Title: F/A-18 Full-Scaled Advanced Systems Testbed (FAST)
Designer: Kate Pavlock (OE)/David Faust (Graphics/Arcata)
Year it was designed: 2012
Explanation or story behind the patch: NASA 853, a modified research F-18, was dubbed Full-Scaled Advanced Systems Testbed (FAST) in 2010 to test advanced systems in support of the Integrated Resilient Aircraft Control (IRAC) project under NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The first experiment was an intelligent adaptive control algorithm (controller) capable of learning and changing the vehicle’s handling characteristics aimed at enhancing safety in the presence of adverse conditions such as structural damage or control surface failures. During initial testing, the test pilots lightheartedly accused the controller of being responsible for all notable undesirable interactions. This led to the controller being affectionately referred to by the project team as “Hal” giving reference to an artificial intelligence that controls the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft and interacts with the ship’s astronaut crew in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Hal, represented in the movie by an iconic red camera eye, became the inspiration for the center of the FAST patch. In January 2011, final flight testing proved the controller to be capable of improving aircraft controllability and handling for a range of failure cases allowing the FAST platform to support future controls research in adaptive controls and the control of flexible structures among other advanced control techniques in a flight environment.