BAE Systems creates world's first flapless aircraft.

[Blackleaf]

UK's BAE Systems, the world's second-largest defence company, creates the world's first flapless aircraft.




BAE SYSTEMS FLIES WORLD’S FIRST FLAPLESS AIR VEHICLE

BAE Systems, in partnership with Manchester University has flown the world’s first air vehicle with a new flapless flow control as part of a research programme it is undertaking to look at technologies for future Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs).

The project is a five year programme funded jointly by BAE Systems and the EPSRC and run from Cranfield University with nine other university partners. The project covers all key aspects and technologies of the next generation UAV, namely aerodynamics, control systems, electromagnetics, manufacturing, materials/structures, numerical simulation and integration.

Being able to fly and control aircraft without conventional control surfaces will bring benefits to both military and civil aircraft. In military jets the stealth characteristics will be enhanced by a reduction in edges and gaps that can increase radar cross section. Additionally, the number of moving and electrical parts in both military and civil aircraft will be reduced which has clear implications for cost, reliability, weight, efficiency and maintenance.

This first vehicle, flown near Manchester, UK in May, is the result of work focused on aerodynamics technologies. This has produced novel means of flow control for improved manoeuvrability, stealth, robustness and simplicity. Control is achieved by blowing air from the trailing edge of the wing which entrains the upper surface flow and so increases lift.

As the other technologies are researched further flapless vehicles will be developed that incorporate the research findings.

The ultimate aim of the programme is to then deliver a flying demonstrator vehicle which makes use of all the technologies being researched for a maintenance free, low cost UAV without conventional control surfaces and without performance penalty over conventional craft. This is scheduled for completion in early 2009.

Project manager Philip Woods from BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre explains, “Future UAVs will be necessarily cheaper, more modular and will rely on designs that consider many cross-discipline interactions and trade-offs. The FLAVIIR programme ensures that BAE Systems understands both the emerging technologies and how they can fit together to deliver suitable systems in the future.”

The flapless air vehicle project is being managed from Cranfield University and includes nine other university partners: The University of Leicester, The University of Liverpool, The University of Manchester, The University of Nottingham, The University of Southampton, The University of Wales (Swansea), Warwick University, Warwick Manufacturing Group, The University of York and Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine.

The project forms part of BAE Systems strategy to concentrate its funding on a few selected universities to increase company involvement in these university programmes, to facilitate a greater degree of co-operation between university partners and to include systems integration in the research agenda


About BAE SYSTEMS

BAE Systems is an international company engaged in the development, delivery and support of advanced defence and aerospace systems in the air, on land, at sea and in space. The company designs, manufactures and supports military aircraft, surface ships, submarines, fighting vehicles, radar, avionics, communications, electronics and guided weapon systems. It is a pioneer in technology with a heritage stretching back hundreds of years. It is at the forefront of innovation, working to develop the next generation of intelligent defence systems.

BAE Systems has major operations across five continents and customers in some 130 countries. The company has more than 90,000 people and generates annual sales of over £13 billion through its wholly-owned and joint venture operations.

baesystems.com
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[GL Schmitt]

Back To the Drawing Board.

 

[#juan]

Good one GL

One thing that bothers me about this control system is that control is achieved by blowing air from the trailing edges of the wings. I assume this air is from the engine compressor, which would mean that an engine failure would make the pilot a passenger. I flew some of the early jets back in the fifties and sixties and I know they flew about like a brick without power. I don't see where this would be any better.

 

[Blackleaf]

"Being able to fly and control aircraft without conventional control surfaces will bring benefits to both military and civil aircraft. In military jets the stealth characteristics will be enhanced by a reduction in edges and gaps that can increase radar cross section. Additionally, the number of moving and electrical parts in both military and civil aircraft will be reduced which has clear implications for cost, reliability, weight, efficiency and maintenance.

This has produced novel means of flow control for improved manoeuvrability, stealth, robustness and simplicity. Control is achieved by blowing air from the trailing edge of the wing which entrains the upper surface flow and so increases lift.

As the other technologies are researched further flapless vehicles will be developed that incorporate the research findings.

The ultimate aim of the programme is to then deliver a flying demonstrator vehicle which makes use of all the technologies being researched for a maintenance free, low cost UAV without conventional control surfaces and without performance penalty over conventional craft. This is scheduled for completion in early 2009. "

 

[Blackleaf]

How's that flapless?

