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Shape Changing Plane In Development
Eh-Wire writes "The University of Florida has a short article on the "morphing wing" drone they are developing for a small aircraft that can swoop through parking garages, dive into alleys and land on balconies. Close-up video of seagulls in flight was the inspiration for the design of the drone. A still image of the drone shows an aircraft that looks surprisingly gull-like. A video shows the "wing morphing" in action on a static mounted drone. There is also a link to quite a few more videos in the article but it's not real obvious. Some guys get all the phun jobs!"
So how long until they make one that can change into a giant robot?
MAW (Mission Adaptive Wing) designs have been tested since the sixties at least (probably earlier.) Still cool though.
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inventor's design than it does the Wright Brothers designs.
But probably because he based his design on actual seagulls and terns as well.
I for one, welcome our new privacy-impaired overlords.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Wonder plane powers activate! Form of .... a slightly different plane!
Well, there goes the bird population in countries with paranoid leadership.
So, when flying over crowds of people, does this new plane drop its cargo every so often?
> It's a plane!
>
> What the heck is that thing?
Holy fuck, it's an elephant! Either get a big umbrella, lay off the booze, or run for your lives!
What's the big deal? I see footage of planes changing shape on those "historic aviation" shows on the Discovery Channel all the time.
The planes tend to change shape in a spectacular fashion when something goes wrong and the ground intersects the plane's flight path.
Here's the video
Coralized, so hopefully people will be able to view it.
I'm not sure if the file goes over Coral's size limit.
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But Iran's so far away...
It's surprising that we don't copy nature more often. I mean, animals in existence today have had millions of years or more to adapt, producing incredibly elegant solutions to problems. Of course, reverse engineering these adaptations is difficult, because there's no manual, and no real designer to interrogate.
Looking at the differences between a bird and an airplane one can see obvious benefits of each. What conventional aeronautics have not been able to acomplish is the agility and dexterity with wich birds can manuvere in flight. Birds also have an incredible ability to fly at slow speeds and even recover from dangerous situations. All of these qualities are what we NEED in our future aeronautical designs.
As a Private Pilot I was getting excited by the prospect of the Mohler Flying Car, or even one of those (relatively) cheap DIY helicopters. But there was always something in the back of my mind that said that aircraft NEED to be more like birds.
Admittedly, the technology ISN'T as impressive as one would imagine. BUT, I applaud any attempt at changing the way things are done. In fact, I read an article yesterday that claimed that Japan is doing experiementation with a supersonic (Concorde-like) aircraft! Lets see what the future holds: flying cars, supersonic flight for everyone, personal helicopters, more agile designs, deployable parachutes, better computer assisted flight (from GPS, ALS, to auto performance enhancements).....
Its about time someone in the field of aeronautics changed things....things have remained the same for WAY TOO LONG.
WHY IS IT THAT A 1940's ERA war plane can KICK my Cessna's Butt????????? THIS DOES NOT SEEM LIKE PROGRESS.
oh great - so now we'll have robot gulls fighting over french fries in the McDonalds dumpsters. Of course as robots they'll be able to rip the sides right off the dumpsters...
If they're particularly adventurous, the designers will do ti by making the wing sweep angle changeable, like in the F-111, F-14 and B-1. Hmmm, two dogs out of three....
It hasnt been done the way this video depicts in real planes as there's a lot of costs:
- Making the wing hinged or flexible means you need a whole heapin helping of actuators to keep it in position. Actuators are made of steel-- very heavy. if it's a fighter plane, the actuators have to be able to hold the wing in position under multiple-G loads. But that requires heavier actuators, which increase the loads...
- Actuators are usually hydraulically powered. Not good in a military airplane which often loses hydraulics due to flak and bullets.
- Hinged or flexible wings usually can't be hollowed out to hold fuel, landing gear, or munitons. Which makes the rest of the plane bigger in proportion to hold those items.
So you end up with a plane that's big, heavy, unreliable all the time, versus having the flexible wing, which only helps in some flight regimes, some of the time. Generally the good doesnt outweigh the bad.As old as powered flight. The Wright Brothers patented a wing warping system that was used on the Wright Flier, which was of course, the first powered heavier than air craft to successfuly fly.
Very true, and Slashdot readers might be interested to know that wing warping was the subject of a huge patent battle between the Wrights and Glenn Curtiss. See here and here. The consensus is that the patent fight significantly inhibited US aircraft development at the time.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Im sorry , but just because the Smithsonian was PAID to never reveal that the Write Brothers were not the first to fly in a powered plane, it simply is NOT TRUE: See the following link: http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pearse1.htm l
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