Flight Loads Lab reviews F/A-18E Super Hornet
EDWARDS AFB — Not all the work that goes on at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center is directly related to a NASA program. In some cases, the center’s exceptional skills and facilities are sought out by others, as well.
One recent example of this was a series of structural tests performed on a Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet, in which the Center’s Flight Loads Lab was employed to stress test the aircraft to determine what loads it may sustain during various flight conditions.
The aircraft tested is the replacement for the Navy’s aging structural test aircraft. The data collected during its time at Armstrong determined loads on the different areas of the structure so the Navy has very accurate data for testing new configurations on the aircraft, Flight Loads Lab Program Manager Darren Cole said.
The tests conducted at Armstrong provide the Navy with equations which relate to the strains on the airframe. The Navy can use those equations to tell how high the loads on the aircraft structure are for flight tests, to ensure safety, Aerostructures Branch engineer Tony Chen said.
These loads can be monitored in real time during a flight, so that a maneuver or flight can be halted if the structural strains are too great.
It should also help the Navy determine the airframe life expectancy, Cole said.
This type of testing is not unusual for the lab, which performed a similar test, in the early 2000s, on a NASA F-18, an older version of the aircraft, Loads Lab Chief Engineer Larry Hudson said.
This particular test, however, had some unique challenges, in that they were calibrating the loads on not only the wings, but also the horizontal spindles and vertical tails. There were also some different types of loads tested.
“There was some unique differences that presented some challenges for use, but they were actually some fun challenges,” Hudson said.
The tests were seven years in the making. The center was originally contacted by Naval Air Systems Command for the tests, in 2015. It took about two years, until June 2017, to finalize the Space Act Agreement to contract for the work, Hudson said.
The aircraft itself arrived at Armstrong, in late 2020, and the testing began, in September 2021. It was completed, in May.
The aircraft is still at Armstrong, being prepared to return to the Navy’s test fleet.
Working through the pandemic, the project experienced many of the same challenges as others, in terms of difficulty in obtaining materials and limits on how many people could be on site at a time, Cole said.
“We had to do some manpower sharing between projects,” he said.
It takes a fairly large team to run the type of loads tests as in this project, he said.
“It was good to see that during a challenging time the team could come together and accomplish a lot of testing,” Hudson said.
Armstrong does “a fair amount of reimbursable work like this,” he said, referring to outside work for which the Center’s facilities and personnel are contracted.
“But all these types of activities provide our engineers and technical workforce opportunity to hone their skills on different types of airplanes, to gain proficiencies on doing these types of tests,” Hudson said. “There is some added value to doing these types of tests.”