Futuristic Aircraft - Neat Aircraft Innovations

Futuristic Aircraft - Neat Aircraft Innovations

Perhaps, one of the coolest aircraft innovations coming online is the concept of morphing wings and rotor blades. Morphing refers to the ability of surface to change in shape. For instance, when you suck in your gut and pump up your chest, your physique changes shape, in fact you are now looking pretty good, even if you may have not had the desired results in your latest diet or faltered on that New Year's resolution to hit the gym. In this case you are looking good in the mirror and might do better with the ladies?

For an aircraft, a fat wing provides much more lift and can land and take-off at very low speeds. This means it can lift more weight, use a shorter runway, and put less wear and tear on the tires due to that shorter take-off roll. Unfortunately, a fat wing at high speeds means you have a lot more drag and it slows down the speed and thus the airborne performance while at cruising speed is decreased. This means the aircraft will use much more fuel. Thus, up until the present most all aircraft were nothing more than a compromise.

That is to say built for speed, or built to carry more weight. Some built to go fast (small, thin, pencil like - Lear Jet), others more roomy, built for comfort (like a bulbous looking Rockwell 112). There are only a few aircraft that change shape in flight such as the F-14 Tomcat and F-111 which go from a straight wing to a swept wing once at speed. Now there are many new aircraft on the drawing board which sponsor the latest in aerodynamic design, but also will have shape-shifting or morphing capabilities.

How is all this possible, and why now?

Simple, humans are always working with new materials, and today there are new materials, which are flexible, while very strong too. We have also advanced in manufactured material memory science, meaning that at one temperature or electrical charge, one shape is prominent, or when a charge is put to it, it goes to one shape, when the charge changes or temperature changes, the material goes back to its manufactured shape.

Consider if you will a wing which totally changes its chamber, shape, angle of sweep. Think about a tail section which shrinks once at high-speed reducing drag, or contemplate protrusions which tuck in automatically reducing parasite drag. All this and more is now coming online with many new aircraft designs. Not just in the military sector, but also in the private sector.

More efficient airliners, private planes, and business jets - reducing fuel costs, increasing performance, and allowing for greater safety at critical phases in flight, such as take-off and landings - what does it all mean? From this day forward aviation and aerospace design will never be the same again. Think on that.