Dwayne Brown

Headquarters, Washington, DC May 27, 1997

(Phone: 202/358-1726)

H. Keith Henry
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA
(Phone: 757/864-6120)

Sally Koris
TRW Space & Electronics Group, Redondo Beach, CA
(Phone: 310/812-4721)

RELEASE: 97-111

WEATHER-PIERCING CAMERA MAY REDUCE AIR TRAFFIC DELAYS

Air traffic delays due to poor visibility caused by weather

can be virtually eliminated if technology being developed by
U.S. industry and government looks as good in the air as it
does on the ground.

NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, is working

with a consortium led by TRW Space & Electronics Group, Redondo
Beach, CA, that is preparing to demonstrate in flight a
weather-piercing camera that has allowed researchers to see
through fog, smoke and clouds. System checkout will begin
later this month, followed by 60 hours of test and
demonstration flights in September.

The camera "sees" in the millimeter wave portion of the

electromagnetic spectrum, a portion that is invisible to the
human eye. It produces video images that enable a pilot to
discern features like runways, obstacles and the horizon.

These features are sufficient to safely land, take off,

roll out and taxi at any airline terminal in the country -- not
just the three dozen or so major airports that have costly
systems to aid in low visibility approach and landings. The
camera is a passive sensor that does not emit signals in an
airport environment, allowing multiple equipped aircraft to
operate simultaneously on the ground without risk of
interference.

"This sensor program directly supports NASA's new goal to

safely triple capacity at our nation's commercial airports
within the next ten years -- regardless of fog, clouds, smoke
and dust, or other conditions that normally limit pilot
visibility," said Tom Campbell, head of Langley's
Electromagnetic Research Branch.

In 1994, the TRW-led Passive Millimeter Wave Camera

Consortium was awarded a multi-year, $15 million cost-sharing
contract under the Department of Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency's Defense Dual-Use Technology Initiative to
adapt this technology to an airborne camera for military and
civilian users.

Langley has served as the government's principal

representative and is funding the flight test element of the
program.

In addition, Langley is performing lab tests to determine

which materials are most "invisible" to millimeter waves and,
therefore, good candidates for the protective nose radome that
will house the camera on the flight test aircraft. The tests
also will provide the consortium's radome design team with data
about optimum material thicknesses, protection from rain
erosion and protection from static build-up.

The aircraft is a one-of-a-kind Air Force C-135-C aircraft

nicknamed the "Speckled Trout," to be fitted with the
millimeter-wave camera and its new radome this summer. Once
installed, the camera will generate video images of the forward
scene in low-visibility conditions. These images will be
displayed on a see-through heads-up display suspended between
the pilot and the windscreen.

The sensor uses a focal plane array of about 1,000

receivers made up of monolithic millimeter wave integrated
circuits developed by TRW. Each of these complex circuits,
formed on a sliver of gallium arsenide, replaces bulky, heavy
and costly components, resulting in a compact device.

"We're very excited about what we have produced under this

program," said Dr. Steven Fornaca of TRW, the consortium's
program manager. "Based on the images we have acquired under
low-visibility conditions, and the quality of the receivers
we've developed, we are confident that we are bringing to the
aviation market a needed product that can be manufactured
efficiently and at low cost."
 Other consortium members are McDonnell Douglas, Long Beach,
CA.; Honeywell, Minneapolis, MN; Composite Optics Inc., San
Diego, CA; NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA; U.S.
Air Force Wright Labs, Dayton, OH; U.S. Air Force Flight Test
Center, Edwards Air Force Base, CA; and the U.S. Army Research
Lab, Adelphi, MD.

-end-

NOTE TO EDITORS: A photograph is available to news media to

illustrate this story by calling the NASA Headquarters Imaging
Branch at 202/358-1900. The photo number is:

97-HC-352