Aeronautical research in the United States: Challenges for the 1990's

New opportunities for greater performance civil air transportation aircraft derive from the continuing advancements in the aeronautical disciplines: advancements in aerodynamics, structures and materials, propulsion, and flight control technologies. These opportunities impact future subsonic transports, high speed civil transports, and hypersonic vehicles. There are, however, new constraints within which progress will be made, including stringent environmental constraints on engine emissions and noise, old and new safety constraints on operations (especially in severe weather), aging airframes, and changing transportation marketplace demands affecting all of these vehicle classes. Some of the NASA aeronautical research programs will be discussed in four areas: (1) advanced subsonic airplanes; (2) next generation high speed civil transport aircraft (SST's); (3) high performance military aircraft; and (4) next century hypersonic vehicles. This presentation overviews the exciting progress which is possible in aeronautics during the 1990's.