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Whitcomb Reshapes Airplanes for Speed and Efficiency
Dr. Richard Travis Whit
comb has spent over half his
48 years solving the prob
lems of high-speed flight and
has become an important in
fluence in determining the
exterior shape of airplanes.
The aerospace research en
gineer earned his reputation
through more than a quarter
century of pioneering re
search at the National Aero
nautics and Space Adminis
tration’s Langley Research
Center, Hampton, Va.
Whitcomb came to Langley
in 1943 direct from the Wor
cester Polytechnic Institute,
where he graduated “with
high distinction.”
During his first four years
at Langley, Whitcomb was
able to try out some of his
early ideas in wind tunnel re
search aimed at improving
the performance of World
War II airplanes. With the
war ended, and his interest
in high speeds heightened by
the historic flight of the X-l,
he joined the assault on the
scientific and technological
barriers to the design and
development of practical su
personic aircraft.
Area Rule
Using the new transonic
wind tunnels developed at
Langley — the first facilities
of their kind in the world—
Whitcomb discovered in 1952
and later experimentally
verified a revolutionary air
craft design concept called
the area rule.
This is a method of scien
tifically combining aircraft
wings, bodies, tail surfaces,
and other components to re
duce drng and increase speed
and range without the addi
tion of power. Sometimes re
ferred to as the "Coke bot
tle” shape because of the in
dented fuselages which re
sulted from early applica
tions, the area rule was
hailed by the aircraft indus
try as the key to practical
supersonic flight. The con
cept is incorporated in every
American supersonic air
plane.
Whitcomb’s area rule re
search brought him many
high honors. He was one of
the youngest persons — at
35 — to receive his universi
ty's honorary doctor of en
gineering degree. He won the
coveted Collier Trophy for
1954, presented by then Vice
President Richard M. Nixon
for that year’s "greatest
achievement in aviation in
America.” The former Na
tional Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics (NACA),
which in 1958 became part
of the nucleus of the NASA,
conferred its first Distin
guished Service Award,
NACA’s highest recognition,
for his significant contribu
tions. Other national awards
for achievement followed,
bringing him international
recognition in only a little
more than a decade.
New Wing Concept
Currently, Whitcomb is
busy developing a new wing
concept. If successfully ap
plied to future aircraft—par
ticularly commercial jet
transports — the wing offers
the promise of improved per
formance and efficiency.
Conceived at Langley as a
result of wind tunnel studies
conducted by Whitcomb over
nearly a five-year period,
the wing has the potential
for allowing highly efficient
cruise flight close to the
speed of sound, or nearly 660
mph at an altitude of 45,000
feet. This would be about 100
mph faster than present sub
sonic transports normally
travel, and could be accom
plished without the addition
of power.
Griffin Daily
News
Space
Age
Report
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NEW WING SHAPE — Dr. Richard Travis Whitcomb
stands in the test section of a wind tunnel at the NASA
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., checking his
latest invention, the supercritical wing, prior to testing.
The wing offers the promise of improved performance and
efficiency if successfully applied to future aircraft —
especially commercial jet transports. In the early Fifties,
Whitcomb conceived a new aircraft design concept called
the area rule which 'was hailed by the aviation industry
as the key to practical supersonic flight.
New Airfoil Shape
Like the area rule, the new <
design concept—called the i
supercritical wing by NASA i
Star Computer Tests Itself, Then Does Repairs
A computer named STAR
on the West Coast is its own
trouble-shooter and repair
man. A laboratory model of
STAR (an acronym for Self-
Testing-and-Repairing) has
been operational for the last
four months at the National
Aeronautics and Space Ad
ministration’s Jet Propulsion
laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
STAR is still being tested
and de-bugged, and develop
ment work is under way for
miniaturization and testing
for future space applications.
With the advanced com
puter, JPL space planners
hope to perfect a fault-toler
ant “brain” that will direct
unmanned spacecraft on
years-long missions to the
outer planets—and beyond
into intergalactic space.
“We are aiming for 90 per
cent probability of lasting 15
years,” says Dr. Algirdas
Avizienis, JPL computer ex
pert and head of the STAR
project. That would be suf
ficient to control spacecraft
operations to Neptune or
Pluto, outermost targets in
multi-planet Grand Tours of
the solar system NASA en
visions for the later 19705.
Standby Parts
During its nine-to-11-year
minimum lifetime, the STAR
computer would automati
cally switch on identical
backup units to replace parts
that break down. Each part
would have three or more
standby replacements.
By 1974, a more modest
STAR (with two backups for
each part) may control a
spacecraft on a flight to
Jupiter a minimum
undertaking.
