Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Informational Only

This challenge is no longer accepting new submissions.

Engineered Surfaces, Materials and Coatings for Aircraft Drag Reduction

soliciting innovative cost effective ways to reduce drag on legacy Air Force aircraft

Department of Defense - Air Force Research Lab

Total Cash Prizes Offered: $10,000
Type of Challenge: Scientific
Partner Agencies | Non-federal: Ohio Aerospace Institute
Submission Start: 08/08/2015 11:00 AM ET
Submission End: 09/21/2015 11:59 PM ET

This challenge is externally hosted.

You can view the challenge details here: https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933776

Description

The Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) and its Engineered Surfaces, Materials and Coatings (ESMC) Team, under contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), is soliciting innovative cost effective ways to reduce drag on legacy Air Force aircraft. The Seeker is primarily searching for existing technologies or research studies, outside of the aircraft industry, that provide surface friction reduction in fluid mediums and have potential to be translated to the aircraft industry for skin friction reduction. Other sources of aircraft drag reduction are sought as well. Areas of particular interest include discovery of new materials or application processes to create engineered surfaces with drag effect of modifying streamwise airflow (e.g. riblets), or coatings to reduce skin friction drag.  These surfaces must be able to survive the environmental extremes of normal transport aircraft flight regimes. These Engineered Surfaces, Materials and Coatings (ESMC) should nominally last for several years and be easily applied to an existing aircraft to accomplish a reasonable Return on Investment (ROI) for applying to legacy transport aircraft. This Challenge requires only a written proposal

Winner

Deepak Aghor, Mumbai, India

Prizes

Cash prize
Cash Prize Amount: $10000
The awards will be paid to the best viable submission(s) as solely determined by the evaluators and the ESMC Team. The total payout set aside for awards is $100,000. Multiple awards of $10,000 each, depending on the feasibility of the solution, are anticipated.

Judging Criteria

Technical Uniqueness
Percentage: 25
Description of the uniqueness and innovative approaches to accomplish the technical objectives to meet the technology’s intended purpose.

Aircraft application
Percentage: 20
Description of how the technology’s intended purpose could be repurposed for aircraft applications to reduce drag.

Implimentation
Percentage: 10
Description of how the ESMC technology could be implemented to reduce aircraft drag (effect on aircraft drag components).

Applicatin Method and cost
Percentage: 20
Description of application methods and cost of the technology for its intended purpose and the changes (with cost) needed to transition to aircraft applications.

Return on Investment
Percentage: 20
Description of relative complexity, weight, cost and ROI of the technology for transition onto legacy transport aircraft.

Qualification testing
Percentage: 5
Description of performance and qualification testing of the technology for successful integration on legacy transport aircraft.