Commercial companies and government agencies are increasingly pursuing a more immersive and affordable alternative to conventional displays currently used in flight simulators. A NASA research project is working on ways to make this technology available for use faster. Mixed reality systems where users interact with physical simulators while wearing virtual reality headsets offer a promising […]
Category: Ames Research Center
NASA’s X-59 Quiet Supersonic Aircraft Begins Taxi Tests
NASA/Jacob Shaw NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has officially begun taxi tests, marking the first time this one-of-a-kind experimental aircraft has moved under its own power. NASA test pilot Nils Larson and the X-59 team, made up of NASA and contractor Lockheed Martin personnel, completed the aircraft’s first low-speed taxi test at U.S. Air […]
NASA Software Catalog Puts Agency Solutions at Innovators’ Fingertips
NASA’s latest open Software Catalog, released Wednesday, offers more than 1,200 downloadable codes developed by agency engineers that could enable faster solutions to energize the space economy and stimulate American ingenuity. The catalog is part of NASA’s effort to place advanced technologies, including agency software, into the hands of businesses, researchers, and entrepreneurs to foster […]
NASA Selects Companies for Architect-Engineer Services Contract
NASA has selected seven companies to assist the agency with architectural and engineering services at multiple agency centers and facilities. The Western Regional Architect-Engineer Services is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract has a total estimated value not to exceed $75 million. The contract was awarded on July 14 with a five-year period of performance with […]
NASA Advances Pressure Sensitive Paint Research Capability
Many of us grew up using paint-by-number sets to create beautiful color pictures. For years now, NASA engineers studying aircraft and rocket designs in wind tunnels have flipped that childhood pastime, using computers to generate images from “numbers-by-paint” – pressure sensitive paint (PSP), that is. Now, advances in the use of high-speed cameras, supercomputers, and […]
By Air and by Sea: Validating NASA’s PACE Ocean Color Instrument
In autumn 2024, California’s Monterey Bay experienced an outsized phytoplankton bloom that attracted fish, dolphins, whales, seabirds, and – for a few weeks in October – scientists. A team from NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, with partners at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), and the Naval Postgraduate School, spent two weeks […]
NASA Air Taxi Passenger Comfort Studies Move Forward
NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility vision involves the skies above the U.S. filled with new types of aircraft, including air taxis. But making that vision a reality involves ensuring that people will actually want to ride these aircraft – which is why NASA has been working to evaluate comfort, to see what passengers will and won’t […]
Tuning a NASA Instrument: Calibrating MASTER
NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley houses a unique laboratory: the Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF). The engineers at the ASF are responsible for building, maintaining, and operating numerous instruments that get deployed on research aircraft, but one of their most important roles is instrument calibration. Think of calibration like tuning a piano between performances: […]
- Aeronautics
- Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate
- Ames Research Center
- Armstrong Flight Research Center
- Commercial Supersonic Technology
- Glenn Research Center
- Integrated Aviation Systems Program
- Langley Research Center
- Low Boom Flight Demonstrator
- Quesst (X-59)
- Quesst: The Vehicle
- Supersonic Flight
NASA F-15s Validate Tools for Quesst Mission
High over the Mojave Desert, two NASA F-15 research jets made a series of flights throughout May to validate tools designed to measure and record the shock waves that will be produced by the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic experimental aircraft. The F-15s, carrying the recording tools, flew faster than the speed of sound, matching the […]
Dr. Natasha Schatzman Receives Vertical Flight Society (VFS) Award
Dr. Natasha Schatzman Receives Vertical Flight Society (VFS) Award In May 2025, Dr. Natasha Schatzman, aerospace engineer in the Aeromechanics Office at NASA Ames Research Center, received the inaugural Alex M. Stoll Award from the Vertical Flight Society (VFS). This award honors a professional in the field of vertical flight who “demonstrates an exceptional commitment […]