• Improved Crystals Transition for Laser Technology Demonstration

    AFRL researchers managed an innovative research and development (R&D) effort conducted with BAE Systems, Inc., that achieved a tenfold increase in the energy-per-pulse performance of zinc germanium diphosphide (ZnGeP2) crystals--important components in the construction of high-power (and now,

  • AFRL Develops Portable Covert Airfield Lighting System

    AFRL engineers worked under a Small Business Innovation Research grant with Optical Research Associates (Pasadena, California) to design and develop a portable covert airfield lighting system (PCALS) based on light-emitting diode (LED) technology rather than conventional incandescent bulbs. The

  • 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