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Should airplanes look like birds? Engineers envision more fuel-efficient design
PhysOrg ^ | November 21, 2010 | Unknown

Posted on 11/21/2010 4:41:47 PM PST by decimon

Airplanes do not look much like birds -- unless you were to imagine a really weird bird or a very strange plane -- but should they? This question is exactly what a pair of engineers in California and South Africa inadvertently answered recently when they set about re-thinking the ubiquitous tube-and-wings aircraft architecture from scratch in order to make airplanes more fuel efficient.

The modern airplane design works well, but from a fuel efficiency standpoint, could planes be designed more aerodynamically -- to lower drag and increase lift? Geoffrey Spedding, an engineer at the University of Southern California, and Joachim Huyssen at Northwest University in South Africa, felt they could in theory, but they lacked experimental evidence. Now they have it.

Spedding and Huyssen have made a simple modular aircraft in three configurations: a flying wing alone, then wings plus body, and then wings plus body and a tail. It turns out that they had independently re-designed a bird shape, but without specific reference to anything bird-like. They will present their experimental data with these three designs, today at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Long Beach, CA.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Science
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The modern airplane design works well, but from a fuel efficiency standpoint, could planes be designed more aerodynamically -- to lower drag and increase lift? Credit: RJ Huyssen/NU,RSA
1 posted on 11/21/2010 4:41:51 PM PST by decimon
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To: decimon

Don’t birds carry a lighter payload than the average plane?


2 posted on 11/21/2010 4:45:23 PM PST by Argus
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To: Argus
Don’t birds carry a lighter payload than the average plane?

Good point. Birds also travel much slower.

3 posted on 11/21/2010 4:48:26 PM PST by Pollster1 (Natural born citizen of the USA, with the birth certificate to prove it)
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To: decimon

To make all of the Greenies happy, just release a Chevy Volt version of the airplane.

Just power it on batteries.

Better yet, why not come up with a windmill powered aircraft?


4 posted on 11/21/2010 4:49:23 PM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: decimon
Airplanes generally have wings, a body and a tail. They already look like birds.
5 posted on 11/21/2010 4:57:03 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: KoRn

Energy efficiency is a laudable objective, even if the ‘Global Warming’ agenda is not. Fuel is going to be a lot more expensive in years to come, and frankly, the last thing any of us should want is to have any more dependence on the Saudi Arabs than we absolutely have to have...


6 posted on 11/21/2010 5:10:47 PM PST by sinsofsolarempirefan
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To: KoRn

Great, we can call it the Chevy “Crash and Burn”. Or maybe the Chevy Fireball.


7 posted on 11/21/2010 5:30:41 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

I totally agree, but energy efficiency need not be legislated or subsidized. The free market should be in control.


8 posted on 11/21/2010 5:30:59 PM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: decimon

They already are working on blended wing body airplanes to increase fuel efficiency.


9 posted on 11/21/2010 5:31:39 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: decimon
Hmmm... an Etrich Taube with retractable gear and no external bracing...

Mr. niteowl77

10 posted on 11/21/2010 5:40:11 PM PST by niteowl77 (I don't mind them stewing in their own juices, but I object to them stewing me in their own juices.)
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To: decimon
It turns out that they had independently re-designed a bird shape

Maybe God knows what He's doing.

11 posted on 11/21/2010 5:41:11 PM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: KoRn
To make all of the Greenies happy, just release a Chevy Volt version of the airplane.

Will this do?

http://www.electraflyer.com/articles/Wired_Electraflyer-X_09.swf

12 posted on 11/21/2010 5:44:20 PM PST by TChad
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To: decimon

Because airplanes shaped like aardvarks fly so well...LOL


13 posted on 11/21/2010 6:18:42 PM PST by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: rockrr

14 posted on 11/21/2010 6:35:17 PM PST by decimon
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To: decimon
Should airplanes look like birds? Engineers envision more fuel-efficient design

I think we're going to need a bigger bird Mr. Kelleher.

15 posted on 11/21/2010 6:37:09 PM PST by RoadKingSE (How do you know that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a muzzle flash ?)
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To: decimon

Amazing how the birds just happened to evolve with the epidome of aerodynamic styling. Mega Sarc!


16 posted on 11/21/2010 6:53:26 PM PST by Tucker39
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To: Tucker39
Amazing how the birds just happened to evolve with the epidome of aerodynamic styling. Mega Sarc!

Do you mean epitome?
17 posted on 11/21/2010 7:00:27 PM PST by aruanan
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To: decimon

BTTT!


18 posted on 11/21/2010 7:11:01 PM PST by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: decimon

Just use what we have more efficiently.
19 posted on 11/21/2010 7:16:25 PM PST by Eye of Unk (If your enemy is quick to anger, seek to irritate him. Sun Tzu, The Art of War.)
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To: Eye of Unk

You want a front seat on that. More wind but less heat.


20 posted on 11/21/2010 7:19:16 PM PST by decimon
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