The USA Experience of AESA
10-23 April 2009
This activity was the main event scheduled for Spring 2009 and was planned with the precise aim of getting in touch with companies and research centres located in the USA.
The first achievement was the opportunity to visit, on the 15th April, the Pratt&Whitney Costumer Training Center CTC at East Hartford (CT) and the Pratt&Whitney Cheshire Engine Center (CT) for overhaul & maintenance operations; a particular appreciation for supporting and helping from the very beginning for the organization of the event goes to Keith Taylor, the F135 International Program Manager who warmly welcomed and introduced the students to the other P&W guests of the day.
After a quick breakfast and a brief introduction of the visiting group made by the AESA members, students were acquainted by Cliff Stone, Deputy Director for P&W Military Engines International Programs, with the role of P&W in the F35 JSF program, to which the company contributes providing the only power plant in the air and in production, the F135, both for the CTOL and STOVL versions of the military aircraft.
After this lecture, students were led to the main hall of the CTC were
they had the opportunity to see on display the PW4000 commercial turbofan
family and taking various group pictures inside the fan of the largest P&W
commercial engine, the PW4000-112inch fan.
In this occasion particularly appreciated was the presence of Gene Danko,
an experienced P&W engineer who was able to provide in simple words answers
to complex questions about design of some turbofan components asked by the
group while taking a closer look to the engines.
After lunch offered by P&W and transfer to P&W Cheshire Engine Center, the visiting group was led through the maintenance and overhaul hangar, starting from the disassembly and non destructive testing operated on the single engine components up to the reassembly of the whole system ready to be delivered to the costumer; this after-lunch tour was really appreciated by the students since allowed them to get more in touch with industrial processes carried out inside the company.
If P&W exciting day had come to an end, there was surely no time to get
bored.
Indeed, on the 16th April students visited the Intrepid Air&Space Museum
in NYC, featuring a striking static display of military aircraft on the
main deck of the aircraft carrier with the NY skyline in the background;
after moving to Washington D.C., on the 18th and 19th April was the time
of the two Smithsonian Air&Space Museums, The Mall and the Udvar-Hazy Center,
famous worldwide and being the most popular of their kind.
The second important technical tour was an extensive visit of the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), which took place on 20th and 21st April 2009; AESA appreciation for helping in the organization of this visit goes to Alexander Tessler (member of LaRC Structural mechanics and Concept Branch), who set up everything in Hampton (VA) for students arrival managing all necessary authorizations to get inside the centre and kindly accompanied the visiting group in a nice informal dinner on the 20th. Furthermore a thanks to Marco Di Sciuva and Marco Gherlone (respectively, Full and Associate Professor in Aerospace Structures at Politecnico di Torino) who enthusiastically gave their contribution in the organization.
The first day at LaRC was devoted to a tour of a wide variety of facilities;
during the morning, students were led to the Full–Scale Landing and Impact
Testing Facility, the anechoic chamber used for EMC testing and the 20-foot
Vertical Spin Tunnel, an amazing vertical wind tunnel used since 1941 to
investigate spinning, tumbling and free–fall characteristics of aircraft
and space vehicles.
In this case students could attend a stability test performed by the scaled
mock up of the Orion capsule, the space vehicle to be used in the next Moon
mission and being part of the upper stage of the new Ares V Nasa launcher.
At each site experienced technicians provided the visitors with precise
explanations about the tests carried out and the features of the facility
itself After lunch, the tour continued with the National Transonic Facility,
a horizontal pressurized air / cryogenic wind tunnel used for qualifying
aircraft and space vehicles in a very wide variety of environmental conditions,
including cryogenic testing for space vehicles; to call it a day was the
visit to the High Intensity Noise Research Hypersonic Propulsion Facility,
test bench for ramjet and arcjet propulsive systems.
The next day was, if possible, even more exciting for the visiting group,
notably for four students who had the opportunity to present their M.Sc.
or B.Sc. thesis work to NASA technicians and engineers, who really appreciated
and congratulated them for making a presentation in front of an audience
which cannot be surely defined conventional. The morning was then devoted
to some technical presentation by three NASA engineers concerning inflatable
structures and cranes to be used in the forthcoming Moon missions and some
other research activities dealt at LaRC.
After lunch, students toured the James Starnes Jr. Structures and Materials
Laboratory, starting from testing machines, manufacturing processes up to
a presentation of the inflatable structures and cranes to be used on the
Moon, including a live demonstration of the crane capabilities which represented
a praiseworthy ending to this exciting two-day NASA LaRc visit.
The day after was time to drive back to Washington D.C. and catch the flight back to Italy…after a night passed flying over the Atlantic Ocean, upon landing at Milan Malpensa airport students had to wake up from their American Dream and get back, with no little effort, to their daily life
Read the NASA LaRC article about AESA visit:
“Students travel from Italy to view possibilities”
By Jim Hodges
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/researchernews/rn_turinstudents.html
