Issues with your account? Bug us in the Discord!

Aircrafts with shape shifting wings

E.TE.T Quote-o-matic
[url]http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/wing_techwed_040428.html[/url]

They want slow speed manouverability abilities and fast transit speed.
So why they're retiring Tomcat (and Aardvark) if they want those?
Well, at least they aren't retiring Bone.

Comments

  • A2597A2597 Fanboy
    the correct term is "Sling Wing" aircraft...

    the Tornado was already retired, right?
  • Falcon1Falcon1 Elite Ranger
    Interesting. The UK Airforce will be retiring the Tornado whenever that Euro Fighter is ready.
  • shadow boxershadow boxer The Finger Painter & Master Ranter
    Aardy's are grand ole dames... but thet are exactly that.. ancient, they have aluminium airframes, they are a collection of metal fatigue. It's a shame, cos' they are a great plane, they remain competitive with current birds, esp with updated avionics.

    Tomcats are just bloody flying missile launchers, no more. Also, Tomcats are not much more youthful than Aardy's.

    You can only put so many hours into airframes before you have to throw them away, just out of sheer age related risk. That's why all the B-52's flying today are National Guard etc, all airframes that were only ever used on Sundays by little old ladys going on Bombing runs to the supermarket.
    Otherwise you'd still see masses of the old dears flying. As far as getting ordinance up, nuthin beats an ole B-52, just as long as you have air superiority and you've wiped out the long range Air ro Air sites..:)

    As far as the actual wing warping aircraft, they aren't really a direct comparison to the slingwings as mentioned. Same reasons and principles, waaaay waaay different tech.
  • Government contractors have been working on morphing wings for over a decade. The morphing wing has even greater flight advantages over swing-wings* relative to fixed wing aircraft. The F-14 and its airframe are late 1960’s technology after all. Sadly they are being replaced by the Superhornet. By 2007 all the old f-14 squadrons should be switched over. Since 1995 the Navy has been hanging more and more air to ground ordinance on the tomcat. That has put a lot of abuse on an old airframe. It wasn’t meant to be a bomber – it was built to be an AIM-54 platform. The ones still flying today are mostly F-14D’s remanufactured from F-14A’s or built in the late 80’s.

    I’ve never heard of “sling-wings” – “swing wings” or “variable sweep wings” are more common.

    As far as this morphing wing stuff goes – I had heard that the superhornet and even the 7E7 were going to incorporate the technology, but it has taken much to long to develop and it’s going to have to wait for the next generation.
  • E.TE.T Quote-o-matic
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Konrad [/i]
    [B]I’ve never heard of “sling-wings” – “swing wings” or “variable sweep wings” are more common.[/B][/QUOTE]
    Yep, it's called swing-wing most commonly.

    One of the beiggest things which affects to maximum speed is angle of leading edge
    Good example is that if you look Tomcat flying at high speed it looks very much like arrow.
  • RickRick Sector 14 Studios
    Re: Aircrafts with shape shifting wings

    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by E.T [/i]
    [B][url]http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/wing_techwed_040428.html[/url]

    They want slow speed manouverability abilities and fast transit speed.
    So why they're retiring Tomcat (and Aardvark) if they want those?
    Well, at least they aren't retiring Bone. [/B][/QUOTE]

    I think that they are talking about physically distorting the shape of the airfoil, not just changing the wing's presentation angle to the airstream. Think of the wing with a balloon inside, or some such thing..

    The (potential) benefits could be great, if they can find the right smart materials to make it work such that itwould also naturally return to a "failsafe lift mode" if power to the control systems were lost.

    -R.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    In this case, it's not done with smart materials (at least, not in the sense that is generally meant by that name), but with a smart, deformable truss. I'm not sure how they could make a truss that automatically returned to a certain shape in the event of a power failure given the kind of truss they've used.

    [url]http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/25/231242&mode=thread&tid=126&tid=134[/url]
  • JohnDJohnD Ranger
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by A2597 [/i]
    [B]the correct term is "Sling Wing" aircraft...the Tornado was already retired, right? [/B][/QUOTE]

    Actually, the correct term is "variable geometry wing." The colloquialism isn't "sling wing," it's "swing wing."

    BTW, I managed to tour the CG-51 today. It's an amazing ship and a shame they will be retiring it in 2006 as part of the move to get rid of all non-VLS surface warships.
  • A2597A2597 Fanboy
    does the JSF's ablity to open up the space for the fan, and redirect thrust 90* count for variable geometry?
  • An ex-SquidAn ex-Squid Elite Ranger
    No. The term "variable geometry" refers to the wings only.
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    damn, john beat me to it.

    The term Variable Geometry is the correct usage here. It refers to the variable geometry wing meaning the damn things move.

    And it is considered an Aircraft with variable geometry wing configuration, thats straight from General Dynamics and Grumman (maker of the F14).
  • E.TE.T Quote-o-matic
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by An ex-Squid [/i]
    [B]No. The term "variable geometry" refers to the wings only. [/B][/QUOTE]
    Yep
    And BTW, JSF's maxmimum speed is much smaller than what F-22 have because leading edge's angle is much closer to 90 degree. (or saying otherway, it's optimized for slower speeds)
  • JohnDJohnD Ranger
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by E.T [/i]
    [B]Yep
    And BTW, JSF's maxmimum speed is much smaller than what F-22 have because leading edge's angle is much closer to 90 degree. (or saying otherway, it's optimized for slower speeds) [/B][/QUOTE]

    That isn't why the JSF has a lower maximum speed. It's an end
    result (not a cause) of the fact it's mission doesn't require it
    to go as fast.
  • E.TE.T Quote-o-matic
    Nice roll speed!

    [url]http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Movie/F-18AAW/HTML/EM-0079-02.html[/url]
Sign In or Register to comment.