By Robin McMacken, X-Press Editor
Dr. Robert E. Whitehead, Associate Administrator for Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology, spread his enthusiasm for the enterprise's Three Pillars for Success May 2 at Dryden.
Whitehead was on hand to outline the pillars Global Civil Aviation, Revolutionary Technology Leaps and Access to Space for the Dryden community, and he did so with the same specificity and vision with which the pillars were created. Center Director Ken Szalai commended Whitehead for the foresight he has brought to the enterprise since he took the reins two years ago. During that time, Szalai said space transportation technology merged with the aeronautics enterprise, making it a powerful facet of the Agency.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin first presented the Three Pillars for Success to the Washington Aero Club in March. Whitehead urged employees to get the recently released brochure and to study it carefully. "We're going to ask a lot of you in the next 10 and 20 years," Whitehead said. (Editor's note: Brochures listing the Three Pillars for Success are available at the External Affairs Office, Trailer 42.)
Whitehead said that the aeronautics vision clearly took shape during the past year, and that new focus was reflected in Goldin's speech to the Aero Club.
"I am so proud of the aeronautics enterprise for its work and for coming up with a set of goals," Goldin said in a video excerpt. He added that NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Defense and industry "are coming together and we are going to change America."
"This is a wonderful program," Goldin said. "We do the long-term, high-risk, pre-production research" that private industry cannot do.
In the Global Civil Aviation arena, Whitehead said the focus was to "make sure air-traffic growth can happen, and that means making sure it's safe, affordable and environmentally safe." He also stressed that the United States needs to take the lead in this area.
NASA's objectives include a 10-fold improvement in the safety of flight, a 50-percent reduction in the cost of air travel and equally aggressive reductions in aircraft noise and emissions over the next 20 years.
Secondly, Whitehead said America needs to capture the international market, and that brings NASA to Pillar Two, the Revolutionary Technology Leaps. Currently, "the labor value of the products we export is $24 an hour, and we import at labor cost of $3 an hour," Whitehead said. "We need to make the product something no one else can do so they will pay the $24 an hour labor cost."
Part of sweetening the deal for exports is for NASA to explore high-risk technology areas that can revolutionize air travel and create new markets for U.S. industry. The technology challenges for NASA include: eliminating the barriers to affordable supersonic travel, expanding general aviation and accelerating the application of technology advances.
NASA's technology goal, for example, is to reduce the travel time to the Far East and Europe by 50 percent within the next 20 years and to do so at today's subsonic ticket prices.
Another way NASA can enable technology is to provide next-generation design tools and experimental aircraft to increase design confidence and to cut the development- cycle time for aircraft in half.
The pioneering spirit at work in the X-1 and X-15 projects is being recaptured through a renewed emphasis on the X-planes. The breakthrough work accomplished by these projects will move America forward with an improved base of technical knowledge.
Whitehead said the third NASA pillar, Access to Space, will continue the emphasis on reliable and affordable transportation to the frontiers of space. A key goal is to reduce the payload cost to low-Earth orbit by an order of magnitude, from $10,000 to $1,000 per pound, within 10 years. NASA's Reusable Launch Vehicle program includes ground-based technology and a series of flight demonstrators: the X-33 advanced technology demonstrator, the X-34 air-launched flight demonstrator, and future experimental aircraft.
Whitehead also told employees that the fruits of their labor were recognized during the Twelfth Annual NASA Continual Improvement and Reinvention Conference on Quality Management. The April 18 conference served as a forum to share best practices and lessons learned from quality-management initiatives. Whitehead said Dryden was recognized for its continued improvement in reliance and alliance activities.
"You made my day," Whitehead said.
Whitehead called upon each Dryden employee to do his or her part to ensure a solid foundation for the three pillars.
"This will work if you make it work," said Whitehead, as he held up a copy of the sleekly designed Three Pillars for Success brochure.
"Go home and dream what the future is going to be."
