NAVAIR News Release

NAWCAD Public Affairs

Patuxent River, MD
February 19, 2013

NACRA Testbed executes corrosion sensor technology project

A UH-1N helicopter, testbed for the Naval Aviation Center for Rotorcraft Advancement, flies a mission near the
Chesapeake Bay to test and demonstrate integrated corrosion sensing technology. Early detection of metal-killing
corrosion could cut total ownership costs for all Department of Defense rotorcraft in the near future. (U.S. Navy
photo by Doug Abbotts)

NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. Naval Aviation Center
for Rotorcraft Advancement (NACRA) Technology Demonstration and Development teams
have joined industry partner Luna Innovations, Inc., to test and demonstrate integrated
corrosion sensing technology.
We estimate 90 percent of an aircrafts total ownership cost occurs after delivery, said
Ashley Morgan, NACRAs technology project coordinator. More than 30 percent of that is
due to corrosion and those costs escalate as the aircraft ages.
But more importantly, Morgan asserted, the issue is safety.
Corrosion can alter residual strength and structural integrity, Morgan said.
If you can put sensors in the aircraft structure for early detection and take appropriate
corrosion mitigation actions, you can decrease overall downtime and expense, not to
mention add a higher degree of safety, said NACRAs resident materials expert Dr. Suresh
Verma.

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NAVAIR News Release

NAWCAD Public Affairs
Patuxent River, MD
February 19, 2013

NACRA Testbed executes corrosion sensor technology project

Verma.
Enter NACRAs corrosion sensor project that extends development efforts initiated through
the Navys Small Business Innovation Research Program.
We installed a combined wired and wireless corrosion monitoring system provided by
Luna with installation design provided by Wyle on our UH-1N testbed helicopter in July
2012 and have been flying it as a ride-along with our other project work, Morgan said.
With this technology installed, we can track environmental exposure and specific
conditions at corrosion hot-spots as a function of time, using inputs from various
environmental and corrosivity sensors.
Specifically, the project measures air and surface temperatures, relative humidity, solution
resistance and polarization resistance to predict aluminum corrosive activity.
Morgan said the aircraft sensors gathered and stored this environmental data that test
engineers sent to Luna for analysis.
Data from the wired sensors and the wireless sensor hub were used to classify corrosivity
within the airframe and the environmental measurements were strongly correlated to
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather station data, said Lunas Dr.
Fritz Friedersdorf, director of intelligence systems.
This project and the resulting data contributed to the Air Force ordering a total of 20 of
these systems for demonstration on Air Force H-60s, Friedersdorf said. The first set will
be installed the week of February 18, 2013. This would not have been possible without the
Navys support and the availability of the NACRA test bed aircraft.
The project is scheduled to fly on the NACRA testbed indefinitely.

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