Taking to the sky is what NASA does best. The agency is offering drone design improvements that can help create the next wave of advanced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Technologies are available that cut wing weight to keep drones flying longer, components that keep UAV swarms in the air despite a broken drone, shape memory alloys that reconfigure aircraft in flight, and a compact droned that flys for 24 straight hours.

A modern airplane’s fuselage is made from multiple sheets of different composite materials that must be wheeled into warehouse-sized ovens where the layers fuse together to form a resilient, aerodynamic shell.

FPGAs have become an increasingly important resource for software radio systems. Programmable logic technology now offers significant advantages for implementing software radio functions such as DDCs (Digital Downconverters). Over the past few years, the functions associated with DDCs have seen a shift from being delivered in ASICs (Application-Specific ICs) to operating as IP (Intellectual Property) in FPGAs.

NASA’s first large-scale, piloted X-plane in more than three decades entered final assembly and integration of its systems. The X-59 will be flown above select U.S. communities to generate data from sensors and people on the ground in order to gauge public perception. That data will help regulators establish new rules to enable commercial supersonic air travel over land.

The University of Surrey developed a robust, multi-layered nano-barrier for ultra-lightweight and stable carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) that could be used to build high precision instrument structures for future space missions.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner did not reach its planned orbit and dock to the International Space Station last month but completed test objectives related to NASA’s Commercial Crew Program including a successful launch of the first human-rated United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket; testing of the propulsion systems, communications, and docking system; and tracker alignments using its navigation system.

Researchers with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) designed and built an instrument called NAUTILUS to provide new measurement capabilities to measure nuclear, cosmo/geo-chemical, and electronic materials.

Metal detectors now appear routinely in the entrances of many schools, airports and even houses of worship. They serve as portals to correctional facilities, prisons and courthouses, and guards often wave hand-held models around the bags of incoming ticketholders at sports arenas. The increased usage is making it more important than ever to know that these machines will always work as expected and can be counted on to help detect weapons and other threats. To help meet these demands, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have researched and developed four metal detection testing standards. Three have been published by the ASTM International standards organization and a fourth is still in development.

Researchers at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Chemical Biological Center are looking at LEDs to help warfighters battle chemical warfare agents (CWA). Co-primary investigators, Hui Wang, Ph.D. and John Landers, Ph.D. are investigating ways to embed tiny light sources in warfighter uniforms.

Shape-memory alloy (SMA) is a functional metal with unique properties that allow it to be trained to move on its own. Researchers at NASA Glenn partnered with Boeing to test how shape-memory alloys can be used in deployable vortex generators (VGs), the tiny fins you might have noticed on airplane wings that help control airflow during flight.