Posted on 10/19/2020 2:35:23 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Man has long tried to imitate birds in building all types of aircraft, to varying degrees of success. A new concept aircraft from Airbus, now in its second stage of testing, is taking biomimicry to a whole new level.
... AlbatrossONE, the scale model concept from Airbus, which comes with longer wings that can bend at the tip, thus allowing for more efficient flight. More efficient flight means less fuel consumption, which, in turn, means less emissions and, of course, optimized costs.
The aircraft has semi-aeroelastic hinged wing-tips, so they flap freely, alleviating wing loads and avoiding tip stalling. The flapping tips don’t transfer bending loads to the main wing and allow the aircraft to surf through gusts of wind.
“This requires less material, such as carbon-fiber reinforced polymers, to make the wing strong enough to withstand gust loads,”
(Excerpt) Read more at autoevolution.com ...
mandatory seat belts
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