Aerodynamics.
Propulsion. Structures. "Heh. I know this stuff." We all know this
stuff, we pilots... right?
Well, maybe not so right. A look at the agenda for the upcoming
AIAA Aerospace Science Meeting & Exhibit (9-12 January, Reno
Hilton, Reno NV) usually trips my MEGO-mode breaker about midway
through the lecture title.
MEGO? It's an acronym... for "My Eyes Glaze Over," like they do
in utter incomprehension when I read something like, "A Continuous
Adjoint Method for the Minimization of Losses in Cascade Viscous
Flows," which is all Greek to me. And that's not because it's being
presented by two scientists from the National Technical University
of Athens (which it is). It's obvious that these Greeks know
English words that I don't -- and so do the other presenters at
this important conference, who are top aeronautical or
astronautical researchers from Finland, Saudi Arabia, China,
France... everywhere.
The meeting is organized into Sessions where like-minded
researchers expose their results on different segments of similar
subjects. I can see at a glance that "Hybrid RANS/LES and Other
Unsteady Methods" doesn't mean what it suggests to me (that
crossing one of Randy Schlitter's kit planes with an Army Leave and
Earnings Statement would be a rum idea); and all I can figure out
about "Discontinuous Galerkin Methods" is that if I went to that
session, I would sit there like a hog looking at a wristwatch.
But while many of the subjects might overtax my
propeller-powered brain, others are intriguing. What's this: "Wind
Driven Rovers for Mars Exploration"? Well, the rovers there now
have sure recorded a lot of winds... several of the papers refer to
a "Tumbleweed Rover," which makes perfect sense.
There's a session on the first year's results from NASA's Columbia
supercomputer, which went live in late 2004.
A session on Air Safety focuses on icing, and highlights the
research that NASA Glenn Research Center has been doing (we recently wrote up their first-rate
icing training modules). A session on modeling,
observing, understanding and predicting turbulence raises the
possibility that some day, "fishing" for a less bumpy altitude will
be unnecessary.
There's a whole session on
"Aeromechanics of Natural Flight" which is to say, the flight of
insects and birds -- and what we can learn from it.
There's a session on jet noise, and many on high-speed flight. A
session on "Supersonic Aircraft Design" makes it clear from both
its subjects and its presenters that the supersonic business jet is
back on the drawing board with a vengeance. Turbines, vortexes,
rotor blades; if it's worth studying, somebody smart is going to be
presenting a new angle on it here.
And here's one I'd love to sit in on: "Aerodynamic Shape
Optimization for the World's Fastest P-51."
Registration for the Meeting is still open; the cost is on a
"from each according to his ability" scale, with students and
retiree members getting a hefty break. Non-members can register
(the higher price they are charged makes them members, just like
that). And the proceedings of the Meeting will be available on
CD-ROM (and on CD *only* -- this is AIAA's first paperless
conference) for an additional fee. The proceedings have been
available online to registered attendees since Dec. 23.