1
00:00:00,003 --> 00:00:03,440
>>Flashing across California desert skies, the airplanes you see

2
00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:07,544
here are writing new chapters in the story
of man made flight....there she goes!

3
00:00:07,544 --> 00:00:12,082
>>This is my first opportunity
to greet you as deputy administrator

4
00:00:12,082 --> 00:00:15,752
of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration.

5
00:00:16,086 --> 00:00:18,722
>>Together, you and I must make our new agency

6
00:00:18,722 --> 00:00:20,056
>>A most unusual place

7
00:00:20,090 --> 00:00:22,926
>>An organization that can challenge
conventional wisdom.

8
00:00:22,926 --> 00:00:26,530
>>We can engineer anything we can write the requirements for.

9
00:00:26,530 --> 00:00:27,931
>>We're going to make your idea work.

10
00:00:27,931 --> 00:00:30,500
This particular idea is quite disruptive.

11
00:00:31,168 --> 00:00:35,439
>>A typical flight, of course, starts
under the wing of the B-52 mothership.

12
00:00:35,605 --> 00:00:41,044
>>This sleek, high speed machine
would have made Rube Goldberg proud.

13
00:00:41,178 --> 00:00:44,047
>>The manner in which we fly
reentry from space,

14
00:00:44,047 --> 00:00:48,051
on the space shuttle was
pioneered on the X-15.

15
00:00:48,051 --> 00:00:53,657
>>The X-31 pretty much wrote the book on thurst vectoring, along with its sister program, the F-18 HARV.

16
00:00:53,657 --> 00:00:55,826
>>An observation of an occulation is

17
00:00:55,826 --> 00:00:58,795
one of the more challenging
missions that SOFIA can do.

18
00:00:59,596 --> 00:01:18,782
[Music/Background sound]

19
00:01:19,616 --> 00:01:23,987
>>Right now, we are looking
at the dawn of a new era of aviation.

20
00:01:27,023 --> 00:01:31,361
[Music/Background sound]

21
00:01:37,931 --> 00:01:40,900
[Music]

22
00:01:42,469 --> 00:01:45,271
>>The sun would first stir life on our planet...

23
00:01:45,738 --> 00:01:48,374
Gradual shifting and upheavals would bury

24
00:01:48,374 --> 00:01:51,177
creatures and plants
beneath the surface of the earth.

25
00:01:51,578 --> 00:01:56,616
There, they would fossilize, eventually
turning into huge reservoirs of gas

26
00:01:56,783 --> 00:01:57,984
and coal...

27
00:01:57,984 --> 00:02:01,354
>>Oil made possible
one of the greatest inventions of history-

28
00:02:02,021 --> 00:02:05,525
the internal combustion engine,
which gave us mastery over the air.

29
00:02:06,159 --> 00:02:09,796
>>Pollution, grew around us
until one day, at last,

30
00:02:09,796 --> 00:02:15,635
we noticed that something had gone wrong
with our once pretty world...

31
00:02:15,735 --> 00:02:18,538
Just in time, the satellite
now gives us a view of pollution

32
00:02:18,805 --> 00:02:21,307
impossible to get in any other way.

33
00:02:22,108 --> 00:02:25,078
[Music]

34
00:02:25,512 --> 00:02:26,146
>>Scientists

35
00:02:26,146 --> 00:02:29,349
and researchers
continue to develop various technologies

36
00:02:29,516 --> 00:02:32,652
to cut fuel consumption,
through aircraft structure

37
00:02:32,652 --> 00:02:34,954
and engine design.

38
00:02:34,954 --> 00:02:39,125
>>Lightweight wires and electronics replace
mechanical linkage.

39
00:02:39,859 --> 00:02:44,030
>>NASA researchers see vertical takeoff
aircraft as commercially useful.

40
00:02:44,264 --> 00:02:47,667
These types of aircraft use less room
for takeoff and landing

41
00:02:47,901 --> 00:02:52,172
and keep noise and air pollution lower
than our present commercial planes.

