Energy Efficiency Technology Demonstration Program

This is a Sources Sought Notice for the purpose of conducting market research to identify potential sources that possess the expertise, capabilities, and experience to meet Air Force needs to accomplish a variety of aerodynamic and structural energy efficient demonstrations to support current and projected Air Force capability requirements. This notice is for information purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for information solicited. The objective of the Energy Efficiency Technology Demonstration Program is to conduct applied, advanced, and demonstration/validation research to develop, demonstrate, integrate and transition new aerospace system energy efficiency technologies to the warfighter. There is a need to develop and demonstrate a set of aerodynamic and structural energy efficiency technologies to support Air Force strategic investment planning decisions. The program is oriented to support the development and demonstration of energy efficiency related technologies by identifying technical challenges, then translating these challenges into a set of technical demonstration programs supporting Air Force capability needs. Technical efforts under the program include, but not limited to, conceptual design trades, aerodynamic and structural experimental test planning and execution, analytical and experimental data analyses, advanced energy efficient structural concept development, advanced aerodynamic configurations design and development, and integration demonstrations. The research and development activities will focus around the following technical competencies: (a) Advanced Structural Concepts - Composites, structurally integrated antenna, and other advanced structural concepts offer significant weight and energy savings that would reduce the overall fuel burn on current and future platforms. This includes the development of lightweight, adaptive, and multifunctional structures, and design for manufacturing concepts which are needed to support revolutionary energy efficient configurations. Emphasis will be placed in the following areas: i) Advanced structural design approaches that support energy efficient structural configurations. ii) Advanced structural concepts that reduce weight, increase stiffness, increase structural life, provide more aerodynamically efficient shapes, and/or reduce cost relative to state-of-the-art structures technology. iii) Multifunctional structural technologies that efficiently integrate flight vehicle avionics and subsystem equipment with the aircraft structure to minimize total aircraft weight and volume. iv) Adaptive structural concepts that employ advanced material and actuation technology to optimize vehicle performance over a range of flight conditions. (b) Advanced Energy Efficient Aerodynamic Configurations - The development and demonstration of advanced energy efficient aerodynamic concepts and configurations are needed to improve overall aircraft efficiency for legacy and future systems. Development and demonstration in this area include aerodynamic enhancements of the wings, fuselages, inlets, and the propulsion flowpath. The development and tests may include aeroelastic analysis, wind tunnel tests, and flight demonstrations. In addition, sub-scale demonstrations may be needed to reduce technology risk. The aerodynamic demonstrations may need to include proof of aerodynamic and structural configuration and system performance. Emphasis will be placed in the following areas: i) Advanced laminar flow control and active boundary layer control to enhance the aerodynamic efficiency. ii) Advanced aerodynamic configurations of the wings/tail, and/or fuselage. iii) Drag reduction concepts such as winglets, finlets, vanes, etc. iv) Propulsion integration concepts. (c) Integrated Demonstrations - Integrated demonstrations that bring together a wide range of aerodynamic and structural energy efficiency technologies may be required to adequately mature those technologies. These demonstrations may represent key ground and flight experiment activities to validate performance and readiness for the Air Force user. The use of flight experiments will be directed at technology demonstrations that cannot be fully simulated or are more cost effective to be performed in a flight test article. Demonstrations that may be considered in this technical area are: i) Practical swept wing laminar flow technology can be shown to be robust enough for low maintenance/zero maintenance requirements in a wide operating range. ii) Formation flight to demonstrate drag reduction by taking advantage of improved efficiency through controlled formation flight and predictive techniques. iii) Integrated system concepts that combine aerodynamic and structural concepts such as highly efficient wings or flow control with structurally integrated antennas. iv) Advanced propulsion integration concepts such as distributed propulsion or high lift systems. Interested parties are invited to submit a Statement of Capabilities (SOCs) reflecting their interest and capability in meeting the above requirements. Information submitted should be pertinent and specific in the technical areas under consideration as outlined above and on each of the following qualifications: (1) Experience - provide an outline of relevant projects, specific work previously performed, or any in-house research and development effort or similar type work that is currently being performed. (2) Personnel - provide the names, professional qualifications and specific experience of scientists, engineers, and technical personnel (i.e., principal investigator, project officer) who may be assigned to perform in the technical areas under consideration. (3) Facilities & Equipment - provide availability and description of special facilities and equipment required to perform in the technical areas under consideration. (4) Other - provide any other specific and pertinent information as it pertains to this particular area of procurement that would enhance our consideration and evaluation of the information submitted. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this program is 541712 with a small business size standard of 1,500 employees. Please include the following with your response: name and address of firm, point of contact and telephone number, business size (i.e., large, small, small disadvantaged, 8(a), woman-owned, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, HUBZone, HBCU/MI - historically black colleges and universities/minority institutions). Statements of Capabilities are due electronically to the Air Force no later than 12 Oct 2012, 3:00PM EDT, and shall be forwarded to the following e-mail addresses: adam.boggs@wpafb.af.mil douglas.covey@wpafb.af.mil Address contractual questions to Adam G. Boggs, Contract Negotiator, (937) 656-9031, or Douglas E. Covey, Contracting Officer, (937) 656-9626, and technical questions to David A. Brown, Program Manager, (937) 938-4824, david.brown@wpafb.af.mil.