 

[Blackleaf]

27 October 05

Successful first launch for TopSat micro-satellite
Brought to you by UK company QinetiQ, Europe's largest science and technology solutions company (which created the world's first "plastic" tank), and Cranfield University (the flapless aircraft) -

A wholly British partnership that includes QinetiQ, Europe's largest science and technology solutions company, today unveiled plans to develop the world's first environmentally clean sports car, powered by a fuel cell which converts hydrogen into electricity.

Partnering QinetiQ in the project will be the legendary British sports car manufacturer, the Morgan Motor Company, Cranfield and Oxford Universities, BOC and OSCar.

The new vehicle, known as LIFECar, will be ultra quiet and its exhaust systems will produce only water vapour. It promises a clean vehicle combined with sound motoring performance and stylish good looks.

Part-funded by the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), LIFECar is a two and half-year long project which marks a step change in vehicle power technology, producing a combination of performance, range and fuel economy that will be essential to the motoring world of the future.

LIFECar will be based on the Morgan Aero Eight, and will be powered by a QinetiQ-made fuel cell, which converts hydrogen - and oxygen taken from the air around it - into electrical energy. It will be clean, quiet and economic, and the only waste product from the car will be water. The car's power system will be incredibly efficient, producing significant improvements over current fuel cell prototype vehicles, with the fuel cell powering four separate electric motors, one at each drive wheel.

The key to delivering this step change in energy efficiency lies in a combination of factors, including weight reduction and a different design approach. This approach exploits opportunities across the vehicle to reduce energy losses and requirements.





Regenerative braking and surplus energy will be used to charge ultra-capacitors, which will release their energy when the car is accelerating. This architecture will allow the car to have a much smaller fuel cell than is conventionally regarded as necessary: it will only be as large as is required to provide cruising speed, approximately 24 kW, as opposed to around 85kW proposed by most competitor systems.

Speaking at this year's Society of Motor Manufacturers International Business Group, where the plans were unveiled, Charles Morgan, corporate strategy director of the Morgan Motor Company and LIFECar project director, said: 'This is a project which captures the imagination. LIFECar promises to combine advanced technology while retaining the best in traditional ways of designing and building cars. A sports car that is beautiful, brilliant to drive but pollution free must be a goal worth striving for.'




Ian Whiting, business development manager, QinetiQ said: "LIFECar is about catching the first big wave in the energy revolution, which is set to transform the motoring industry in the same way that the computer industry was transformed by the personal computer decades ago."

Costing a total of £1.9m, involving a mix of industry and DTI funding, the two and half year project will be broken down into the following areas of responsibility:

- BOC Developing the hydrogen refuelling plant;
- Cranfield University Systems simulation, on-board computing and control of the fuel-cell hybrid powertrain. Also responsible for analysis of the integrated design process used;
- Vehicle controller and control algorithm, together with modelling software;
- Morgan Motor Company Providing the car platform and assembling the final concept car;
- Oxford University Undertaking the design and control of the electric motors;
- OSCar Responsible for overall system design and architecture;
- QinetiQ Developing Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC)

Technical Background

The car's fuel cell system operates by electrochemically combining on-board hydrogen with oxygen taken from the air outside. Although in most respects fuel cells are more like engines than batteries, to the extent that they generate energy from fuel in a tank rather than store energy, like batteries, they use electrodes (solid electrical conductors) with an electrolyte (an electrically conductive medium). When the hydrogen molecules come into contact with the negative electrodes, the molecules split into protons and electrons. The protons are then carried across the proton exchange membrane to the positive electrode of the fuel cell whilst the electrons travel around the external circuit as electricity. The molecules of the hydrogen and oxygen are combined chemically, with water as the only waste product. The only emission from the QinetiQ fuel cell will be water vapour. The electric power generated by the fuel cells powers the electric motors and turns the wheels of the vehicle.












TopSat, the low cost micro-satellite designed and built by a QinetiQ-led consortium of British companies, was successfully launched for the first time this morning from the Plesetsk launch site in Northern Russia. The 07:52 BST launch was the culmination of a programme that began in 2000 and which is jointly funded by the British National Space Centre (BNSC) and the UK Ministry of Defence.

TopSat, which is attracting increasing interest from international government and commercial customers alike, is designed to provide 2.5 metre resolution imagery at much reduced cost to larger satellites. Typically, current generation imaging satellites with a comparable performance will cost in excess of five times more than TopSat. The system addresses many remote sensing applications including disaster relief, environmental monitoring, crop management, land use, border control and security use.