42
00:02:52,505 --> 00:02:55,475
[Music/Background Sound]

43
00:02:58,144 --> 00:03:00,613
>>One of
the most unusual and highly experimental

44
00:03:00,613 --> 00:03:04,784
aircraft ever tested at
Dryden was the Gossamer Albatross.

45
00:03:05,818 --> 00:03:07,787
The albatross was Human-Powered

46
00:03:07,787 --> 00:03:11,024
and pedaled like a bicycle.

47
00:03:11,858 --> 00:03:12,759
The man who designed

48
00:03:12,759 --> 00:03:17,163
the Albatross also built the Gossamer
Penguin, the world's first flight

49
00:03:17,163 --> 00:03:20,333
worthy sun-powered plane

50
00:03:21,501 --> 00:03:29,642
[Music/Background Sound]

51
00:03:32,011 --> 00:03:33,546
>>ERAST is NASA's

52
00:03:33,546 --> 00:03:37,283
environmental research
aircraft and sensor technology program,

53
00:03:37,584 --> 00:03:41,054
and its mission is to develop aircraft
that are capable of

54
00:03:41,054 --> 00:03:44,824
flying very high and very slowly,
primarily to do

55
00:03:44,891 --> 00:03:48,661
atmospheric sampling
and monitoring of the global environment.

56
00:03:49,062 --> 00:03:53,533
>>Solar power offers some unique capability
for flying in the stratosphere.

57
00:03:53,833 --> 00:03:57,403
>>HELIOS should be able to stay aloft
for up to six months at a time

58
00:03:57,604 --> 00:04:01,140
to function
very much as an atmospheric satellite.

59
00:04:01,274 --> 00:04:04,677
>>What's very unique to the solar-powered
airplanes is that they are not polluting

60
00:04:04,677 --> 00:04:07,013
the very atmosphere
that they're trying to take samples from.

61
00:04:07,013 --> 00:04:09,148
So they're ideally suited
for that purpose.

62
00:04:09,182 --> 00:04:13,586
>>These vehicles can help us attain
a desirable balance between technology

63
00:04:13,586 --> 00:04:14,654
and nature.

64
00:04:14,654 --> 00:04:18,057
The stakes are high as we speed toward
a challenging future.

65
00:04:18,725 --> 00:04:21,194
>>Solar powered aircraft don't really work
well at nighttime.

66
00:04:21,227 --> 00:04:26,032
This is a way of compensating
for the inability to get energy at night.

67
00:04:26,332 --> 00:04:29,736
The airplane flies off the energy
provided by the laser.

68
00:04:30,136 --> 00:04:33,773
>>This is the world's first demonstration
of the application of laser

69
00:04:33,773 --> 00:04:37,343
energy to a flight vehicle
to achieve truly fuel-less flight.

70
00:04:37,744 --> 00:04:41,814
>>NASA Aeronautics
continued its green aviation initiatives.

71
00:04:42,181 --> 00:04:44,851
Their goal? To make air travel quieter

72
00:04:45,351 --> 00:04:50,323
cleaner, and more efficient while
increasing the safety and comfort of passengers.

73
00:04:50,356 --> 00:04:54,327
>>With this mandate
to significantly lower noise and emissions

74
00:04:54,327 --> 00:04:57,463
and increase performance
for subsonic aircraft,

75
00:04:57,764 --> 00:04:59,265
there will be a need to address

76
00:04:59,265 --> 00:05:03,102
virtually every aspect
of the current aircraft configuration.

77
00:05:03,670 --> 00:05:06,606
>>We're using a blended alternative fuel

78
00:05:06,739 --> 00:05:10,977
to evaluate the impact of different fuels
on the emissions of the aircraft.

79
00:05:11,411 --> 00:05:14,914
>>People have done lifecycle studies
to look at the carbon balance,

80
00:05:14,914 --> 00:05:16,282
which takes into account

81
00:05:16,282 --> 00:05:20,553
the amount of energy that you use
in growing the plant, processing the oil...

82
00:05:20,586 --> 00:05:25,491
Some of the studies have shown
about a 75% reduction in the amount of CO2

83
00:05:25,491 --> 00:05:30,663
that you get using camelina compared
to conventional petroleum based fuel.

