Programme US CRANE de contrôle des flux d'air

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Programme US CRANE de contrôle des flux d'air

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Article Defense News, avec le titre : DARPA takes big step forward on X-plane that maneuvers with air bursts

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/01 ... ir-bursts/
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has taken a major step forward toward creating an experimental airplane that can be maneuvered without traditional ailerons or other mechanical devices, instead using short bursts of air.

DARPA announced Tuesday it had selected Aurora Flight Sciences to start detailed design of an aircraft that uses a technology called active flow control to direct it, as part of the Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors, or CRANE, program. Aurora is a subsidiary of Boeing headquartered in Manassas, Virginia, that specializes in developing advanced innovative designs for aircraft and uncrewed systems.

“Over the past several decades, the active flow control community has made significant advancements that enable the integration of active flow control technologies into advanced aircraft,” CRANE program manager Richard Wlezien said in a statement. “We are confident about completing the design and flight test of a demonstration aircraft with AFC as the primary design consideration. With a modular wing section and modular AFC effectors, the CRANE X-plane has the potential to live on as a national test asset long after the CRANE program has concluded.”
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Active flow control technology would use small bursts of air from a wing or other air foil surface to shift the aircraft’s position or direction. The burst itself is not pushing the wings under this concept, he said, the way a spacecraft uses thrusters to nudge it into position in orbit or during re-entry.
Instead, an active flow control burst creates something of a speedbump that alters the way air flows over the wings, which then causes the aircraft to shift.
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So far, Walan said, no one has tried to control an entire airplane using this technology.
If DARPA decides to move forward into the next phase, Aurora would build a full scale demonstrator with a 30-foot wingspan, and would aim to conduct flight tests in 2025. (Aurora Flight Sciences)
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DARPA launched the CRANE program in 2019, and organizations such as Aurora, Lockheed Martin and the Georgia Tech Research Corporation took part in its earlier stages.
Aurora has now completed the project’s Phase 1, a preliminary design phase that yielded what DARPA described as “an innovative testbed aircraft” that successfully used active flow control in a wind tunnel test.

Aurora will now move into Phase 2 under the $42 million contract, where it will create a detailed engineering design for its plane and develop flight software and controls. This will end with a critical design review of an “X-plane” demonstrator, that will be able to fly without traditional moving flight controls on its wings or tail.

DARPA’s award also has the option to move Aurora into Phase 3 of the program, in which it would build a full-scale, 7,000-pound uncrewed aircraft that relies on active flow control for DARPA to test fly. This test aircraft would have modular wing configurations that would allow DARPA or other organizations to easily swap in advanced technologies in the future.
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The company said it would build this X-plane, which would have a wingspan of 30 feet, at its facilities in Virginia, West Virginia and Mississippi, and it would fly at up to Mach 0.7. Aurora hopes to conduct flight tests in 2025.

It will be many years — if ever — before this kind of technology lands in an Air Force plane or other military aircraft. Walan said in 2021 this is an experimental project intended to show whether this kind of innovative technology can work, not to improve something already in operation.
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