By Kirsten Williams, Public Affairs Specialist
On May 19 NASA Dryden will introduce a new program that will help reduce the Center's chemical wastes by 50 percent in three years.
The new Chemical Crib, as the facility will be known, is a specially designed building that will serve as a central clearinghouse for all aircraft-related chemicals at Dryden. Aircraft maintenance chemicals like lubricants, solvents and cleaning agents typically are sold in bulk quantities to cut down on costs.
In the past, each research aircraft crew kept its own supply of chemicals, many of which the crew used infrequently.
This new facility coordinates and consolidates Dryden's chemical supply, reducing waste.
The Chemical Crib will work on a library-like system; aircraft maintenance personnel will use a bar code affixed to their badges to "check out" small quantities of chemicals they need to maintain Dryden's research aircraft and return any excess by the end of the day. By scanning a person's badge, personnel in the Chemical Crib will know where the maintenance crew member works, whether the employee is authorized to use the chemical he or she is checking out and what kind of training he or she has received in working with that chemical.
Chemicals will be weighed when they are checked out and returned to determine how much has been used. This information will be transmitted electronically to the Edwards Air Force Base Environmental Office, where it will become part of Edwards' annual report to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Chemical Crib also will provide a safe environment for storage and handling of potentially hazardous chemicals. The chemicals will be stored in lockers that are ventilated and have their own spill-containment systems and heating and cooling regulators. In addition, the lockers have detectors and sniffers to detect spills and fires within them. The facility itself has an emergency shower and eye bath and a special epoxy-coated floor, as well as secondary containment areas and ventilation hoods.
The Chemical Crib is only one of several initiatives Dryden's Safety, Health and Environmental Office is making to reduce waste at Dryden, an effort that will not only benefit the environment, but the Center budget as well.
Key players in the development and implementation of the Chemical Crib were Hazardous Materials Officer John Torres of the Safety, Health and Environmental Office, who was the crib's key advocate and one of its designers; Bill Smith of the Safety, Health and Environmental Office, who provided economic design solutions; Gary Lewis of the Facilities Engineering Branch, who was the project manager responsible for the crib's construction; and Ralph Anton and Dan Strom of the Safety, Health and Environmental Office, who are working to implement the new program. Bob Davis of Scientific Commercial Systems Corp., who currently serves as the Tool Crib attendant, also will attend to the Chemical Crib.
According to Torres, Dryden currently spends about $90,000 per year to dispose of waste. That's down from $310,000 a few years ago.
"For every $1 spent to buy chemicals, we spend $3 to dispose of them," Torres said. "One of the biggest costs involved in waste management is not weight but volume, because waste-disposal space is so precious." Thus, reducing the volume of waste is a key component of Dryden's environmental program.
Aside from the Chemical Crib itself, three devices located in the Crib promise to reduce the volume of waste chemicals Dryden outputs. The first is a still that cooks down photographic waste chemicals into a one- or two-pound sludge, reducing the amount of waste by 95 percent. A second still purifies used cleaning solvents, so they can be reused. A large waste compactor, called a "Rampactor," compresses wastes, allowing more to fit into a drum.
"We are doing a lot to clean up the environment and make a better world for mankind," Torres said.
By Robin McMacken, X-Press Editor
Dryden mourns the loss of a gentle man and father with the death of Bernard E. "Bernie" Keel, who died April 22 of cancer.
Keel was an accountant in financial management at Dryden from 1970 until the time of his death. He had planned to retire May 2.
Keel's daughter, Karla Shy, also works at Dryden as a test information engineer, and she said her father inspired her to pursue a career in aerospace.
"He always said what a great place Dryden was to work," Shy said.
Another daughter, Kathy, worked in the pilots' office at Dryden during her college years. "He always liked one of us out here," Shy said.
"Bernie was a kind, patient co-worker and boss during the time frame of his employment at Dryden," said accountant Ida Ketchum, who worked with Keel for more than 26 years.
Shy recalled her father was "just a very kind, gentle man," who loved dancing, big-band music and Oklahoma football.
