Sustainable Aviation – NeRDs Moonbase

Wind Over Its Wing: NASA’s X-66 Model Tests Airflow

February 5, 2025 NeRD

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project concluded wind tunnel testing in the fall of 2024. Tests on a Boeing-built X-66 model were completed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley in its 11-Foot Transonic Unitary Plan Facility. The model underwent tests representing expected flight conditions to obtain engineering information to influence design of the wing and provide data for flight simulators. NASA/Brandon Torres Navarrete NASA’s Sustainable Flight Demonstrator (SFD) project recently concluded wind tunnel tests of its X-66…

NASA Flips Efficient Wing Concept for Testing

December 4, 2024 NeRD

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA/Quincy Eggert Upside down can be right side up. That’s what NASA researchers determined for tests of an efficient wing concept that could be part of the agency’s answer to making future aircraft sustainable. Research from NASA’s Advanced Air Transport Technology project involving a 10-foot model could help NASA engineers validate the concept of the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW), an aircraft using long, thin wings stabilized by diagonal struts. The TTBW concept’s efficient wings add lift and could result…