Turbulence: Bumpy Ride

Music
Ambience: Pilot communication during turbulence testing

“Okay, we see potential big bump coming. It could be a really big one.”

Hold on to that paper bag, we’re flying into some rough weather. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Jim Watson is a Senior Engineer at Langley Research Center. He and his team recently developed Enhanced Turbulence Radar, a turbulence prediction system for aircraft. We’re listening to a test flight, and as you can imagine, the ride got a little bumpy.

“During part of our conceptual design stage we at Langley had a 757 research aircraft. We then spent about two weeks flying this 757 near convective activity and actually measuring, using the conceptual properties of the Enhanced Turbulence Radar. The flight tests that we went to were very exciting. There was a number of people on board. Unfortunately, several of them, during some of our flight tests, became sick, but we did encounter moderate to severe turbulence, and we were able to predict it with the radar system.”

So when will the average passenger benefit from all this research?

“I think within the next couple of years passengers will start seeing the benefits of the Enhanced Turbulence Radar System. What we envision is an integrated system where air traffic control, all pilots getting ready to fly would have a forecast of where turbulence is. Each individual airplane would communicate between other airplanes that are nearby as to what turbulence information is available as well as beaming that information back down to the ground stations to update forecast maps.”

With this new information, pilots and air traffic control can make better decisions about which areas to avoid and which are safe for travel. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation, with additional support from NASA. I’m Jim Metzner.

Turbulence: Bumpy Ride

Testing a turbulence prediction system means a bumpy ride for researchers!
Air Date:02/27/2007
Scientist:
Transcript:

Music
Ambience: Pilot communication during turbulence testing

“Okay, we see potential big bump coming. It could be a really big one.”

Hold on to that paper bag, we’re flying into some rough weather. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Jim Watson is a Senior Engineer at Langley Research Center. He and his team recently developed Enhanced Turbulence Radar, a turbulence prediction system for aircraft. We’re listening to a test flight, and as you can imagine, the ride got a little bumpy.

“During part of our conceptual design stage we at Langley had a 757 research aircraft. We then spent about two weeks flying this 757 near convective activity and actually measuring, using the conceptual properties of the Enhanced Turbulence Radar. The flight tests that we went to were very exciting. There was a number of people on board. Unfortunately, several of them, during some of our flight tests, became sick, but we did encounter moderate to severe turbulence, and we were able to predict it with the radar system.”

So when will the average passenger benefit from all this research?

“I think within the next couple of years passengers will start seeing the benefits of the Enhanced Turbulence Radar System. What we envision is an integrated system where air traffic control, all pilots getting ready to fly would have a forecast of where turbulence is. Each individual airplane would communicate between other airplanes that are nearby as to what turbulence information is available as well as beaming that information back down to the ground stations to update forecast maps.”

With this new information, pilots and air traffic control can make better decisions about which areas to avoid and which are safe for travel. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation, with additional support from NASA. I’m Jim Metzner.