"At a very young age, he learned how to work very hard," said Shy, adding that at age 8, her father started a paper route that later earned him the Paper Boy of the Year award.
From 1988 until 1995, Keel was branch chief of the financial management office at Dryden.
Keel also was the treasurer for the Dryden Employee Exchange for many years, and Employee Services Coordinator Joan Anthony said he helped that office immensely. "You couldn't find a nicer person," said Anthony, who worked with Keel for more than 10 years. "If you ever got in a bind of any kind, he was always there. He was a super man."
Keel was born June 22, 1930, in Oklahoma City, Okla., to Agnes and Lawrence Keel.
After serving in the United States Air Force, he moved to California to work as a draftsman at Northrop while attending college. He returned to Norman, Okla., where he received his bachelor of business administration degree from the University of Oklahoma.
He married Elaine Lee Nov. 19, 1960, and the couple raised five children. The family moved to California in 1969, where Keel worked in Los Angeles. The family later moved to the Mojave Desert where Keel began his Dryden career.
The graveside service was held April 25 at the Lancaster Cemetery, and the memorial service was April 25 at the Nazarene Church in Lancaster.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the American Cancer Society. Donations can be made directly to the American Cancer Society or through Pamela Jensen in Room 1009.
Keel is survived by his wife, Elaine; daughters Karen Keel, Kristy Gilman, Karla Shy, Kathy Keel-Raedy and Karol Keel; sons-in-law Dan Shy, Jeff Gilman and Keith Raedy; grandchildren Hannah, Kayla, Zachary, Bailey and Kevin; brother Larry Keel; sisters Mary Ann Keel and Donna Belski; and sisters-in-law Betty Jo Keel and Betty Jean Keel.
During the Apollo project, NASA had more than 30,000 civil service employees. Yet it took more than 250,000 people across the country to complete the project. Who were they? For the most part, they were private-sector employees of U.S. companies carrying out specialized work under contract to NASA.
U.S. companies, as well as universities, have been a part of the NASA program since NASA was formed. Grants, contracts and other agreements have been used to support the NASA mission.
One of the mandates for NASA is to maintain a strong in-house R&D capability. It is crucial for NASA to allocate its government workforce optimally for the accomplishment of its research and technology mission. Where the private sector has the skills, tools, facilities and capability to carry out some facet of this work, it should be used. NASA should not duplicate capability readily available in the private sector.
NASA is seeking to restore the proper relationship with its contractors through a process called Performance-Based Contracting. This simply means that NASA acquires products by specifying the performance of the deliverable.
In our personal lives, we almost always use performance-based contracting. When you sign a contract to have a home built, the agreement is on the size, style and finish work of the house. We don't ordinarily hire carpenters, plumbers, electricians, roofers and painters. To do the latter, you would be the general contractor. It takes a lot of time, skill and effort. Most people use performance-based contracting to buy houses, cars, appliances and other hard goods.
Performance-based contracting can go beyond mere specifications. It can set up a reward system for actual performance. This allows the contractor to innovate and be creative in delivering the best performing product at the lowest cost.
I heard one innovative idea a few years ago. The government would specify only the measurements to be made by a lunar-orbiting spacecraft. A fixed payment would be made upon completion of the construction. The remaining payments would be based on how many orbits of the moon were actually delivered. The launch service, spacecraft design, sensor selection and integration would be carried out by the contractor. The contractor would make no profit unless the spacecraft actually orbited the moon. Profit to the company and data return to the scientist would both go up as the number of orbits increased.
This is the general idea of performance-based contracting. Let the NASA staff do its job. Let the private contractors do theirs. It is not appropriate to use contracts to secure numbers of workyears, or to use contracts to augment the government workforce on site.
In performance-based contracting, NASA does not have teams of people overseeing and managing the company's work. NASA does not ask for reams of paper to prove that the company is expending workyears and spending money. The emphasis is on the outcome and the performance of the product. This requires innovation on both sides of the contract to ensure a fair deal and to maximize the probability that you will get the product you want.
