A Day of Flight Testing at NASA Armstrong

Flight testing is a team sport. For nearly 80 years, teams at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, have used flight testing to push the limits of aerodynamics and advance aviation. Earlier this year, NASA’s Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow ( CATNLF ) initiative tested a wing concept that would maximize the smooth flow of air known as laminar flow, which could lower fuel costs for future airliners. During flight testing, researchers strapped a scale-model CATNLF wing to the bottom of a NASA F-15 aircraft. Here’s what a day of CATNLF flight testing looked like. Ground crews ready the aircraft for the mission. If the operation involves a chase plane — a second aircraft to monitor the test flight — it would also be prepared, along with its crew. Pilots, engineers, maintenance techs, project leads, researchers, photographers, and videographers meet to review the flight’s goals, weather reports, and final details. Researchers head to the control room to complete day-of checks, confirming all communications, displays, and instruments are functioning. Pilots suit up in life support, including custom‑fit pressure suits, harnesses, helmets, and masks. If a photographer, videographer, or flight test engineer will be in the aircraft’s back seat, they do the same. The pilot completes preflight checks with the crew chief and technicians for the aircraft’s electrical systems. …