The SHEFEX II (SHarp Edge Flight EXperiment) spacecraft successfully withstood vibration on a shaker and spinning at two rotations per second. These tests represented the final simulation of the conditions that the space vehicle will be subjected to during its launch in the summer of 2012.
Helicopter flights and landings in poor visibility conditions always present pilots with special challenges. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has now completed a series of tests with a new helmet mounted display and has brought it into use a flight simulator.
Sometimes the light goes out for a fraction of a second, and sometimes the high speed train is forced to stop at a border, making the journey time longer – anyone travelling in Europe as a rail passenger can sometimes experience the practical effects of using over 20 different train control and safety systems.
Modern helicopters could be significantly faster and more manoeuvrable - if aerodynamics did not impose limitations on them. Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Göttingen have now discovered and flight-tested a way to increase manoeuvrability using an idea they got from observing humpback whales.
Can new types of engine make spaceflight easier and more economical? This question is being investigated by researchers at the German Aerospace Center using one of Europe's leading hypersonic wind tunnels, located in Göttingen.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Airbus have flight-tested a new ventilation system for aircraft for the first time, with the objective of improving passenger comfort while saving energy and fuel.
On 30 June 2011, DLR’s A320 ATRA (Advanced Technology Research Aircraft) taxied around Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport propelled by an electric nose wheel. In the taxiing tests, researchers and engineers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Airbus and Lufthansa Technik demonstrated a fuel cell-powered electric nose wheel. When installed in airliners, such nose wheels could significantly reduce noise and emissions at airports.
Air traffic will continue to grow in the foreseeable future, increasing the workload of air traffic controllers. Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have been examining what would happen if air traffic controllers started to view German airspace as a whole, rather than continuing the current practice of viewing it as small areas known as 'sectors'.
Road traffic accidents are often the result of errors made by inattentive, overstressed or tired drivers. The objective of the EU project HAVEit (Highly Automated Vehicles for Intelligent Transport), in which the German Aerospace Center (DLR) played an active role, was to minimise the number of this kind of accidents. The results were presented at the final meeting in Boras, Sweden, on 21 and 22 June 2011.