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Meeting	ACGS Committee Meeting 94 - Reno - November 2004
Agenda Location	4 GENERAL COMMITTEE TECHNICAL SESSION 4.2 Research Institutions, Industry, and University Reports 4.2.2 Research Institutes and Companies 4.2.2.5 General Dynamics, Flight and Aerospace Research
Title	General Dynamics, Flight and Aerospace Research
Presenter	Lou Knotts
Available Downloads*	presentation video
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Abstract	Construction of the new Flight Research hangar at Niagara Falls is nearing completion. Last week the fire suppression system consisting of a fire fighting foam generating system was successfully tested. TIFS will be housed in the new hangar in mid November, followed by the Lear IFS’s in December. The engineering spaces and systems labs will be completed in late December and January 2005. Two recent flight test programs were discussed – a sensor flight test program using TIFS for the ITTairborne sensor division; and a system integration flight test program using the variable stability Learjet 25 for the US Air Force Research Lab. The objective of the ITT Sensor test was to provide flight test of a laser based sensor for detection of gas pipeline leaks. TIFS was used as the sensor testbed for this program, with the simulation cockpit and sideforce surfaces removed and a sensor nose installed. The system integration effort consisted of installing a 1,200 lb sensor in the nose; adding a sensor hole in the avionics nose; and installing an operator station and 800 lbs of equipment in the fuselage. Flight test consisted of checkout flights in Buffalo, NY, and a sensor evaluation flight program at Casper, WY. The Automatic Aerial Refueling flight test program was the first phase of a multi-year AFRL and DARPA project to develop the sensors, control system, and concept of operations for aerial refueling of unmanned vehicles. The GD Learjet was used as a surrogate for the J-UCAS. During this phase of the project precision GPS and visible light sensors were installed in the Learjet. The aircraft was then manually flown to the pre-contact position of a NYANG KC-135 tanker. Data was gathered regarding the PGPS and EO data for various positions around the KC-135 as well as to check for compatibility of the Learjet flown behind the tanker. One checkout flight and seven data flights were flown in September 2004 from the Niagara Falls Airbase. Future activity will include installation of an electric control of the Learjet engines in 2005; datalink tests in 2005; realtime PGPS and datalink tests in 2006; and hands-off (autonomous) flight in 2007.