The Center for Rotorcraft Innovation (CRI), the USA's new focal point for collaborative development on vertical-lift technology, is set to launch operations within two months.
CRI is negotiating with the US Army to release a $2.5 million start-up fund granted last year in a budget add-on by US Congressman Curt Weldon. He has proposed to boost the CRI's budget to $10 million next year, but that is likely to be at least partly reduced.
After this year's funds are made available, CRI plans to immediately start issuing contracts for research that had already been selected, says executive director Randy Vouse.
CRI is a renamed and relocated reincarnation of the Rotorcraft Industry Technology Association (RITA), formerly of Orange, Connecticut. At Weldon's direction, the centre has moved south to a satellite campus of Pennsylvania State University in a suburb of Philadelphia.
RITA provided a forum and source of funds for industry and academia to pool resources on research projects of interest to both sides. The association served to give industry officials a stronger hand in shaping priorities at universities for vertical-lift research. CRI continues in that tradition, with a few structural changes and a major increase in status.
NASA's plan to abandon rotorcraft research is not only a fiscal crisis for the vertical-lift science community, but also creates a leadership void that the CRI is intended to ease.
With a fraction of NASA's spending clout and supporting infrastructure, CRI is having to sharply narrow its research priorities. Industry is setting the agenda, and the timelines to produce a payoff will probably be shorter for basic research than projects funded under NASA.
The first area of focus for CRI-funded projects will be homeland security applications of rotorcraft, says Vouse. Airspace control of unmanned rotorcraft on emergency relief missions is one example of an ideal research project, he says. The narrow focus also is intended to quickly produce visible results.
CRI also is taking a different approach to co-operation on research projects. RITA had enabled researchers to work independently on the stipulation that their results would be shared within the consortium after they have been finished. But CRI's plan is to co-locate associated researchers from the beginning.
Says Vouse: "For homeland security and defence emergency response, it makes a lot of sense to get the Coast Guard and the Army National Guard and [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] in a room."
STEPHEN TRIMBLE/WASHINGTON DC
Source: Flight International
