NASA ’s newfangled barrage - power , 10 - locomotive aircraft takes off , hovers , and lands like a helicopter – yet fly efficiently like a plane . It shifts between upright and forward-moving flying while up in the strain . Called Greased Lightning or GL-10 , a prototype with a 3 - beat ( 10 - foot ) wingspan just completed its first few successful trajectory with midair conversions this spring at Fort A.P. Hill , a military base in Virginia .
" During the flight tests we successfully transitioned from hover to backstage - deliver flight like a ceremonious airplane then back to brood again,“Bill Fredericks of NASA ’s Langley Research Centersays in anews release . So far , they ’ve done this on five flight .
In its latest rendering , the remotely piloted plane has eight galvanic motor on its wings and two galvanic motor on the keister . The four on each of the wings are given the same control , as are the two on the tail . So , accord to Greased Lightning ’s primary pilot , Zack Johns , it flies like a three - engine planer from a ascendence perspective . It weighs up to 28 kilo ( 62 Lebanese pound ) and is much quieter than mowing the lawn with a powered motor .
The team has work up 12 epitome using textile grade from foam to fiberglass to carbon fiber . “ Each epitome helped us answer expert interrogative sentence while observe cost down,”David North of NASA ’s Langley says . “ We did lose some of the other image to ' hard landing ' as we learned how to configure the flight restraint system . But we fall upon something from each loss and were capable to keep moving forward . "
There are a wide stove of thing grease Lightning could be really just for , peculiarly if it can be made into an unmanned aerial fomite ( UAV ) . " It could be used for small software system delivery or vertical take - off and landing , long endurance surveillance for Agriculture Department , mapping and other applications,”Fredericks adds . “ A scaled up version – much larger than what we are testing now – would make also a great one to four person sizing personal melodic phrase vehicle . "
Now that they ’ve shown how Greased Lightning can basically launch anywhere a ' copter can , the team ’s next goal is to demonstrate that their conception is four time more aerodynamically efficient in cruise than a whirlybird .
It ’s being showcased at theAssociation for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International 2015 conferencein Atlanta this week . Watch a coolvideoof the transition run here :
Update : The old television has been replaced with the right one .
