• AFRL Developing options for Next-Generation Strike Tanker

    AFRL is laying the groundwork to develop a next-generation tactical tanker concept. This tanker will retain its high-lift characteristics to enable forward basing while producing a very stable wake, which will create an acceptable flow field to refuel a wide variety of air vehicles. AFRL and

  • AFRL Improves Accuracy of Computational Fluid Dynamics Calculations

    AFRL designers can maximize air vehicle performance and minimize cost when they know how air flows over an air vehicle concept. AFRL developed a tool that improves the accuracy of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solutions that the laboratory uses to study this type of airflow. This

  • AFRL Researcher Earns Patent for Speech-Based Audio Distance Display System

    Users of virtual auditory displays can experience a virtual hearing impairment since current displays do not produce robust distance cues. However, an AFRL researcher has earned a patent for a speech-based audio system that gives listeners the ability to accurately judge the distance of sound

  • AFRL Develops New Video Imaging Technology

    AFRL engineers improved battlefield communications with the development of an advanced video encoder that will increase the transportation speed, quality, and quantity of images that unmanned air vehicles supply while surveying battlefields. The technology will enhance the flow of video information

  • AFRL Evaluates Life-Saving Body Cooling Technology for Firefighters

    AFRL's Fire Research Group is evaluating the Vapor Relief™ System (VRS), a new, commercial off-the-shelf technology that is leading the way in providing firefighters with the means to stay cool in extreme heat conditions. The VRS has potential uses throughout the Department of Defense and the

  • AFRL Proves Feasibility of Plasma Actuators

    AFRL is laying the groundwork to develop revolutionary hypersonic aerospace vehicles. Researchers are examining the feasibility of replacing traditional mechanical actuators, which move like wing flaps to control an air vehicle's flight control surfaces, with plasma actuators that require no moving

  • AFRL Enhances Reactive Conformal NLET Technology

    As part of its Reactive Conformal Inlet Technology Enhancement program, AFRL is examining conformal inlet technology. Conformal engine air inlets are flush to an air vehicle's fuselage, causing less drag and increasing survivability compared to other inlet designs. AFRL is examining technology to

  • AFRL Earns Patent for Airframe Integrated Energy Storage Technology Concept

    Future air vehicles with onboard systems for powering directed energy weapons will require capacitors that, if manufactured using today's technology, would weigh thousands of pounds. Consequently, AFRL researchers have begun exploring ways to integrate load-bearing capacitor fibers into air vehicle

  • AFRL Completes Aerospace Relay Mirror System Demonstration

    AFRL's Aerospace Relay Mirror System (ARMS) program successfully completed a formal review of laboratory test results. ARMS is a prototype laser relay system designed to redirect and focus the beam of a ground-based or airborne high-energy laser (HEL) onto a target, significantly increasing the

  • AFRL Researches Use of Pulsed Coolant for Film Cooling

    Coolant flow reduction is an important design goal in the development of advanced turbine engines. Turbine engine designers routinely use film cooling to cool engine components in the hot-gas flowpaths. Film cooling is the process of injecting coolant fluid at one or more discrete locations along