Iengineer, is busy planning tests—for a heit (1,100 Celsius), Frasch said. - “What theydream, weThe standard fixtures used for thesetrying to test that at 2,000 degrees Fahrenn a small office in Albuquerque, N.M.,Jeff Waitkus, a Boeing Test & Evaluation product that doesn’t yet exist. tests were deforming and oxidizing at the Over the past several years, Directed high temperatures, according to Frasch. must test. And before Energy Systems and the Boeing Test & So the team had to find new materials to Evaluation team in Albuquerque have been re-create real-world conditions. Metallic collaborating to test and enhance new alloys capable of withstanding higher we test it, kinds of lasers powered by solid-state temperatures, such as stainless steel, materials instead of caustic chemicals. were used to fabricate new fixtures. we need to a laser needed to create the same power. adopted to reduce test times, which test the test.”New measurement procedures were This has significantly reduced the size of The chemical-powered Airborne Laser, reduced the exposure of the test fixture – Jeff Waitkus, Boeing Test & for example, was carried on a 747. Now, to higher temperatures. Evaluation engineer the new laser concepts are intended to be For this St. Louis test team, and flown on small jet fighters or even attached others with Boeing Test & Evaluation, powered rotor blades whose shape can to gun mounts on ships. good communication with product morph and adjust to dynamic conditions. And these new lasers need to be development teams is essential. The Boeing Test & Evaluation team tested—efficiently, precisely and reliably. In Philadelphia, for example, work is now is racing to get the new rotor test “I may not know what’s coming down under way on a new test stand for the stand created, built and tested before the pipeline, but I know we have to be large Boeing wind tunnel there—which the advanced rotor team is ready to prepared to accurately test and evaluate will be used to test new and innovative test their first product in June. whatever our program partners dream up,” rotorcraft blades. “The new test stand,” Grauer said, Waitkus said. “That’s why it’s important “About three years ago, we started “has more power, more data ports and for us to be close with our partners. What seeing a significant increase in requests for adaptability so it can support the next they dream, we must test. And before we proposals and contracts for improving rotor- generations of rotors that Rich’s team test it, we need to test the test.” blade performance,” said Bill Grauer, senior dreams up.” n Laboratory test teams with Boeing Test manager of the wind tunnel. “We knew our jennifer.d.hawton@boeing.com & Evaluation are often required to antici- current test stand wouldn’t be up to the job.” pate and prepare equipment and plans Grauer talked with Rich Bussom, PHOTOS: (Left) Marty Lecloux, left, wind to test the next new thing. Devising tests Associate Technical Fellow and program tunnel mechanic, and Jim Corrado, wind tunnel early speeds the process of developing manager for Advanced Mobility Systems instrumentation engineer, perform preflight new products and validates the quality in Boeing Defense, Space & Security, and inspection of a rotor test stand. FRED TROILO/ of the innovations in them. together their teams started to focus on BOEING (Below) Lead technician Ray Rose, left, Take the work that’s being done at the future rotorcraft blades. and Technical Fellow Lydell Frasch developed the X-Band waveguide test fixture, shown Material Measurements Lab in St. Louis, Rotor-blade technology has reached the in the St. Louis Material Measurements Lab, which characterizes the interaction of elec- limit of what can be done with fixed shapes, to measure electromagnetic signals in high- tromagnetic signals with various materials. Bussom said. So the team developed temperature environments. RON BOOKOUT/BOEING Because many of Boeing’s products use materials that are exposed to electromag- netic signals, the lab must develop tests to understand how certain materials dampen, amplify or otherwise affect these signals. Lydell Frasch, a Technical Fellow in electromagnetics at the lab, said one of the latest test innovations from the team there involves a new approach to measuring changes to electromagnetic signals that interact with materials in high-temperature environments, such as those on the control surfaces of a wing during very high-speed flight. The lab’s challenge, he explained, was akin to making a call from a mobile phone in an airplane and measuring how the elec- tromagnetic energy changes as it interacts with the cellphone case, the seats and many other things the electromagnetic waves must pass through. Now imagine BOEING FRONTIERS / DECEMBER 2012–JANUARY 2013 31
Frontiers December 2012/January 2013 Issue
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