• X-48B Blended-Wing Body Test Vehicle Takes Flight

    The AFRL, Boeing, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) jointly developed X-48B Blended-Wing Body (BWB) research vehicle made a successful maiden flight at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (Edwards Air Force Base, California). The test aircraft--an 8.5% scale, remotely

  • Researchers Discover Viscous Properties of Water

    An AFRL-sponsored team at the Georgia Tech Center for Computational Materials Science discovered, via modeling and simulation methodologies, that water in layers 1 nm thick has viscous properties. This discovery will benefit the Air Force by encouraging researchers to use the same methods to reveal

  • AFRL-Funded Research Identifies New Material Properties

    AFRL-sponsored researchers from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin have identified new properties in molybdenum-silicon-boron (Mo-Si-B) alloys. The researchers discovered that the alloys exhibit melting temperatures more than 800°C higher than

  • AFRL Research Advances Light-Emitting Diodes for Laser Applications

    In-house sponsorship of an AFRL optoelectronics team is advancing Air Force combat systems through research into high-brightness/high-efficiency emission sources (e.g., light-emitting diodes and lasers) for laser radar and infrared countermeasures applications. In one effort, the team of AFRL

  • Base commander incorporates humor into quarterly call

    "Let me start by saying 'thank you' for everything you do," said Col. Colleen Ryan, 88th Air Base Wing commander, at her first Commander's Call of the new fiscal year. "Everyday I hear about the great support being provided by the wing and for that I thank you." Punctuated by a collection of

  • AFRL-Funded Researchers Identify Coherent Structures in Turbulent Airflow

    An AFRL-funded team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., is working to detect and predict structures that create clear-air turbulence. The team's objective is to understand and forecast the atmospheric structures that underlie the airflow associated with the phenomenon.

  • AFRL Technology Improves Firefighting Vehicles

    AFRL engineers developed a revolutionary new firefighting technology that will pave the way for a new generation of smaller, leaner, air-transportable fire trucks. The basis of the technology is a system for delivering ultra-high-pressure (UHP) agents to combat aircraft fuel fires--a capability that