{"id":799805,"date":"2025-12-18T14:34:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=799805"},"modified":"2025-12-18T14:34:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:34:30","slug":"nasa-boeing-test-how-to-improve-performance-of-longer-narrower-aircraft-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=799805","title":{"rendered":"NASA, Boeing Test How to Improve Performance of Longer, Narrower Aircraft Wings\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p>The airliner you board in the future could look a lot different from today\u2019s, with longer, thinner wings that provide a smoother ride while saving fuel. <\/p>\n<p>Those wings would be a revolutionary design for commercial aircraft, but like any breakthrough technology, they come with their own development challenges \u2013 which experts from NASA and Boeing are now working to solve.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When creating lift, longer, thinner wings can reduce drag, making them efficient. However, they can become very flexible in flight. <\/p>\n<p>Through their Integrated Adaptive Wing Technology Maturation collaboration, NASA and Boeing recently completed wind tunnel tests of a \u201chigher aspect ratio wing model\u201d looking for ways to get the efficiency gains without the potential issues these kinds of wings can experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have a very flexible wing, you\u2019re getting into greater motions,\u201d said Jennifer Pinkerton, a NASA aerospace engineer at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. \u201cThings like gust loads and maneuver loads can cause even more of an excitation than with a smaller aspect ratio wing. Higher aspect ratio wings also tend to be more fuel efficient, so we\u2019re trying to take advantage of that while simultaneously controlling the aeroelastic response.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NASA and Boeing Test to Improve Performance of Longer, Narrower Aircraft Wings\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TJNJfrkge9o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Take a minute to watch this video about the testing NASA and Boeing are doing on longer, narrower aircraft wings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Without the right engineering, long, thin wings could potentially bend or experience a condition known as wing flutter, causing aircraft to vibrate and shake in gusting winds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFlutter is a very violent interaction,\u201d Pinkerton said. \u201cWhen the flow over a wing interacts with the aircraft structure and the natural frequencies of the wing are excited, wing oscillations are amplified and can grow exponentially, leading to potentially catastrophic failure. Part of the testing we do is to characterize aeroelastic instabilities like flutter for aircraft concepts so that in actual flight, those instabilities can be safely avoided.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To help demonstrate and understand this, researchers from NASA and Boeing sought to soften the impacts of wind gusts on the aircraft, lessen the wing loads from aircraft turns and movements, and suppress wing flutter. <\/p>\n<p>Reducing or controlling those factors can have a significant impact on an aircraft\u2019s performance, fuel efficiency, and passenger comfort.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Testing for this in a controlled environment is impossible with a full-sized commercial airliner, as no wind tunnel could accommodate one. <\/p>\n<p>However, NASA Langley\u2019s Transonic Dynamics Tunnel, which has been contributing to the design of U.S. commercial transports, military aircraft, launch vehicles, and spacecraft for over 60 years, features a test section 16 feet high by 16 feet wide, big enough for large-scale models.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0To shrink a full-size plane down to scale, NASA and Boeing worked with NextGen Aeronautics, which designed and fabricated a complex model resembling an aircraft divided down the middle, with one 13-foot wing. <\/p>\n<p>Mounted to the wall of the wind tunnel, the model was outfitted with 10 control surfaces \u2013 moveable panels \u2013 along the wing\u2019s rear edge. Researchers adjusted those control surfaces to control airflow and reduce the forces that were causing the wing to vibrate. <\/p>\n<p>Instruments and sensors mounted inside the model measured the forces acting on the model, as well as the vehicle\u2019s responses.<\/p>\n<p>The model wing represented a leap in sophistication from a smaller one developed during a previous NASA-Boeing collaboration called the Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe SUGAR model had two active control surfaces,\u201d said Patrick S. Heaney, principal investigator at NASA for the Integrated Adaptive Wing Technology Maturation collaboration. \u201cAnd now on this particular model we have ten. We\u2019re increasing the complexity as well as expanding what our control objectives are.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A first set of tests, conducted in 2024, gave experts baseline readings that they compared to NASA computational simulations, allowing them to refine their models. A second set of tests in 2025 used the additional control surfaces in new configurations.<\/p>\n<p>The most visible benefits of these new capabilities appeared during testing to alleviate the forces from gusting winds, when researchers saw the wing\u2019s shaking greatly reduced.<\/p>\n<p>With testing completed, NASA and Boeing experts are analyzing data and preparing to share their results with the aviation community. Airlines and original equipment manufacturers can learn and benefit from the lessons learned, deciding which to apply to the next generation of aircraft.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInitial data analyses have shown that controllers developed by NASA and Boeing and used during the test demonstrated large performance improvements,\u201d Heaney said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to continue analyzing the data and sharing results in the months to come.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Advanced Air Transport Technology project works to advance aircraft design and technology under the agency\u2019s Advanced Air Vehicles program, which studies, evaluates, and develops technologies and capabilities for new aircraft systems. The project and program fall within NASA\u2019s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/aeronautics\/nasa-boeing-test-aircraft-wings\/?rand=772140\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The airliner you board in the future could look a lot different from today\u2019s, with longer, thinner wings that provide a smoother ride while saving fuel. Those wings would be&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":799806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-799805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aeronautics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=799805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/799806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=799805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=799805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=799805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}