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MIT and NASA engineers demonstrate a new kind of airplane wing
A team of engineers has built and tested a radically new kind of airplane wing, assembled from hundreds of tiny identical pieces. The wing can change shape to control the plane's flight, and could provide a significant boost in aircraft production, flight, and maintenance efficiency, the researchers say.
The new approach to wing construction could afford greater flexibility in the design and manufacturing of future aircraft. The new wing design was tested in a NASA wind tunnel and is described today in a paper in the journal Smart Materials and Structures, co-authored by research engineer Nicholas Cramer at NASA Ames in California; MIT alumnus Kenneth Cheung SM '07 Ph.D. '12, now at NASA Ames; Benjamin Jenett, a graduate student in MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms; and eight others.
Instead of requiring separate movable surfaces such as ailerons to control the roll and pitch of the plane, as conventional wings do, the new assembly system makes it possible to deform the whole wing, or parts of it, by incorporating a mix of stiff and flexible components in its structure. The tiny subassemblies, which are bolted together to form an open, lightweight lattice framework, are then covered with a thin layer of similar polymer material as the framework.
The result is a wing that is much lighter, and thus much more energy efficient, than those with conventional designs, whether made from metal or composites, the researchers say. Because the structure, comprising thousands of tiny triangles of matchstick-like struts, is composed mostly of empty space, it forms a mechanical "metamaterial" that combines the structural stiffness of a rubber-like polymer and the extreme lightness and low density of an aerogel.
Jenett explains that for each of the phases of a flight—takeoff and landing, cruising, maneuvering and so on—each has its own, different set of optimal wing parameters, so a conventional wing is necessarily a compromise that is not optimized for any of these, and therefore sacrifices efficiency. A wing that is constantly deformable could provide a much better approximation of the best configuration for each stage.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday April 08 2019, @04:29PM (3 children)
> significant boost in aircraft production, flight, and maintenance efficiency
It's a just a critical flight element which will be controlled by complex software ... let's ask Boeing about that.
> which are bolted together to form an open, lightweight lattice framework, are then covered with a thin layer of similar polymer material as the framework.
I've seen wings warp up and down in shitty weather. I'll stay on the plane which the Al or Composite wings until this newfangled idea get a few million flight-hours from the North's winter to the Caribbean's humidity and back under the careful supervision of Joe the Hammer maintenance guy.
How many of those individual elements can fail before things escalate into asymmetric flight profile goodness ?
Don't misunderstand me. I welcome improvements in wing design which will help to pad executive bonuses.
But I always take "researchers" marketing with a giant grain of salt.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Monday April 08 2019, @09:24PM
Agree...way too many moving parts. We used to have a firm design principle called KISS.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 2) by damnbunni on Tuesday April 09 2019, @12:35AM
There isn't any software controlling the wing shape. The article says the wings are designed so that different stresses on the structure cause the wing to deform to the most advantageous airfoil for that phase of flight. It's entirely passive, there aren't even any motors.
The article also says this would be applicable to things like turbine blades, which would negate the problems with shipping those bigass propellors around.
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Tuesday April 09 2019, @06:12AM
What I would be more concerned is about aero-elasticity effects. I once was fascinated by inflatable wings but invariably they had very funny flutter, after some speeds or when coupling the speed with a given flight surface deformation. Also moving parts give rise to funny dynamics appearing out of nowhere. It looks cool, but definitely not a new concept. I hope they release the research as there are a lot of aeronautics students who would build them and put them to tests.