|
Beyond The Limits
Beyond the Limits examines how computers have transformed flight in all its aspects. Small objects on display range from analog calculating devices that preceded computers to instruments and imagery that show where digital technology is headed. Large objects include two experimental aircraft—the HiMAT and Grumman X-29—and an Iridium communications satellite, each an important aerospace application of computer technology.
Interactive computers throughout the gallery invite you to design an airplane, try out a flight simulation program, or manipulate shapes through computer modeling techniques used by aircraft designers. The gallery also has exhibits on the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the "black boxes" used to determine the causes of aircraft accidents.
This exhibition is located in Gallery 213
Also on display in gallery 213:
 GPS: A New Constellation
Artifact Highlights:
Smithsonian Institution Photo 2007-29651, Eric Long/NASM
Grumman X-29
Grumman built this full-scale steel and fiberglas mockup of the X-29 for exhibition purposes. Two actual aircraft have been built, and both were test-flown at the NASA Dryden Research Center in California. The Smithsonian hopes to acquire one of the real aircraft and replace the mockup displayed in this exhibition when NASA completes its test program.
Gift from Grumman Aerospace Corporation
Smithsonian Institution Photo 2007-29640, Eric Long/NASM
HiMAT
HiMAT (Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology) is a research plane piloted by computer-assisted remote control. As one of the first vehicles in which computational aerodynamics played a large design role, it served as a test for a number of innovative ideas. Despite the ability of supercomputers to pre-test any number of designs and performance factors, the successful test flight remains a central part of aerospace development.
Transferred from NASA
Smithsonian Institution Photo 2006-935, Eric Long/NASM
Iridium Satellite
This satellite is the heart of a space-based communications system called Iridium. Conceived, designed, and built by Motorola, the Iridium system provides wireless, mobile communications through a network of 66 satellites in polar, low Earth orbits. Inaugurated in November 1998, Iridium allows callers using hand-held mobile phones and pages to communicate anywhere in the world—a first in the history of telephony.
Gift of Motorola, Inc.
Smithsonian Institution Photo 2006-937, Eric Long/NASM
CRAY-1
The CRAY-1 on display at the National Mall building is Serial # 14. It was installed in 1978 at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, where it assisted scientists conducting research on global weather modeling and atmospheric physics. In 1986, it was shut down and donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The machine is displayed without its accompanying liquid Freon cooling system and external memory, and is no longer operational.
Gift from Cray Research, Inc.
Smithsonian Institution Photo 2006-1768, Eric Long/NASM
Minuteman Guidance System
The military has been the main underwriter of research in the computing field. The Air Force's Minuteman Project, a guided missile designed to carry nuclear weapons, was the first to use large numbers of integrated circuits. Techniques developed for the Minuteman's guidance system led to the mass manufacture of chips and indirectly to today's inexpensive computing power.
From Rockwell International
|