Avizienis, Lithuanian-born
computer scientist-engineer,
conceived the STAR idea in
1961. Since 1965, he has
guided its design, construc
tion and development.
Assisted by a JPL team of
a dozen engineers and tech
nicians, he has built a 10-
—would make a major
change in the appearance of
aircraft. It utilizes a new
airfoil shape with a flat top
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unit computer that uses a
coding system to detect er
rors, and a monitor unit to
diagnose the cause and cure
in one-hundredth of a second.
Miniaturization
While the STAR test mod
el fills three six-foot racks
now, Avizienis says its parts
can be miniaturized easily to
fit spacecraft requirements.
The flying STAR probably
would not exceed two cubic
feet, nor consume more than
50 watts of electrical power
—less than an ordinary kit
chen light bulb.
STAR belongs to the digi
tal family of computers.
These operate with “words
of instructions and numeric
quantities represented by
strings of zeroes and ones
(1010,0011, etc.). All of
STAR’S instruction and
number words are so chosen
that a fault will change a
good word to a meaningless
or “illegal” one.
When a faulty unit sends
a damaged word to another
unit, the illegal word can be
spotted by the monitor and
its source identified.
Blows the Whistle
The monitor which “blows
the whistle” on the fault
maker is called TARP—Test
and downward curved rear
section, drastically different
from the curved top and
sloped rear section of a con
ventional wing.
In wind tunnel research on
the supercritical wing, mod
els were frequently modified
in a series of “cut and try”
tests. Whitcomb, whose
search for solutions to prob
lems sometimes leaves him
impatient with delay, kept a
file and measuring instru
ments handy and often joined
his friends, the modelmakers,
in working on the wing
edges. “I modified the shape
of the wing myself as we
tested it,” Whitcomb ex
plained. “It’s plain easier
this way.”
NASA is preparing for
flight tests, using an exist
ing Navy F-8 jet aircraft as
a test bed. The regular wings
will be replaced with Whit
comb’s wing shaped to simu
late that of a subsonic trans
port. Purpose of the pro
gram, to be conducted at the
NASA Flight Research Cen
ter, Edwards, Calif., is
to determine if the perform
ance of the new wing as
measured in wind tunnels
can be fully achieved in
flight.
Space Flight Research
Whitcomb, head of the 8-
Foot Tunnels Branch of
Langley’s Full Scale Re
search Division, has special
ized in aeronautics through
out his nearly 27-year career
and Repair Processor. Liter
ally the brain and conscience
of the computer, TARP re
ceives status reports from all
working units and, in effect,
decides whether all behavior
is normal, that is, if each
unit is following instructions
and producing only good
works.
Furthermore, like any
good conscience, TARP also
checks itself. For this TARP
Apollo Program Statistics
S/C HRS. MAN HRS. CUM. MAN HRS.
DATE MISSION Revs. HMSH M SH M S
10/11-22/68 Apollo 7; Capt. Schirra, 163 260 8 45 780 26 15 2774 8 10
Maj. Eisele, Mr. Cunningham
12/21-27/68 Apollo 8; Col. Borman, 2-f-lO 147 00 11 441 00 33 3215 8 43
Capt. Lovell, Maj. Lunar
Anders
3/3-13/69 Apollo 9; Col. 151 241 00 53 725 02 39 3456 01 36
McDivitt, Col. Scott,
Mr. Schweickart
5/18-26/69 Apollo 10; Col. Stafford; 31 192 03 23 576 10 09 4032 11 45
Cdr. Young, Cdr. Cernan Lunar
7/16-24/69 Apollo 11; Mr. Armstrong; 30 195 18 35 585 55 45 4618 7 30
Col. Collins, Col. Aldrin , Lunar
11/14-24/69 Apollo 12; Cdr. Conrad, Cdr. 4154 244 36 25
Gordon, Cdr. Bean Lunar 733 49 15 5351 56 45
’lncludes 1,993 hours, 41 minutes, 55 seconds in Mercury and Gemini missions
—but he also directs his
staff in wind tunnel research
contributing to the advance
ment of space flight, fiis
branch conducts wind tunnel
studies using scale models of
spacecraft and launch ve
hicles such as the Saturn
Moon rocket —to determine
their characteristics in flight
through the atmosphere.
The pleasant, scholarly
bachelor lives in an apart
ment in Hampton, about five
miles from the busy roar of
Langley’s wind tunnels. He
occasionally finds time for
extracurricular activity —
making furniture in his home
workshop, sailing with
friends in Hampton Roads,
working with the front of
fice staff of his community
operatic society.
