NASA Completes High-Speed Taxi Test of Laminar-Flow Wing Ahead of Flight Trials

The CATNLF experiment now moves toward airborne evaluations to assess real-world drag reduction potential.

Overview

On Jan. 12 at Edwards Air Force Base, NASA’s CATNLF scale model reached about 144 mph in a high-speed taxi run, marking the first major milestone.
The vertically mounted 3-foot scale wing sits beneath a NASA F-15B, enabling swept-wing testing without modifying the host jet as part of the agency’s Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project.
NASA expects initial flight tests in the coming weeks to measure the design’s performance and laminar-flow behavior in flight.
A 2018 wind-tunnel campaign at NASA Langley showed the shape sustained laminar flow, providing the basis to proceed to flight research.
Earlier NASA computational studies estimated the approach could yield up to roughly 10% annual fuel savings on large long-range transports if validated.