For great successes, the companies should be rewarded greatly. For failure ... well, you can see the point. In the R&D world, you obviously have to factor in the level of risk being taken.
The bottom line is that contractors have had, and will continue to have, a vital role in the NASA mission. Contractors should be allowed to innovate and perform. One other point. There is no human class distinction between government employees and contractors. Those who create such distinctions are hurting the NASA mission and hurting people.
n ACTIVE F-15
Thousands of aviation enthusiasts had a chance to see Dryden's ACTIVE F-15 research aircraft on static display at the Nellis Air Force Base open house and air show the weekend of April 26-27.
The Air Force's Wright Laboratory, which co-sponsors the ACTIVE flight-research program at Dryden, sponsored the display of the aircraft at the two-day event near Las Vegas, which drew crowds estimated at more than 300,000. Dryden Project Pilot Jim Smolka and Air Force Project Pilot Maj. Greg Johnson ferried the ACTIVE to Nellis, accompanied by Dryden Research Pilot Ed Schneider flying an F-18 safety chase. On the return trip, Schneider and Johnson flew the ACTIVE F-15 while Smolka piloted the chase plane.
Dryden project engineers and technicians fielded questions about the aircraft and the ACTIVE program from thousands of air show buffs, whose attention was drawn to the aircraft's canards, thrust-vectoring exhaust nozzles and brilliant red-white-and-blue plumage.
Dryden technicians now will resume instrumenting the ACTIVE F-15 for the upcoming HIgh STability Engine Control (HISTEC) project, which seeks to reduce engine-inlet airflow distortion and provide a means of active engine stall control.
Meanwhile, Langley Research Center officials have requested use of the ACTIVE F-15 for a brief acoustic engine noise reduction flight-research project in support of the High-Speed Research (HSR) program later this year.
Langley HSR program representatives Allen Whitehead and Bob Golub, along with representatives from Boeing Commerical Aircraft and McDonnell-Douglas, met with ACTIVE project team members at Dryden in early May to explore the potential of doing a one-month flight-test research program in the September-October time frame, said ACTIVE Chief Engineer Gerard Schkolnik.
Schkolnik said the unique thrust-vectoring nozzles on the ACTIVE F-15's engines lend themselves to such a study.
"Pratt & Whitney's thrust-vectoring nozzles have independent exit-area control," he explained. "This allows us to modulate the nozzle to match the characteristics of the HSR ejector nozzle. We can simulate their system better than any other production nozzle because we have that capability."
n F-15B Aerodynamic Flight Test Facility
Dryden technicians are completing preparation of the Flight Test Fixture (FTF) which is carried by the F-15B testbed aircraft to fly a Boundary Layer Heat (BLH) experiment for the Eidetics Corp.
About six flights are expected to be flown in the project, beginning in late May, according to the present schedule.
The project will explore the skin-friction drag-reduction potential of heating the exterior fuselage skin of a large transport aircraft, and whether the savings in drag will be offset by the increased electrical power required to heat the surface.
For the BLH experiment on the F-15B/FTF, Dryden technicians are mounting seven thin electrical heater panels on the left side of the FTF, along with sensors and boundary-layer rakes to measure both surface temperature and pressure. Previous wind-tunnel tests demonstrated significant drag reductions were possible by this method. The current project goal is to determine if these reductions are possible in real flight conditions, as well as to measure the amount of power required to achieve the savings. The experiment is sponsored under a NASA Dryden Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant. Should the experiment show that the concept is practical and cost-effective, Eidetics officials plan further experiments aboard a business jet and, if available, a large transport aircraft. Greg Noffz is Dryden's principal investigator for the BLH experiment.
Pathfinder
The leadership team from Dryden's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program office participated in a series of kickoff briefings for the upcoming Pathfinder research flights at the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on the Hawaiian island of Kauai the week of April 28.
