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Current Research Areas

The Aviation Systems Program has major research thrusts in Airborne Science, Systems Engineering & Integration / Space, Integrated Vehicle Health Management, Jet Engine Ground Testing, and Hypersonics. The faculty, staff, and graduate students of the Program conduct exciting and significant research in these areas utilizing our fleet of highly instrumented research aircraft, state-of-the-art research flight simulators, ground testing facilities, advanced instrumentation and data acquisition systems, and modern computational techniques

Airborne Science

The Aviation Systems Program has a major research focus area in Airborne Science. We have dedicated research aircraft that serve as highly instrumented science platforms for a diverse range of airborne science projects. Our airborne science partners include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Below are some of the current research projects that we are flying.

NOAA Atmospheric Mercury

The NOAA Air Resources Laboratory, Silver Spring, Maryland, the UTSI Aviation Systems Program, and a consortium of other universities and science organizations have teamed up to perform intensive field campaigns investigating the chemistry, transport, and deposition of mercury in the atmosphere. During the Summer of 2010, Aviation Systems flew their highly instrumented Piper Navajo in the Gulf of Mexico to measure atmospheric mercury and other pollutants at altitudes ranging from 500 to almost 16,000 feet above the ocean and land. Aviation Systems will be returning to the Gulf of Mexico to fly another atmospheric mercury flight campaign in April 2011. Read more about the Summer 2010 Atmospheric Mercury Flight Campaign. (3 meg PDF)

NOAA Earth Surface Temperature

The Aviation Systems Program has partnered with the NOAA Atmospheric Turbulence & Diffusion Division (ATDD), Oak Ridge, Tennessee to collect airborne data on the spatial variability of the Earth’s surface temperature. The airborne science data from UTSI research aircraft are compared with coincident data from NOAA ground stations in Eastern Tennessee and satellites. This growing data set will quantify the spatial variability and representativeness of the single-point temperature measurements being made at these NOAA Climate Reference Network (CRN) ground sites. The data set will also improve the accuracy of satellite measured land surface temperatures. Read more about NOAA ATDD Airborne Science. (9 meg PDF)

NASA MAPIR

The NASA Marshall Airborne Polarimetric Imaging Radiometer (MAPIR) is a novel, state-of-the-art dual beam, dual angle polarimetric, scanning L-band passive microwave radiometer system developed as part of the Observing Microwave Emissions for Geophysical Applications (OMEGA) project managed by NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center, Huntsville, Alabama. The MAPIR has been used for soil moisture research and Earth surface temperature data collection. Recently, UTSI flew the NASA MAPIR on the UTSI Piper Navajo to collect surface temperature data of nuclear power plant cooling water for improved computational modeling. Aviation Systems professors and technical staff designed, fabricated, and flight tested a unique “belly pod” that could carry the MAPIR and other airborne science sensors underneath the Navajo. NASA and UTSI are planning to fly the MAPIR sensor to collect soil moisture data in the San Joaquin Valley, California in 2011. Read more about the NASA-UTSI MAPIR. (2 meg PDF)

Marine Mammal Aerial Surveys

Aviation Systems is beginning to conduct aerial surveys of marine mammals. Partnering with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Florida, the Program will perform aerial surveys of manatees in Florida. Using our highly instrumented research aircraft, the Program will attempt to obtain quantitative data about manatees, such as their seasonal distributions, relative abundance, and use of habitat. Aviation Systems hopes to also participate in aerial surveys of right whales off the coast of Florida

Systems Engineering & Integration / Space

Led by Professor John Muratore, the Aviation Systems Program is performing Systems Engineering & Integration support for NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the aerospace industry.

Professor Muratore has developed a National Space Systems Engineering & Integration Course for NASA.

Integrated Vehicle Health Management / Aircraft Icing

Led by Professor Borja Martos and retired Professor Richard Ranaudo, the Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) research is focused on greatly improving aviation safety in the area of aircraft icing. Airframe icing continues to be a threat to aviation safety where icing-induced loss of control incidents and accidents continue to occur on all classes of aircraft. As part of NASA's IVHM program, a 4 year research project is being conducted by UTSI and Bihrle Applied Research, Inc., in collaboration with NASA Glenn and NASA Langley Research Centers. This research focuses on the development of real-time state assessment methods and their use in defining flight and control limits related to aircraft icing. The Icing Contamination Envelope Protection (ICEPro) system has been designed and implemented to identify degradations in airplane performance and flying qualities resulting from ice contamination and provide safe flight-envelope cues to the pilot. The eventual fusing of these methods with real-time or near real-time icing weather information will not only assist the pilot with the aircraft control task, but will further improve situational awareness and decision-making capability. This will allow pilots to mitigate potentially hazardous icing encounters while planning an icing escape strategy. UTSI is utilizing its state-of-the-art flight simulation capability and perhaps future flight tests on the NASA Glenn Twin Otter icing research aircraft or another suitable platform to enable this research.