NINE months ago, that first 鈥淎鈥� in NASA looked all but doomed. With billions of dollars required for its resurgent moon and Mars programmes, rumours were rife that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration would ditch much of its aeronautics research.
But the threat appears to have lifted. 鈥淣ASA is returning to long-term investment in cutting-edge fundamental research in traditional aeronautics disciplines,鈥� said Lisa Porter, the agency鈥檚 head of aeronautics research, on 12 January. Research will now be aimed at mastering the physics of subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic flight, boosting air-traffic technology to cope with new aircraft types, and safety issues such as ageing aircraft and highly computerised cockpits.
Why this turnaround? 鈥淭he rumours that NASA was going to abandon aeronautics were just that: unsubstantiated rumours,鈥� says Alan Brown of NASA鈥檚 Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. While a 14 per cent budget cut from $807 million in 2006 to $694 million in 2007 has seen many aeronautics projects 鈥渟caled back or eliminated鈥�, Brown says NASA鈥檚 aeronautics now has a sharper focus, including a renewed emphasis on hypersonic flight.
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