84
00:05:31,364 --> 00:05:34,100
>>NASA started investigating
alternative fuels

85
00:05:34,100 --> 00:05:37,603
as a way of reducing the carbon emissions
from aircraft.

86
00:05:37,603 --> 00:05:40,273
But there's other benefits of these fuels.

87
00:05:40,273 --> 00:05:44,610
They produce much lower levels of soot,
and also they do not have

88
00:05:44,610 --> 00:05:45,945
sulfur contaminants.

89
00:05:45,945 --> 00:05:49,949
Hopefully there will be a fairly
significant return on investment in terms of

90
00:05:50,483 --> 00:05:53,820
improved public health and environment.

91
00:05:55,755 --> 00:05:56,823
>>Everything within

92
00:05:56,823 --> 00:05:59,992
subsonic aviation
now is looking for efficiency.

93
00:06:00,159 --> 00:06:02,729
We're looking at structures
to make aircraft lighter.

94
00:06:02,729 --> 00:06:04,630
We're looking at various
propulsion systems

95
00:06:04,630 --> 00:06:06,099
in order to make them more fuel efficient.

96
00:06:06,099 --> 00:06:10,203
And we're looking at configurations
to lower the noise impact of community

97
00:06:10,203 --> 00:06:13,639
noise, essentially looking at
an environmentally responsible aircraft.

98
00:06:13,673 --> 00:06:16,175
>>We really think this airplane
is revolutionary.

99
00:06:16,175 --> 00:06:20,713
It's a big jump in technology
from the tube and wing kind of airplanes

100
00:06:20,713 --> 00:06:21,748
that you see today.

101
00:06:21,748 --> 00:06:23,249
It's much more efficient

102
00:06:23,249 --> 00:06:26,652
I like to say it's like a hybrid car
compared to a regular car.

103
00:06:26,652 --> 00:06:30,356
>>It's exciting to think that we're
contributing to the green aircraft

104
00:06:30,356 --> 00:06:31,724
of the future.

105
00:06:31,724 --> 00:06:35,928
>>The aircraft now can be programed to have,
for example, engines that are more fuel

106
00:06:35,928 --> 00:06:40,366
efficient...control the engines separately
and also more closely and carefully.

107
00:06:42,235 --> 00:06:49,675
[Music/Background Sound]

108
00:06:52,578 --> 00:06:56,082
>>This is NASA's first
all electric crewed aircraft.

109
00:06:56,082 --> 00:07:01,754
>>We can use electric propulsion systems
and aircraft design in an interactive way.

110
00:07:01,754 --> 00:07:03,356
The wing itself is designed

111
00:07:03,356 --> 00:07:07,393
so that the electric motors enable extra
efficiency in the wing itself.

112
00:07:07,593 --> 00:07:08,261
>>There's several

113
00:07:08,261 --> 00:07:11,097
different types of airplanes
that can benefit from electric propulsion.

114
00:07:11,397 --> 00:07:14,267
The one that's gaining a lot of interest
right now is the smaller version,

115
00:07:14,267 --> 00:07:15,835
air taxi type vehicle.

116
00:07:15,835 --> 00:07:18,271
>>In doing the work of developing
these systems,

117
00:07:18,271 --> 00:07:19,672
integrating these systems and so forth,

118
00:07:19,672 --> 00:07:21,741
we have helped industry along their path.

119
00:07:21,774 --> 00:07:26,012
We've been able to deliver lessons learned on
batteries, on how you do the power electronics,

120
00:07:26,012 --> 00:07:27,380
how you build up the motors...

121
00:07:27,380 --> 00:07:31,217
And so X-57 really has been a pathfinder,
early on, for electric propulsion.

122
00:07:31,217 --> 00:07:33,152
>>The next generation of vehicles,

123
00:07:33,152 --> 00:07:36,456
they're going to be much greener
and much more efficient types of

124
00:07:36,456 --> 00:07:38,691
propulsive technology.

125
00:07:38,691 --> 00:07:39,759
[Music]