1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,720 How are NASA engineers using Fibonacci sequence and the Godent ratio to research, design and 2 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:09,720 develop airplanes? 3 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:15,920 When NASA engineers are designing airplanes, they want to be sure that all their airplanes 4 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:16,920 handle the same way. 5 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:19,960 It's kind of like driving a car or a truck. 6 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:22,880 Whatever car or truck you drive should perform the same way. 7 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:28,520 Anyway, let's say engineers have designed a new airplane with a larger wing than a previous 8 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:29,520 design. 9 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:35,960 They have to use ratios to scale or size parts like the ailerons to fit the new wing. 10 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:39,360 Ailerons are the movable parts of airplane wings that control roll. 11 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:43,760 If the ailerons are not the correct size for the new wing size, the plane might not fly 12 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:45,240 the way it should. 13 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:50,400 So you see, the Golden Ratio helps designers determine the geometric relationships needed 14 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:52,720 to keep the plane flying the same. 15 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:55,560 Hey guys, meet Bruce Holmes. 16 00:00:55,560 --> 00:01:00,160 He's an aeronautical engineer at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. 17 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:03,160 So Bruce, let us know what you're working on here at NASA. 18 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:08,840 Well, as Ardith told you, our transportation demand in this country will soar beyond supply 19 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:12,360 in the new century, the 21st century. 20 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:17,640 And we have just got to figure out how to make more places available to more people 21 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:18,640 in less time. 22 00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:24,320 And so we're working with smaller airports and smaller aircraft that fly ever faster 23 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:28,720 and ever safer than before to meet this 21st century demand. 24 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:32,280 You're telling me smaller airplanes, you mean like smaller, like this smaller right here. 25 00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:34,240 How is that going to happen, Bruce? 26 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:40,200 Well, many people don't know that the ratio of the total number of airports in the country 27 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:44,560 to the number that have hub-and-spoke airline service is about 10 to 1. 28 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:49,800 And so we can go 10 times as many places and save time for people if we can figure out 29 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:52,080 how to use these smaller airplanes in smaller airports. 30 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:58,320 There are several ratios that aircraft designers use to sort of score themselves with the design 31 00:01:58,320 --> 00:01:59,880 of the airplane. 32 00:01:59,880 --> 00:02:05,680 Wing loading, for example, is where you take the whole weight of the airplane and divide 33 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:09,040 by the wing area that you see out here. 34 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:16,240 And that gives you a sense of the relationship between the weight of the vehicle to how much 35 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:18,040 area is supporting it. 36 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:24,560 Another ratio that's very useful is the total lift efficiency or lift capability of the 37 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:26,880 wing divided by the weight of the airplane. 38 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:31,240 And that tells you how efficient of a lifting device the airplane is, and it also tells 39 00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:36,000 you how long the runway needs to be because it tells you how slowly you can land the airplane. 40 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:37,000 Very important ratio. 41 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:41,920 Okay, so I guess what you're saying is that smaller airplanes mean smaller runways. 42 00:02:41,920 --> 00:02:42,920 Much smaller runways. 43 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:49,280 Big runways at big airports can be 10,000 feet, 12,000 feet, 15,000 feet long, and yet 44 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:54,680 you can use a runway that's only about 2,000 feet, about one-fifth the length. 45 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:56,680 Okay, Bruce, this plane already exists, obviously. 46 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:58,480 I mean, you fly this thing around. 47 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:03,880 How are you and how is NASA going to use an airplane like this to help travel in the future? 48 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:11,400 The small aircraft transportation system, which is using smaller aircraft and smaller 49 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:16,360 airports as a means by which we can move more people to more places. 50 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:18,040 And you're working on this right now at NASA. 51 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:23,600 What we want to do with SATS is make it possible for people to have another choice for inner 52 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:30,240 city travel in the 21st century, a bypass around hub lock and a bypass around gridlock. 53 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:34,240 If you want to be in those systems for other reasons, that's fine. 54 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:36,300 We'd like to give people an alternative. 55 00:03:36,300 --> 00:03:40,640 We're proposing to make these smaller airports all across the country more accessible in 56 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:46,480 virtually all weather conditions with airplanes that are as easy to use as cars and cost 57 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:48,800 about the same as a car trip for long trips. 58 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:50,560 And about as small as this? 59 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:52,960 Well, the airplanes will be a little bit bigger than this. 60 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:56,120 I mean, you'll be surprised, actually, at how big they'll seem once you get in. 61 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:58,680 They'll seem more like minivans and things like that. 62 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:03,920 So, if you think about one of the other ratios or proportions that's interesting is how 63 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:06,720 much power you have in the airplane relative to the weight of the airplane. 64 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:10,120 We call it power loading or thrust to weight ratio. 65 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:15,120 And the people at Austin's Glenn Research Center are working on how to get more efficiency 66 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:19,120 and more thrust out of less weight in engines. 67 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:22,200 This is like our little map here of telling us how to go. 68 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:23,200 Let's plan a trip. 69 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:24,200 Are we there yet? 70 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:25,200 Gosh. 71 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:27,960 Well, here's how we find out. 72 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:32,680 When you navigate, you pull out the map and you just kind of look at your route of flight, 73 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:35,920 figure out where you're starting from and where you want to go to, and this is kind 74 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:36,920 of a big mess. 75 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:41,920 You know, the more you got into it, kind of the more involved this whole thing became. 76 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:42,920 Oh, yeah. 77 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:44,920 And then peek over here and make sure everything's still going. 78 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:45,920 All right. 79 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:47,920 And we're going to put that away. 80 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:49,920 Now it's all right here in the computer. 81 00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:50,920 Oh, it's all right here? 82 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:51,920 Absolutely. 83 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:52,920 So, we can navigate. 84 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:53,920 We can see where we are. 85 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:54,920 We can see where the weather is. 86 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:56,920 We can see where the traffic is. 87 00:04:56,920 --> 00:04:58,920 We can see where we wanted to go. 88 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:01,920 And we can also have all of the frequencies and all the information that was on that map 89 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:02,920 is stored in the computer. 90 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:03,920 We don't even have to use the map. 91 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:05,920 So, I just push a button and pull it up. 92 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:06,920 That's the idea. 93 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:07,920 Wow. 94 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:10,920 And you put all these technologies into this airplane. 95 00:05:10,920 --> 00:05:13,920 This is an airplane that has many of the SATS technologies. 96 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:17,920 There are many more to come, but this is sort of the grandfather of SATS airplane. 97 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:22,920 So, Jennifer, Van, what do you say we button up and fly on over to the Research Triangle 98 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:26,920 Institute and look at the computerized simulator where we can put some of this highway in the 99 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:28,920 sky theory into action? 100 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:29,920 I love computers. 101 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:30,920 Let's do it. 102 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:31,920 That sounds great. 103 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:35,920 You know, speaking of computers, did you know that the Boeing 777 was the first airplane 104 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:38,920 ever to be designed completely using a computer? 105 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:39,920 Isn't that right, Bruce? 106 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:40,920 That's right. 107 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:43,920 Yeah, they used computer technology, and it gave engineers immediate feedback and eliminated 108 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:45,920 the need for building expensive models. 109 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:49,920 So, while Bruce, Van, and I head over to the Research Triangle Institute, why don't you 110 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:53,920 go see Dr. Shelley Canright and design an airplane using your own computer?