and are mainly used in military applications of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance as well as for scientific applications such as measuring depletions of the ozone layer. Rapid advancements in UAV technology have made them an important tool for the U.S. Air Force and NASA, which are the main sponsors of the WVU research program.
The
UAVs themselves are not the focus of Napolitano and his team,
but are used to test new computer software, which will make UAVs,
as well as manned aircraft, "smart," and therefore
safer. The University's UAV and RPV aircraft models include a
B747, B777, and multiple YF-22 models, which provide flight-testing
platforms for new software technologies. The models use onboard
hardware and software technology that weighs approximately 50
pounds when fully loaded, and the planes are powered by an actual
scaled-down jet engine. The computer systems designed by WVU's
research team are capable of storing aircraft parameters, evaluating
complex information, and executing scenarios that would be taxing
on human memory.
Over the last decade, WVU's researchers have been involved with numerous aircraft flight-testing research programs. Areas of investigation have included artificial intelligence, ranging from autonomous to pilot-assisted control; flight-testing with respect to aircraft simulation and parameter identification; and development of hardware and software used to evaluate conceptual ideas. Our researchers perform first-level tests in the research and development stage.
The
first set of research aircraft built were the Boeing B747 and
B777 models for a research effort sponsored by the NASA Ames
Research Center to test specific control laws for fault-tolerant
control systems. Napolitano, an expert in these systems, focused
on sensor and actuator failure. With respect to actuator failure,
these systems were designed to detect a problem in a movable
surface of a plane, such as the tail, rudders, or wings. Dr.
Napolitano's systems are a blend of conventional control theory
and artificial intelligence. "Failures can sneak up on you,"
he says. "A pilot might learn of a problem too late, but
this system will detect and identify the problem and immediately
take corrective action without human involvement."
More recently, these researchers have been assisting NASA's Dryden Research Center, Boeing Aircraft, and the Institute for Scientific Research (of Fairmont) with the Intelligent Flight Control System F-15 Program, which is developing a manned aircraft with the ability to independently accommodate an unexpected event. Some of the control schemes that WVU helped to design are being flight-tested by NASA, with additional flight-testing planned for 2004 and 2005. Napolitano observes that "This has been a dream project, because NASA has only a few research projects in this area and it means the research we do does not stay on our computer, it is actually being flown by NASA. How many composers see their music performed by a top orchestra? It's the same feeling."
Another
research project, for the U.S. Air Force, involves the design
of formation flight control laws that will be tested using three
unmanned YF-22 aircraft. The potential for in-air collisions
is great with so many aircraft flying in similar patterns. This
new technology would allow planes to work together and adjust
to each other's movements. Along with formation flight control,
current research activities have expanded into autonomous aerial
refueling and cooperative unmanned aerial vehicles, specifically
task allocation and path planning.
The actual flight-testing of the models is done at Louis Bennett Field, located at the WVU Jackson's Mill Conference Center in Jane Lew, 65 miles south of Morgantown. According to Napolitano, Jackson's Mill is perfectly suited for research flight-testing because it is secluded from commercial and general aviation air traffic. The facility features a 3,500-foot long, 50-foot wide semi-paved runway. "We are very fortunate to have our own field test area," says Napolitano. "It is very rare for a university to have such a facility at its disposal."
In October 2002, the group tested the first
of three aircraft that eventually will be flown in formation.
The planes were completely built (body, hardware, and software)
by WVU undergraduate and graduate students. In fact, there is
now a 
production line
in the construction shop that houses the school's F-15 flight
simulator, the onboard flight computers, and various avionic
components. There is also a propulsion lab for evaluating engine
performance.
Aerospace is a small but a significantly growing industry in West Virginia. The WVU program has international ties, and delegations from Japan and Italy have toured the facilities looking for ways to develop talent and technology exchanges. These visits were part of the International Aerospace Mission organized by Senator Jay Rockefeller, the Discover the Real West Virginia Foundation, and the West Virginia Development Office. WVU also was very proud to be the only recipient in the United States of a grant from the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence, the equivalent of the U.S. Department of Defense.
In December 2003, the world will observe
the centennial anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic 59-second
flight that took place at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The next
hundred years hold the promise of more exciting achievements
in aviation, and it appears that WVU will play an important part
in the development of new technologies.