Keyword: Wings

Briefs: Materials
A research team has made new discoveries that can expand additive manufacturing in industries that rely on strong metal parts, including aerospace.
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Briefs: Aerospace
New design removes the need for mechanisms to perform active tilting of the wings or rotors, reducing system mass.
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Briefs: Aerospace
Gust load alleviation is an increasing concern for the design of fixed-wing aircraft with ultra-high aspect wings.
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Briefs: Design
A lightweight alternative to rudders for aircraft with spanwise adaptive wings.
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5 Ws: Unmanned Systems
About the size of a grain of sand, the flying microchip (or microflier) does not have a motor or engine.
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Briefs: Aerospace
The technique controls rather than combats ice formation.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Early flutter detection will help in the development of safer and more eco-friendly aircraft turbines.
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Briefs: Materials
The coating repels insects on aircraft wing surfaces and motor vehicles and reduces surface imperfections on other low-friction or non-stick surfaces.
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Briefs: Aerospace
Injection of air at the trailing edge of a winglet further reduces drag.
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Briefs: Aerospace
This versatile new material family could build realistic prosthetics and futuristic Army platforms.
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Taking a cue from birds and insects, the wing design helps drones fly more efficiently and makes them more robust to atmospheric turbulence.
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Articles: Aerospace

The last thing you probably do when a fly buzzes toward you is marvel at its graceful wing and body kinematics. But that’s exactly what researchers at Cornell University’s Itai Cohen Group...

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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
This trailing edge flap device reduces noise without compromising cruise efficiency or landing lift and stall characteristics.
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
This framework can be used by commercial and military aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Systems of tiny robots could build high-performance structures, from airplanes to space settlements.
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
These advances are useful for transportation, infrastructure, and aerospace.
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Briefs: Aerospace

Flying animals both power and control flight by flapping their wings. This enables small natural flyers such as insects to hover close to a flower but also to rapidly escape danger. Animal flight has...

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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

A radically new kind of airplane wing, assembled from hundreds of tiny identical pieces, can change shape to control the plane’s flight, and could provide a significant boost in...

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Briefs: Aerospace

NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a new aircraft design with the engine nacelle over the wing, improving engine ground clearance and freeing landing gear design. While...

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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Multi-Purpose, Flexible Wing Structure for Small Unmanned Aerial Systems

Small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), also known as micro air vehicles, are promising tools for a variety of military and commercial applications. Some small UAS have flexible wings and are lightweight, making them back-packable and easy to deploy. Most UAS that are...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

It's hard to get an X-ray image of low-density material like tissue between bones because X-rays just pass right through like sunlight through a window. Sandia studies myriads of low-density materials,...

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Briefs: Materials

From airplane wings, to overhead power lines, to the giant blades of wind turbines, a buildup of ice can cause problems ranging from impaired performance all the way to catastrophic...

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Briefs: Aerospace

NASA's Glenn Research Center developed a novel means of articulating the outboard portion of an aircraft wing to create the optimal geometry for given flight conditions. The Spanwise Adaptive Wing (SAW) concept employs...

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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A New Twist Makes Rotating Machinery More Efficient and Quieter

Derived from a design approach for a new wing known as PRANDTL-D, this technology achieves similar improvements for propellers and other rotating machinery.

Briefs: Aerospace
Synthesis and Development of Polyurethane Coatings Containing Fluorine Groups for Adhesive Applications

Accumulation of insect strikes on the leading edge of airplane wings is a more serious problem than one might realize. Depending on the magnitude, such accumulation changes the aerodynamic characteristics of the wing, causing a change from...

Briefs: Software

It's common to see line-shaped clouds in the sky, known as contrails, trailing behind the engines of a jet airplane. What's not always visible is a vortex coming off of the tip of each wing — like...

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Briefs: Aerospace

In the early years of manned flight, wing warping was used for lateral control of an aircraft. This technique consisted of a system of pulleys and cables used to twist the trailing edges of the wings in...

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Briefs: Materials

NASA Langley Research Center has developed technology to increase the adhesive strength between shape memory polymer composites (SMPs) and metal alloys. Shape...

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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

A research group including members from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science has developed a real-time,...

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