GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
Despite administrator Sean O'Keefe's pledge to re-energise "the first A in NASA", US funding for aeronautics research is budgeted to remain essentially flat at just under $1 billion annually over the five years from fiscal year 2005 to 2009.
Funding will actually reduce in FY2005 to $919 million, from $1.03 billion in the current fiscal year, but this is due to the planned completion of the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies project to develop new air traffic management tools, says associate administrator for aeronautics Vic Lebacqz.
NASA has earmarked $188 million for aviation safety and security projects, $154 million for airspace systems and $577 million for vehicle systems in its FY2005 budget request. The latter represents a cut of almost $44 million from the actual FY2004 budget, which includes almost $56 million in Congressional add-ons. Similar mark-ups in aeronautics funding are likely this year, as Congress is increasingly concerned about European funding for civil aerospace research.
New projects planned for FY2005-9 include demonstrations of airframe and engine technologies to reduce noise by 20dB and emissions by 70-90% for NOx and 25% for CO2; and of alternative power concepts, including fuel cells, providing an additional 10% emissions improvement over conventional propulsion systems.
Other projects will demonstrate lightweight high-lift systems to reduce take-off and landing distances by 20%; and technologies that double unmanned air vehicle reliability and enable safe operation in civil airspace above 18,000ft (5,500m), and seven- to 14-day missions above 60,000ft. Also, NASA has earmarked $7 million a year to study UAVs that can operate on other planets, says Lebacqz.
Source: Flight International
