Inspired by the anatomy of birds, Airbus engineers have developed a scale-model airplane bearing the first in-flight, flapping wingtips designed to reduce drag and overall wing weight, all while combatting the negative effects of turbulence and wind gusts.
Dubbed AlbatrossOne, the remote-controlled aircraft has successfully taken its initial flights and will undergo further testing before the demonstrator, based on the manufacturer’s A321, is scaled-up.
Inspiration was drawn from the marine-based albatross, who can lock its wings at the shoulder for long-distance soaring, but unlock them when gusts of wind occur or when maneuvering is required. While this idea of hinged wingtips isn’t new in aviation, as military jets employ them to create more storage space on aircraft carriers, Airbus engineer Tom Wilson explains that their demonstrator is the first to trial this idea in-flight.
The scale-model demonstrator will explore the benefits of albatross-like wings “to react autonomously during in-flight turbulence and lessen the load on the wind at its base, so reducing the need for heavily reinforced wing boxes.”
As explained by Airbus executive v-p of engineering Jean-Brice Dumont, “When there is a wind gust or turbulence, the wing of a conventional aircraft transmits huge loads to the fuselage, so the base of the wing must be heavily strengthened, adding weight to the aircraft.”
Additionally, this technology provides hope for the future of sustainable aviation. Allowing the aircraft’s wing-tips to react naturally like those of an albatross “reduces the loads and allows us to make lighter and longer wings—the longer the wing, the less drag it creates up to an optimum, so there are potentially more fuel efficiencies to exploit,” said Dumont.
Constructed from carbon fiber and glass fiber-reinforced polymers, the first test flights of the demonstrator were held in Filton (north of Bristol, UK), making the AlbatrossOne the “first Filton aircraft since Concorde,” Dumont pointed out.
Initial testing examined the model’s stability with both locked and unlocked wingtips. The next step, said fellow Filton engineer James Kirk, is to combine the two modes, “allowing the wingtips to unlock during flight and to examine the transition.”