Posted on 09/27/2010 10:46:46 AM PDT by managusta
The DEMON uses output from the jets to control airflow over the plane, manipulating lift and drag without using traditional mechanisms to steer.
Its developers believe the technology could revolutionize the stealth capabilities of military aircraft by reducing edges and gaps that can be picked up on radar.
The technology could also reduce fuel and maintenance costs for commercial airliners.
Professor John Fielding, chief engineer and lead for the DEMON demonstrator team from Cranfield University, said: ''To make an aircraft fly and maneuver safely without the use of conventional control surfaces is an achievement in itself.
The DEMON was developed around a concept called ''fluidic flight control'' and is designed to forgo the use of conventional mechanical elevators and ailerons, or flaps.
It is instead maneuvered by hundreds of tiny jets that blast air in order to influence to change the lift, drag and other features of performance.
The result is a more streamlined, aerodynamic craft that cuts down on edges and gaps - features that can increase radar detection.
Additionally it cuts down the number of moving and electrical parts in both military and civil aircraft, affecting cost, reliability, weight, efficiency and maintenance.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Interesting but what happens if power is lost?
I’d sure like to see how it executes a barrell roll using nothing but varitions of thrust.
S.O.L.
Looks unmanned so no harm no foul.
Expensive rock. Then a smoking hole in the ground.
Wait until you lose an engine (thrust) and cannot control it. Give me a Cessna 152 instead. I can land that puppy al day long with no power.
I’m assuming this has an ejection seat....
The author of this article means elevator, aileron, rudder, etc. when they write "flap".
There’s a reason why today’s aircraft have redundancy systems.
Double delta platform....
Ergo the Saab Draken and the Dyke Delta.
Most modern fly-by-wire stability augmented aircraft become tumbling bricks when they lose power.
Agreed by some very smart men who also built the engine and designed the propellers as well.
Exactly ;-)
Don't see a lot of that anymore. At least not by choice.
I saw an article about it a couple of years back ... something about modern technology making it more possible. It would have some advantages over the blown-air approach....
“Maneuver without flaps? Already been done....”
There may not be flaps on the main wings, but vertical flap in front and horizontal flap at the back were used to steer the plane.
No flaps eh?
Then what are those flappy looking things on the back of the wings?
Roll control was provided by changing the shape of the wings to produce a differential lift.
“Most modern fly-by-wire stability augmented aircraft become tumbling bricks when they lose power.”
That is why all pilots love Martin Baker the standard by which ejection seats are measured.
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