Research

The Department is active in research in many areas related to traditional aerospace engineering topics, as well as advanced ground transportation systems.  Special areas of emphasis include experimental and computational aerodynamics, computational engineering, FEA anlysis of structures in extreme environments, aerodynamics of ground vehicles, Maglev, aircraft flight controls, and air traffic management. Projects are funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), principally Langley Research Center (LaRC), the Federal Railroad Administration, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, commercial customers of the Langley Full-Scale Tunnel, and others.