Project Manager Jennifer Baer-Riedhart, Deputy Project Manager John Del Frate and ERAST Chief Engineer Jeff Bauer represented Dryden at the sessions, which included officials of the PMRF and Pathfinder developer AeroVironment Inc. Del Frate termed the briefings "very profitable" for the project team, noting that they covered a wide range of topics such as communications, available facilities for the team's use, safety, computer resources and evacuation procedures in case of hurricanes or tsunamis.
The Pathfinder aircraft arrived in Honolulu April 25 and then was transported by boat to the PMRF, arriving April 29.
Del Frate said the aircraft and its support equipment arrived safely, and AeroVironment technicians began assembly of the aircraft the same week.
Del Frate noted that a contingency landing site has been set up on the neighboring island of Niihau, about 15 miles from the PMRF, and a team of Niihau islanders were trained to recover and disassemble the Pathfinder should it be forced to land there.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin is scheduled to visit the Pathfinder operation at the PMRF in late May.
Apex
Based upon the results of extensive simulation, the Apex design team has decided to increase the number of small underbelly rockets on the Apex aircraft from three to four. The rockets, which are mounted just ahead of the vehicle's center of gravity, are intended to assist in transitioning the aircraft from a nose-down position to horizontal flight following its release from a balloon at high altitude.
The simulation work indicated the addition of a fourth rocket would give better control and stability as the unpowered Apex executes a pullout to horizontal flight at a target altitude above 95,000 feet. The extremely thin air at that altitude less than 2 percent of sea level density renders conventional flight-control surfaces useless, and the Apex would not be able to assume trimmed horizontal flight without the assitance of the small rockets, which act like a reaction control system.
Alliance I
Members of the ERAST alliance are refining their designs for the Alliance I proof-of-concept aircraft. Initial designs were due on May 14, with the final submittal due by June 18. Officials at Langley and Ames Research Centers are providing an independent assessment of both the preliminary and final designs, and the timetable calls for selection of the winning design on July 9. The design contest approach requires a significant amount of collaboration between the members and "is a major step toward a true alliance partnership and (reflects) a willingness to work together as a group," according to ERAST Project Manager Jennifer Baer-Riedhart.
DarkStar2
Preparations for the arrival of the second DarkStar unpiloted aerial vehicle currently are under way. The second aircraft is due to arrive in mid-May.
X-38 Crew
X-38 pylon wiring and B-52 panel modifications have been completed in anticipation of X-38's arrival, set for late May. The first captive-carry flight is scheduled for June. The X-38 pylon underwent loads testing the week of May 5th.
compiled by Projects Science Writers Gray Creech and Alan Brown
Dryden, along with other NASA centers, has been mandated to achieve ISO 9000 registration by September 1999. A series of quality-system models, ISO 9000 may have a considerable impact on Dryden operations.
On a personal level, employees are likely to find that the model results in less stress and lower frustration at work. For the Center overall, work activities will yield more consistent results and greater efficiency. Also, morale is likely to improve as well as customer satisfaction as employees gain a sense of pride in achieving registration. New staff members can learn their jobs quickly because the job tasks and expectations are well-documented.
ISO 9000 means you say what you do, do what you say, record what you did, check the results and take action on the difference.
NASA, like other government agencies and commercial businesses, needs to be able to compete successfully for smaller pools of resources and against other government agencies and international competitors. Every organization has to be able to "toot its own horn." Decision-makers are looking for agency characteristics that give the greatest value for taxpayers' dollars. Publicity about ISO 9000 certification is likely to contribute to increased Center opportunities, which could mean more projects.
Think of the tangible benefits: fewer phone calls to hunt for missing information, fewer instances of suppliers misunderstanding requirements and locating current documentation quickly.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, in a recent paper on acquisition reform, offered guidelines for the single process/block change initiative. Compliance with ISO 9000 will meet the three goals of this reform: (1) a single quality system within a facility; (2) a common way of doing business for risk management and quality assurance in procurement, acquisition and contracting; and (3) a savings of government and industry money and time by lowering overhead rates associated with maintaining multiple quality-assurance systems.
