TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITY --Blowing Flap Side Edge: LAR-16946-1

NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology. License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses. THE TECHNOLOGY: Scientists at NASA Langley Research Center have developed an approach to reduce the noise radiating from the side edge of a deployed aircraft flap by blowing air through adjacent slots. During airport approach, when the engines of an aircraft are near idle condition and when the high-lift systems and landing gears are deployed, airframe noise is the dominant noise source. The noise that is generated at the side edge of the flaps is this invention's target for noise control. As an airplane wing with an extended flap is exposed to a subsonic airflow, air is blown outward at up to twice the local flow velocity, through one or multiple thin rectangular chord-wise slots adjacent to the flap side edge. The effect of this blown air is to weaken and push away the strong vortex system that is present in that region of the flap. Instabilities in this vortex system and in the shear layer that originates on the bottom edge of the flap are responsible for the noise radiating from the flap side edge. The weakening of this vortex system can result in a reduction of the radiated noise. NASA is seeking to license this technology commercially. US Patent 7,484,930. To express interest in this opportunity, please respond to [email protected] with the title of this Technology Transfer Opportunity as listed in this FBO notice and your preferred contact information. Please also provide the nature of your interest in the technology along with a brief background of your company. For more information about licensing other NASA-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Technology Transfer Portal at http://technology.nasa.gov/ . These responses are provided to members of NASA Langley’s Office of Strategic Analysis and Business Development “OSACB” for the purpose of promoting public awareness of NASA-developed technology products, and conducting preliminary market research to determine public interest in and potential for future licensing opportunities. If direct licensing interest results from this posting, OSACB will follow the required formal licensing process of posting in the Federal Register. No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice.