Posted on 04/02/2019 6:55:52 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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... 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.
While it would be possible to include motors and cables to produce the forces needed to deform the wings, the team has taken this a step further and designed a system that automatically responds to changes in its aerodynamic loading conditions by shifting its shape—a sort of self-adjusting, passive wing-reconfiguration process.
This is all accomplished by the careful design of the relative positions of struts with different amounts of flexibility or stiffness, designed so that the wing, or sections of it, bend in specific ways in response to particular kinds of stresses.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Umm, new kind of wing? I’m pretty sure the Wright Flyer used the same principle. I guess the author never hard of the Wright brothers.
ssssssssssspecial sauce
Can just imagine the software necessary to modify wing configuration throughout a flight. What possibly can go wrong?
Read the article.
We live in absolutely amazing times.
Could be almost as challenging as what your car engine does every day, right?
Wright Brothers should sue!.......................
They don’t teach history any more.............
Eventually NASA will get around to leaking the liquid-wing and aircraft haul designs. These allow the exoskin to stretch and retract during different phases of flight and takeoff. Once we build the stretchable skin bodies on space and other craft, speeds and efficiencies will increase.
“Umm, new kind of wing? I’m pretty sure the Wright Flyer used the same principle. I guess the author never hard of the Wright brothers”.
Of course it’s the same principal but today’s wings look nothing like what the Wright brothers used.
This is a new kind of wing.
Still all belongs to Mr. Bernoulli.
Yes, my same first thought. Not New. Wing warping was the first manned flight control system.
Head shake.
Paging the Wright Brothers....
Well to be fair, Bernoulli and the Hershey Company.
What possibly can go wrong?
Absolutely the right question. Computers are not “saving the world” they are destroying our ability to see reality.
Did you guys even read the article?
It is new technology from new materials that employ PASSIVE adjustment to their shape which increases efficiency.
The physics behind it is sound, and interesting. Why are you bashing it?
What my car engine does almost
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