“US hopes to fly first aircraft without external mobile control in 2025” | Daily list

USA began building the first aircraft to demonstrate a new method of flight control that did not use external moving parts. It is expected to fly in 2025.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of Boeing, to build a full-scale X-65 unmanned aircraft to demonstrate the feasibility of using active flow control (AFC) actuators for primary flight control. . The award is the third phase of the Controlling Revolutionary Aircraft with New Effectors (CRANE) program.

In December 1903 Wright brothers They flew the world’s first fully controllable aircraft, which used wing deformation to achieve successful flight. Since then, almost all aircraft have used a system of movable external rudders to control flight.

He X-65 breaks this centuries-old flight control design paradigm by using air jets from a pressurized source to shape airflow over the surface of the aircraft, and AFC effectors on various surfaces control the roll, pitch and yaw of the aircraft. Eliminating external moving parts is expected to reduce weight and complexity and improve performance.

The X-65 will be built with two sets of control actuators: traditional flaps and rudders, as well as AFC actuators integrated into all lift surfaces. This will minimize risk and maximize the program’s understanding of control effectiveness. The basis will be the characteristics of an aircraft with traditional control surfaces; Subsequent tests selectively block moving surfaces using AFC effectors instead.

The new three-ton aircraft will have a wingspan of 10 meters and will be able to reach speeds of up to Mach 0.7. Its weight, size and speed are similar to those of a military training aircraft, making the flight test results directly relevant to the design of a real aircraft, DARPA said in a statement.