Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Low-Cost Transmit/Receive Module for Satellite Control and Communications

A multidisciplinary team led by AFRL scientists is developing a geodesic dome phased-array antenna (GDPAA) for a proposed future Air Force (AF) technology...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

The Next Frontier of Networking—The Airborne Network

It is the next frontier of networking—a frontier where communication nodes may move at Mach speeds, wireless line of sight covers hundreds of miles, and weather affects communications...

Briefs: Information Technology

Military Worth Analysis of New Concept Weapons

Weapon systems analysts traditionally conduct military worth analysis (MWA) to evaluate the warfighter payoff resulting either from the development and implementation of new assets or from the...

Briefs: Information Technology

Developing Condition-Based Maintenance

Like any manufacturing equipment, semiconductor fabrication systems have a finite lifetime. Technicians normally perform maintenance on these hardware systems according to preset schedules and...

Briefs: Materials

Design of Lightweight and Durable Composite Structures

In the field of engineering design, "factors of safety" are derivatives of inadequate knowledge and therefore are a necessary, but costly, element of engineering design. Designing...

Briefs: Materials

Monazite Deformation Twinning Research

AFRL scientists have significantly advanced the understanding of a phenomenon called deformation twinning, a major materials deformation mechanism that is particularly important at low temperatures and...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Dynamic Cavity Formation Imaging

When an Air Force bomber drops a penetrating munition, what happens as the warhead travels underground to the target? AFRL researchers at the Advanced Warhead Experimentation Facility (AWEF) recently captured...

Briefs: Medical

AFRL Teams With Indy Racing League® for Neck Protection

The bulletlike, open-wheel Indy racing cars hurtle around oval tracks at breakneck velocities, often approaching speeds of 220 mph or higher. While a crash at this speed is a violent,...

Briefs: Medical

Scientists Create Optically Equivalent Synthetic Human Tissue

Lasers are an integral part of the modern battlefield, used for applications as diverse as point-to-point communications and ballistic missile defense. Their widespread use...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Weapon Data Link Demonstration

One of the US Air Force's goals is to reduce the time needed to strike timesensitive targets, thus minimizing the adversary's perceived mobility advantage and leaving concealment as that enemy's primary...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

RASCAL Facility

AFRL's Radiation and Scattering Compact Antenna Laboratory (RASCAL) enables researchers to develop and evaluate advanced aperture technologies that support electronic warfare, radar, communication, and navigation—...

Briefs: Information Technology

Response Surface Mapping Technique Aids Warfighters

When weaponeering a target, military planners pinpoint a detonation location that will result in the desired damage to the entire target, or even a particular area within the target. The...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Microelectromechanical Systems Inertial Measurement Unit Flight Test

AFRL and Boeing engineers conducted successful flight tests of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) inertial measurement units (IMU) on the Joint Direct Attack Munition...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Fruit Flies

He refers to them as "nature's fighter jets" and has devoted his life's work and an entire lab to monitor their every move. Thus is the relationship existing between Dr. Michael Dickinson and the objects of his attention—fruit...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Active Flow Control Demonstrated on “Airborne Wind Tunnel”

AFRL engineers, collaborating with aerospace manufacturers and other Air Force groups, recently demonstrated the first-ever airborne active flow control system when they...

Briefs: Information Technology

Coordination of Autonomous Unmanned Air Vehicles

Future autonomous unmanned air vehicles (UAV) will need to work in teams to share information and coordinate activities in much the same way as current manned air systems. Funded by AFRL,...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Surface-Emitting Laser Arrays Bring Light to the Top

Laser diodes are an integral part of everyday life, incorporated into commonplace items as diverse in function as laser pointers, fiber-optic communications systems, and DVD players....

Briefs: Software

Geo*View

Visualization of geospatially correct, remotely sensed data is a key element of many government and commercial applications. It enables a user to analyze and assess ground activities and other conditions of interest. Because...

Briefs: Materials

New Capability to Characterize the Mechanical Properties of Explosive Materials

Improved targeting accuracy and the long-standing desire to minimize collateral damage are causing current and future munitions to become much smaller. As...

Briefs: Materials

Ceramic Matrix Composites Research

AFRL scientists characterized and evaluated the high-temperature mechanical behavior of fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials used in aerospace structural applications. Researchers...

Briefs: Materials

Characterizing Mechanical Properties at the Microscale

Scientists from AFRL, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, and General Electric Aircraft Engines, working under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Accelerated Insertion of...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Total In-Flight Simulator 50th Anniversary

AFRL's Total In-Flight Simulator (TIFS), a Convair C-131 Samaritan aircraft, entered service on March 22, 1955. The C-131 aircraft had performed various transport operations for approximately a...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

F-35 Antenna Measurement Program

Engineers are conducting sophisticated performance testing of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) antennas at the AFRL Newport Research Facility, New York. Through an agreement with the F-35 Joint Program Office,...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

A New Method for Determining Aeroballistic Parameters From Flight Data

Dr. Gregg Abate, an AFRL exchange engineer, developed a new method for determining aeroballistic parameters from projectile flight data. Assigned to the Fraunhofer...

Briefs: Materials

Fire-Resistant Hydraulic Fluid

An AFRL-developed fire-resistant hydraulic fluid recently completed a B-52 flight test, and based on successful test results, systems engineers from Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC) will adopt the...

Briefs: Materials

Predicting the Composition of Metallic Glasses

AFRL scientists made significant progress in developing bulk metallic glasses to improve the durability and performance of aerospace components. They also successfully created working scientific...

Briefs: Materials

Innovative Processes Strengthen F-15E Vertical Stabilizers

AFRL materials engineers resolved a potentially serious problem that affects the operational life of F-15E vertical stabilizers. Working with engineers from Warner Robins Air...