Rotorcraft and Advanced Air Mobility

Rotor aerodynamics, ship airwakes, urban operations, vertiports, rotor outwash, and real-time CFD for flight simulation.

Related Projects

active2018–2026 (multiple phases)

Dragonfly Fuselage

Aerodynamic design and analysis supporting the fuselage of NASA's Dragonfly rotorcraft lander, which will fly to Saturn's moon Titan. CFAL's work spans rotor-fuselage interaction, heatshield/backshell separation aerodynamics, in-ground-effect and outwash/saltation behavior on Titan's surface, and wind-tunnel uncertainty quantification.

NASA (subcontract through Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory)

completed2022–2024

eVTOL Aerodynamic Assessments

Computational aerodynamic assessment of an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft concept, conducted in two phases for two industry sponsors.

AiBOT; Maviate

completed2008–2011

Rotorcraft Icing

High-fidelity computational prediction of ice accretion on rotorcraft surfaces, including discrete element roughness modeling of ice-roughened aerodynamic surfaces.

NASA

completed2011–2016

Ice-Roughened Heat Transfer (Rotorcraft)

Modeling of convective heat transfer on ice-roughened aerodynamic surfaces to improve helicopter ice-accretion prediction.

National Rotorcraft Technology Center (NRTC)

completed2016–2021

Ship-Airwake/Helicopter Interaction (ABL)

High-fidelity simulation of ship airwakes modified by atmospheric boundary-layer turbulence and their effect on helicopter flight dynamics during shipboard operations.

National Rotorcraft Technology Center (NRTC)

completed2025–2026

Ship Airwake Prediction

Real-time simulation methods for predicting helicopter flight dynamics operating within the turbulent airwake behind a ship superstructure, supporting safer shipboard rotorcraft operations.

Navy (Phase I SBIR)