The Future—Investing in Freedom |
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As it looks to the future, the Langley Research Center intends to maintain a critical role in support of industries and government agencies that are responsible for the development of technology for the defense of the United States. However, there are several challenges in striving to maintain this critical role. The level of Langley support for military research and development is dynamic and flexible. Langley participates as requested in response to the unpredictable international and domestic political and technical factors that influence our world as we enter a new millennium. The reduction of U.S. military forces and plans for mergers or elimination of federal research laboratories complicate planning for aeronautical research programs. The numerous industrial mergers of the 1990’s have consolidated the number of aircraft companies that request the results of NASA’s aeronautics efforts. Diminishing budgets and personnel reductions have forced NASA to choose between space exploration and aeronautics when placing priorities, which has resulted in fewer resources for traditional military related research within NASA. Finally, maintaining world-class facilities in the face of increasingly competitive foreign facilities is a great challenge. The end of the Cold War has diminished the intensity of the arms race. However, the alarming growth in international sales of sophisticated aircraft and arms to less developed countries and the development of advanced aircraft within nations such as the former Soviet Union and China continue to pose a technological challenge to the air supremacy of the United States. The emergence of terrorist operations on a worldwide scale has changed the scope of the potential threat to the United States. This change in scope demands a new look at the adequacy of our military readiness and the requirements for new technology. For example, our experiences with uninhabited reconnaissance aircraft in Operation Desert Storm and European peacekeeping missions were highly successful. This success highlights the probability that uninhabited aircraft will increase in number in the future inventory of the United States. Uninhabited aircraft permit unprecedented deviations from existing design constraints and radical improvements within technical disciplines such as aerodynamics, structures, and flight controls. Finally, the aging of the military aircraft fleet of the United States continues, and replacement aircraft will eventually be required. Nearly all military aircraft that participated in Operation Desert Storm, Kosovo, and other peacekeeping missions of the 1990’s were over 20 years old. Some research activities that contributed to the development of these aircraft began over 50 years prior. Future military aircraft development programs for the United States will begin from the extensive database of computer analyses, wind-tunnel tests, and flight-test results of past and present military aircraft. Information is added to this database by fundamental research conducted by Langley researchers. Very often this fundamental research points the way to the solution of any problem that may occur in an aircraft development program. Shrinking budgets and staff reductions further encourage the use and expansion of this database. The staff at NASA Langley Research Center with their extensive aeronautical database and experience is ready to provide the research that is needed to maintain the air superiority of the United States. With adequate funding, Langley will continue in partnership with the Department of Defense, other government agencies, industry, and universities to develop the next generation of high-performance military aircraft. |
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