Lord Sainsbury, DTI Minister with responsibility for the BNSC and UK space policy, welcomed the news of the successful launch, saying: "TopSat is a British success story and I congratulate QinetiQ and all of the TopSat partners on their achievement. TopSat has significant commercial potential and demonstrates the UK's leadership in the emerging market for smaller, low-cost, high performance satellites."

"Today's successful launch is a great achievement for the TopSat team," said Bill Levett, TopSat Project Manager at QinetiQ. "We now look forward to the next important milestone when we start to collect valuable earth observation data and begin to provide our customers with the benefits of what is probably the world's best performance to cost ratio for any imaging satellite."

Leading the consortium of UK companies in TopSat's development, QinetiQ's role has been both in overall systems design and programme management. QinetiQ also provided the major payload electronic sub-systems.

Other partners in the project include Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd which developed the platform, satellite integration and the telecommand and control system. CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) provided the high performance camera and Infoterra Ltd is developing the market for TopSat data products.

Once deployed QinetiQ will work closely with customers to manage operations, including the direct reception of data in the field using a fully mobile, rapidly deployable low cost data ground station, known as RAPIDS. Using RAPIDS QinetiQ can provide an independent, low latency, low cost and versatile imaging capability to meet commercial and other user community needs.

The technology

The first of its kind in the UK, TopSat is a low cost small satellite which will provide local users in-situ on the ground with high-resolution imagery. It consists of an advanced optical camera, which is able to collect 17 x 17 km images of the earth with a panchromatic (black and white) resolution of 2.5 metres and a multispectral (colour) resolution of 5 metres.

This is integrated with an agile micro-satellite to permit Time Delay Integration, allowing imaging of low illumination scenes.

TopSat aims to deliver imagery direct to users via a mobile ground station, from a low Earth orbit in near real-time. Data can also be downloaded to other mobile or fixed ground stations using the CCSDS communications standard within hours, increasing the versatility of the system.

With future development, a constellation of three or four TopSat satellites could image almost any point on the Earth at least once a day, subject to cloud conditions, opening up the potential for very low latency imagery which is extremely cost effective to deliver.

TopSat is one of three satellite projects funded under the MOSAIC programme (the BNSC Small Satellite Programme). The programme is intended to fully exploit the UK's world leading capability in small satellites and to stimulate the development of key small satellite technologies and payloads.

QinetiQ
QinetiQ's Space Division has led UK space technology since the late 1950s and continues to innovate in the fields of spacecraft technology, space systems, remote systems and satellite communications. In addition to consultancy on larger satellite programmes, the Division builds and operates smaller (100kg) satellites, which specialise in technology demonstrations "on-orbit". QinetiQ has recently acquired a majority share in the Belgian small satellite manufacturer Verhaert Design and Development, now renamed Verhaert Space, to boost the company's capability to provide this type of spacecraft.

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited
SSTL, a University of Surrey company, specialises in the design, manufacture and operation of low-cost small satellites to meet Earth observation, communications and space science applications. Over the past 23 years, SSTL have launched 23 small satellite missions into low Earth orbit for international customers, pioneering the use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies.

CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
The CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) operates one of the largest space research laboratories in Europe. Working with universities, research institutes, industry and government agencies around the world, RAL provides leadership and management as well as satellite- and ground-based instrumentation, testing and data handling for international missions in meteorology, earth observation, atmospheric science, solar and solar-terrestrial physics, planetary science, astronomy and radio communications.

The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is part of the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils, one of the UK's eight research councils and host to some of the UK largest facilities in support of UK science and engineering research.

Infoterra Limited
Infoterra Ltd. is a world leader in the provision of geographic information products and services. Its portfolio of geographic information solutions includes airborne and satellite data acquisition, geo-information creation, database management and outsourced hosting. Infoterra provides geospatial knowledge to companies worldwide to help them make informed decisions. The company has clients in communications, utilities, engineering, agriculture, defence and oil, gas & mineral exploration. Infoterra is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS Astrium.

 

[#juan]

I didn't need to read those paragraphs again Blackleaf, but I am glad to see that this system is being proposed for an unmanned aircraft.

In an aircraft with conventional controls, control surfaces are moved by simple hydraulic jacks that are controlled by hydraulic valves actuated by the joystick. This system has been in use for fifty years or so and is reliable and safe. I can see the need to save weight in a relatively small unmanned aircraft but I doubt the system is much less complex.