But he never entirely gets
his mind off his favorite
subject, high-speed aerody
namics. “My friends are al
ways telling me I ought to
have more fun,” Whitcomb
said. “What they don’t un
derstand is that I am having
fun. My work is my fun.” He
gives the impression that he
enjoys looking to future new
design concepts that may
change the shape of Ameri
ca's airplanes while advanc
ing the science of aeronaut
ics in this country.
PRIME CONTRACTS
During fiscal year 1969,
48 states and the District of
Columbia participated in
NASA’s prime contract
awards of $25,000 and over.
is built like a three-lobed
brain. The computer actually
has three active monitors,
which operate by majority
vote.
Whenever at least two
monitors indicate an anomaly
somewhere along the line,
the decision is made to repair
the malfunction. The sus
pected unit is tried once
more, then replaced if it per
sists in its errors.
Griffin Daily News
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THE PRESSURE’S OFF — This 25-year-old mother of two is alive and active going
into the ’7os because she spent ten hours in test pilot’s pressure suit. Her life was saved
by a team of doctors and researchers at Stanford University Hospital and National
Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.
The pressure suit stopped internal bleeding when established procedures failed. She
is shown above reading to her two sons, Charles and Jerry.
Test Pilot’s Pressure Suit
Saves Young Mother’s Life
A young mother of two is
alive and well today in Sun
nyvale, Calif., thanks to a
test pilot’s pressure suit.
Mrs. Mary Phillips, 25,
owes her life to the quick
team action of doctors and
researchers from the Stan
ford University Hospital and
the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration.
Mrs. Phillips had under
gone a minor operation at
another hospital. An explor
atory operation to determine
the cause of continued bleed
ing following the initial sur
gery showed an apparent
slow oozing of blood within
the pelvic area, but no evi
dence of a major artery
bleeding.
Blood Transfusions
Nine subsequent surgical
procedures, including pelvic
packing and tying off arter
ies failed to stop the critical
abdominal hemorrhaging.
She had received 46 pints of
whole blood and 64 units of
plasma in a five-week period.
Following these measures,
the patient was transferred
to Stanford University Hos
pital where Dr. Robert Ma
son recalled a reference in
the surgical literature to
blood-flow stoppage by a
pressure garment. This idea
grew out of early brain surg
ery work and research by
Dr. W. James Gardner of
the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. H. Ward Trueblood,
Chief Resident in Surgery at
the hospital then telephoned
researchers at NASA’s Ames
Research Center, Mountain
View, Calif., outlining to
them the seriousness of the
situation. The Ames group—
Drs. Alan Chambers, Hubert
Vykukal, and Richard Gal
lant — studied the problem
and came up with the answer
—a G-suit.
A G-suit is a type of pres
sure garment used by test
pilots to prevent blackouts
during high-speed maneuv
ers. It applies pressure to
counter the draining of blood
from the brain and upper
body.
Bleeding Stopped
Within three and a half
hours the Ames group had
modified the suit and deliv
ered it to the hospital where
it was put on Mrs. Phillips
14
immediately. NASA people
had provided the suit with
new hoses, couplers, and two
pressure regulators to allow
for a range of pressures, and
inflation by the hospital’s
gas pressure cylinders.
Fitted to Mrs. Phillips at
the Stanford University Hos
pital, the G-suit stopped ab
dominal bleeding overnight
during the ten hours in
which it was applied.
The pressure suit proce
dure appears to have been
a complete success. Examina
tion has shewn no further
bleeding, and the patient has
resumed normal activity.
According to Dr. Ralph
Pelligra, Chief of the Medi-
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G-SUIT — The pressure suit shown above saved Mrs.
Mary Phillips, 25, from bleeding to death. The suit which
is used by test pilots, applies pressure to counter the
drain of blood from the brain and upper body and prevents
blackouts during high-speed maneuvers. Adapted by Stan
ford University Hospital doctors and researchers from the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the G
suit stopped what might have been otherwise fatal hem
orrhaging in the young mother.
Thursday, Jan. 22, 1970
cal Services Branch of the
Ames Simulation sciences di
vision at Ames, the suit ap
parently reduced the differ
ence in pressure between the
blood in the blood vessels and
the tissue outside them. This
relatively small reduction of
pressure difference appar
ently was enough to allow
the blcod to coagulate in the
normal way.
The G-suit is an adjustable
nylon garment containing in
flatable layers, located
around the pelvic, abdominal,
and leg areas.
Dr. Pelligra is studying
applications of the pressure
suit technique to other clini
cal problems.