Don Nolan-Proxmire

Headquarters, Washington, DC August 2, 1996

(Phone: 202/358-1983)

Mary M. Spracher
Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA
(Phone: 757/864-6527/6120)

Robert M. Pap
Accurate Automation Corp., Chattanooga, TN
(Phone: 423/894-4646)

RELEASE: 96-154

INTELLIGENT TEST AIRCRAFT UNVEILED IN WISCONSIN TODAY

NASA and the U.S. Air Force today unveiled a jet-powered

aircraft equipped with state-of-the-art flight control
technologies that will demonstrate a computerized flight
control system that learns as it flies -- especially important
for the demands of ultra high-speed flight.

Called the Low-Observable Flight Test Experiment

(LoFLYTE), the 8-foot-4-inch aircraft, announced at a briefing
in Oshkosh, WI, has been developed by Accurate Automation
Corp., Chattanooga, TN, for NASA and the Air Force. The
program contracts are being administered through NASA's
Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, and the Air Force Wright
Laboratory, Dayton, OH, under the Small Business Innovative
Research Program.

The experimental LoFLYTE aircraft will be used to explore

new flight control techniques involving neural networks, which
allow the aircraft control system to learn by mimicking the
pilot.

The model is a Mach 5 waverider design -- a futuristic

hypersonic aircraft configuration that actually cruises on top
of its own shockwave. Waverider aircraft, powered by
airbreathing hypersonic engines, would fly at speeds above
Mach 4. LoFLYTE represents the first known flying waverider
vehicle configuration, but upcoming flight tests at NASA's
Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, will be flown only
at low subsonic speeds to explore take-off and landing control
issues.

The remotely-piloted aircraft has been designed to

demonstrate that neural network flight controls are superior
to conventional flight controls.

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Neural networks are computer systems that actually learn

by doing. The computer network consists of many interconnected
control systems, or nodes, similar to neurons in the brain.
Each node assigns a value to the input from each of its
counterparts. As these values are changed, the network can
adjust the way it responds.

The aircraft's flight controller consists of a network of

multiple-instruction, multiple-data neural chips. The network
will be able to continually alter the aircraft's control laws
in order to optimize flight performance and take the pilot's
responses into consideration. Over time, the neural network
system could be trained to control the aircraft. The use of
neural networks in flight would help pilots fly in quick-
decision situations and help damaged aircraft land safely even
when controls are partially destroyed.

The main objective of LoFLYTE is to demonstrate the

utility of such a flight control system that learns through
experience, said Robert Pegg of Langley's Hypersonic Vehicles
Office. In addition to experimenting with neural networks, the
flight of the model also is key as a low-speed demonstration
of a hypersonic vehicle. "We're very interested in both
outcomes, both the neural net technology and the flight
characteristics," he said.

"We see a big advantage to using this type of control

system in a hypersonic vehicle," Pegg said. "At those high
speeds, things happen so quickly that the pilot cannot control
the aircraft as easily as at subsonic speeds."

The initial configuration for the aircraft was developed

at Langley. Accurate Automation Corp. will then integrate the
neural network technology into the Langley design. Successful
tests of the waverider concept in Langley's 12-foot Low-Speed
Wind Tunnel and 30- by 60-foot Full Scale Tunnel preceded the
development of this model aircraft.

The construction of the model was completed at SWB

Turbines, Appleton, WI. The company also provided the small
turbine engine that powers the model. The shell of the model
was built at Mississippi State's Raspet Flight Research
Laboratory and then shipped to SWB Turbines so that the radio
control gear and the engine could be installed.

The waverider was chosen as the testbed for the neural

networks because the configuration has an inherently high
hypersonic lift-to-drag ratio. If neural networks can control
this "worst-case scenario" configuration, then they should be
able to handle virtually any other configuration. The
waverider configuration was also chosen because it allows for
long hypersonic cruise ranges of up to 8,000 miles. At an
altitude of 90,000 feet, a Mach 5 waverider would fly at a
rate of one mile per second.

"We want to make the public aware that the government is

getting a good return on its SBIR-invested money," Pegg said.
"We hope this project will help us further demonstrate to the
public that the SBIR program is a viable investment for the
American people."
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Technologies being implemented in the LoFLYTE program

could eventually find their way into commercial, general
aviation and military aircraft.

- end -

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