Flapless Air Vehicle Integrated Industrial Research is a research project at Cranfield University with collaboration from nine other universities and BAE Systems. [1] Funding totaling $9.85 million USD comes from BAE Systems and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. [2] [3]
The project's goal is to create aircraft without ailerons, as ailerons, in addition to being heavy and requiring extensive maintenance, make it difficult for stealth aircraft to hide from radar. The project has created an unmanned aircraft named Demon which, although it still has ailerons, also uses fluidic controls to change direction in flight. The fluidic controls, in contrast to ailerons, do not move metal parts, but instead use pressurized air to change the direction of airflow over the wing surface. The plane does not need ailerons at all, and has flown successfully without them, but they were included as a backup in case the fluidic controls failed. The project aims to eventually implement the control system on a larger aircraft. [1] [2]
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs were originally developed through the twentieth century for military missions too "dull, dirty or dangerous" for humans, and by the twenty-first, they had become essential assets to most militaries. As control technologies improved and costs fell, their use expanded to many non-military applications. These include aerial photography, area coverage, precision agriculture, forest fire monitoring, river monitoring, environmental monitoring, policing and surveillance, infrastructure inspections, smuggling, product deliveries, entertainment, and drone racing.
An aileron is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll, which normally results in a change in flight path due to the tilting of the lift vector. Movement around this axis is called 'rolling' or 'banking'.
A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no definite fuselage, with its crew, payload, fuel, and equipment housed inside the main wing structure. A flying wing may have various small protuberances such as pods, nacelles, blisters, booms, or vertical stabilizers.
Stealth technology, also termed low observable technology, is a sub-discipline of military tactics and passive and active electronic countermeasures, which covers a range of methods used to make personnel, aircraft, ships, submarines, missiles, satellites, and ground vehicles less visible to radar, infrared, sonar and other detection methods. It corresponds to military camouflage for these parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Aircraft flight control surfaces are aerodynamic devices allowing a pilot to adjust and control the aircraft's flight attitude.
Elevons or tailerons are aircraft control surfaces that combine the functions of the elevator and the aileron, hence the name. They are frequently used on tailless aircraft such as flying wings. An elevon that is not part of the main wing, but instead is a separate tail surface, is a stabilator.
Thrust vectoring, also known as thrust vector control (TVC), is the ability of an aircraft, rocket or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine(s) or motor(s) to control the attitude or angular velocity of the vehicle.
A conventional fixed-wing aircraft flight control system (AFCS) consists of flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkages, and the necessary operating mechanisms to control an aircraft's direction in flight. Aircraft engine controls are also considered flight controls as they change speed.
Elevators are flight control surfaces, usually at the rear of an aircraft, which control the aircraft's pitch, and therefore the angle of attack and the lift of the wing. The elevators are usually hinged to the tailplane or horizontal stabilizer. They may be the only pitch control surface present, and are sometimes located at the front of the aircraft or integrated into a rear "all-moving tailplane", also called a slab elevator or stabilator.
Fluidics, or fluidic logic, is the use of a fluid to perform analog or digital operations similar to those performed with electronics.
A flap is a high-lift device used to reduce the stalling speed of an aircraft wing at a given weight. Flaps are usually mounted on the wing trailing edges of a fixed-wing aircraft. Flaps are used to reduce the take-off distance and the landing distance. Flaps also cause an increase in drag so they are retracted when not needed.
A flaperon on an aircraft's wing is a type of control surface that combines the functions of both flaps and ailerons. Some smaller kitplanes have flaperons for reasons of simplicity of manufacture, while some large commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 747, 767, 777, and 787 may have a flaperon between the flaps and aileron. The 787 has a configuration known as a SpoileFlaperon that combines the action of spoilers, flaps and ailerons into one control surface.
In aeronautics, spoilerons are spoilers that can be used asymmetrically as flight control surfaces to provide roll control.
The BAE Systems Taranis is a British demonstrator programme for unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) technology, under development primarily by the defence contractor BAE Systems Military Air & Information. The aircraft, which is named after the Celtic god of thunder Taranis, first flew in 2013. An unmanned warplane, the Taranis is designed to fly intercontinental missions, and would carry a variety of weapons, enabling it to attack both aerial and ground targets. It uses stealth technology, giving it a low radar profile, and is controllable via satellite link from anywhere on Earth.
BAE Systems Military Air & Information is a business unit of British defence company BAE Systems responsible for the design, development, manufacture and support of fixed wing military aircraft. MAI customers include the Royal Air Force, Royal Saudi Air Force, US Navy and Indian Air Force.
The BAE Systems HERTI is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by the British company BAE Systems. HERTI stands for "High Endurance Rapid Technology Insertion" and was developed in Warton, United Kingdom. The HERTI airframe is based on the J-6 Fregata motor glider designed by Jaroslaw Janowski of J&AS Aero Design in Poland. Its first flight was in December 2004 at the Australian Woomera test range where much of the test flight programme has been undertaken. HERTI was also the first UAV to fly in the UK with the flight being certified by the Civil Aviation Authority.
The aerospace industry of the United Kingdom is the second-largest national aerospace industry in the world and the largest in Europe by turnover, with a global market share of 17% in 2019. In 2020, the industry employed 116,000 people.
Ghatak is an autonomous jet powered stealthy unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV), being developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the Indian Air Force. The design work on the UCAV is to be carried out by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA). Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft (AURA) was a tentative name for the UCAV. Details of the project are classified.
The Demon is an experimental unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed and manufactured by British defence conglomerate BAE Systems. It has been referred to as being the world's first "flapless" aircraft.