"ISO 9000 gives you a solid baseline on what you are doing so you can continuously improve from there," according to Dryden Associate Director Joe Ramos. "By agreeing on the best way to perform a task and by documenting it, all those involved in a process can find better and better ways to do a task, and ultimately avoid redoing it or perhaps eliminate doing it altogether."
When errors and confusion are eliminated, work goes more smoothly and personnel experience less stress and frustration. Employees spend less time in committee meetings because fewer committees are necessary as potential problems are prevented.
Another plus for an ISO 9000-compliant quality system is shorter time to complete projects. For example, "Sometimes projects are held up because of administrative challenges, such as incomplete or cumbersome documentation. ISO 9000 can help streamline procurement processes and reduce work stoppages," said ISO 9000 Project Manager Art Tanaka. Another benefit is greater accountability. Because ISO 9000 requires documenting responsibilities clearly, it is easy to trace outcomes from specific processes. Successful processes, which don't usually receive the recognition they deserve, now will be more visible and easier to replicate in other operations. An additional advantage is senior management commitment.
ISO 9000 requires senior management to commit to the quality system and hold regularly scheduled meetings to review the system and to document and resolve problems. It requires senior management to verbalize the organization's quality policy and to assure it is being followed through every directorate. And it requires a third party to assure that management maintains a continued focus on ISO 9000 compliance. What employee doesn't like to see senior management "walk the talk" and be involved? Who doesn't prefer knowing exactly what is expected of them? In a nutshell, ISO 9000 assures that documentation and processes are in place and that individuals are responsible for making sure that changes are documented.
What do Dryden employees want to know about ISO 9000? What concerns do they have? To prepare for ISO 9000 awareness briefings, which will be given this summer, L.G.S. Turner & Associates interviewed a sample of Dryden employees.
A few of the issues that arose during the interviews include:
Watch for details about the upcoming briefings. Be sure to attend to find out more about how ISO 9000 will benefit the Center and you.
Kirsten Williams, Public Affairs Specialist
The theme of this year's NASA exhibit at the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Fly-In Convention, Oshkosh, Wis., is "Boomers Turn 50," paying tribute to the 50th anniversary of supersonic flight, which NASA and the U.S. Air Force will celebrate Oct. 14.
Understanding transonic flight was a major challenge in the 1940s, a challenge the NACA (now NASA), U.S. Air Force and Bell Aircraft Co. met with their highly successful government/industry collaboration during the X-1 program. Fifty years later, the challenges have changed, but the need for partnerships remains. NASA is meeting the challenges of today global civil aviation, revolutionary technology leaps and access to space through allied efforts with U.S. industry, colleges and universities and other government agencies, as visitors to this year's NASA exhibit will discover.
The NASA Oshkosh display traditionally is an Agency, team-centered exhibit. That means instead of detailing the achievements of each individual center, the exhibit strives to present a stronger, more unified aeronautics message. This is particularly appropriate considering Oshkosh draws approximately 800,000 visitors during the week (this year July 30 through Aug. 5). That's one of the biggest crowds of aeronautics enthusiasts and supporters anywhere.
Still, Dryden, as the home of the original X-plane the Bell X-1 plays a significant role in this year's exhibit. The introductory exhibit panel, which draws visitors into the tent, features a reproduction of aerospace artist Bob McCall's 1977 Mural, which hangs in Dryden's ISF. Other Dryden-related projects that can be found in the Oshkosh exhibit include: Pathfinder (part of the Dryden-managed Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program), Tu-144LL, Propulsion Controlled Aircraft, Hyper-X, High Angle of Attack, X-36 and X-33. In addition, Dryden will have an F-18 chase aircraft on static display and will have speakers participating in the forum talks.
If you have any question about Oshkosh '97, please call Kirsten Williams at ext. 2662.