DARPA looks to BAE Systems for active flow control design
BAE Systems announced on 6 September that it will ‘progress the design and testing of revolutionary flow control technologies’ for future US military aircraft.
Under a contract from DARPA in the Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) project, the company will design a full-scale demonstrator concept based on active flow control. The demonstrator aircraft will be able to manoeuvre in flight without conventional flight control surfaces and with ‘improved performance, maintainability, and survivability’, BAE Systems claimed.
The company will mature design, integration, and de-risking activities, including wind tunnel testing at its facilities in the UK in 2022.
CRANE aims to inject active flow control early in the aircraft design process to demonstrate significant efficiency benefits, as well as improvements to aircraft cost, weight, performance, and reliability.
Active flow control can supplement or replace conventional moveable control surfaces to improve the performance of an aircraft at various stages of flight, as well as reduce mass and volume compared to aircraft with conventional controls to enable greater payloads and greater flexibility to the operator.
More from Air Warfare
-
Doodle Labs expands use of its radios on UAV systems
Mesh Rider is a SWaP (Size, Weight and Power) optimised mesh radio designed for uncrewed systems and supports six frequency bands in a single transceiver and AES-256 encryption. It was developed in cooperation with the US Defense Innovation Unit.
-
NATO’s E-3A fleet more important than ever, says force commander
NATO’s E-3A fleet will have been in service for more than half a century by the time of their expected retirement but a boost to the capability and conflict elsewhere have highlighted their importance.
-
NATO progresses effort to replace E-3A AWACS fleet
NATO’s E-3A AWACS fleet has been scheduled for retirement from 2035. The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) has been leading the Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC) project to develop new options for future surveillance and control capabilities, based on future technology and requirements.