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NIST and Aerospace |
Airliners require high quality, highly reliable materials that can withstand a wide range of often rugged conditions. NIST is part of the relentless effort to improve aircraft materials and it also is an anchor in the measurement chain by which aircraft altimeters are calibrated and validated. |
Among the most critical structures in an
airplane are the hundreds of turbine blades inside the engine. They
manipulate, compress, and transport the flow of air and gases through
the engine and out the back to provide the thrust and, ultimately, lift
by which aircraft stay aloft and move forward. Ceramic scientists in
the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory
are working with aerospace companies and advanced materials companies
to develop sophisticated ceramic
coatings that can improve the performance, durability, and reliability
of turbine blades and other metallic components immersed in physically
and chemically hostile environments like the inside of jet engine. 
Metallurgists within MSEL also are paying attention to the needs of the aerospace community by participating in a consortium whose goal is developing new advanced methods for casting aerospace alloys into superior components. Besides the materials researchers at NIST who are working on aerospace materials, NIST's Pressure and Vacuum Group in the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory maintains the standards and develops the measurement protocols by which pressure and vacuum gauges are calibrated. These, in turn, are components of aircraft instrumentation that measures factors no less critical than the aircraft's altitude. |