Soundwaves Boost Wing Lift

Here's some news that recently came out:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7867

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1439827.htm

Apparently, soundwaves can help airflow stay near the wing and increase
lift. This can help smaller aircraft to avoid stalling at lower
airspeeds. Is this a technology that could be usefully applied to
existing small aircraft? Or would it require some totally new design
thinking?

" wrote in message
ups.com
| Here's some news that recently came out:
|
| http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7867
|
| http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1439827.htm
|
| Apparently, soundwaves can help airflow stay near the wing and
| increase lift. This can help smaller aircraft to avoid stalling at
| lower airspeeds. Is this a technology that could be usefully applied
| to existing small aircraft? Or would it require some totally new
| design thinking?



It would also require heavy metal music.



Well _somebody_ had to say it.


--

Cheers


Dave Kearton

I was thinking perhaps at least drones could benefit from this
technology, since they tend to be smaller and might have to travel at
lower speed to do ground surveillance.

Hmm, or what about at least toy RC hobby aircraft?

Comments?

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 16:31:43 -0700, wrote
(in article . com):

Here's some news that recently came out:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7867

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1439827.htm

Apparently, soundwaves can help airflow stay near the wing and increase
lift. This can help smaller aircraft to avoid stalling at lower
airspeeds. Is this a technology that could be usefully applied to
existing small aircraft? Or would it require some totally new design
thinking?


I have some of the piezo polymer film they were probably using (from SONAR
experiments, and a steel plate target that tells you where the bullet hit).
The amplitudes would be very small, but covering a wing on an RV or Bonanza
would be less than five pounds in weight, including the high voltage
electrics needed for the piezoelectric material.

But New Scientist is not the most reputable source (called New Age Scientist
by some, ignored by the rest) and I would have to see this confirmed by
another lab. It smells a lot like the kind of signal that screws up your
instrumentation. The drive for the film is likely 800 to 1,200 volts and at
400 Hz running on a little model in a wind tunnel with sensitive detectors of
various sorts. I'll just say I'm skeptical.

-- Charlie Springer

In article . com,
" wrote:

Here's some news that recently came out:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7867

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1439827.htm

Apparently, soundwaves can help airflow stay near the wing and increase
lift. This can help smaller aircraft to avoid stalling at lower
airspeeds. Is this a technology that could be usefully applied to
existing small aircraft? Or would it require some totally new design
thinking?

Here's a quote from the article in New Scientist (first reference above):

"In wind tunnel tests, Salmon stuck sections of plastic piezo-electric
film to wing segments. This film vibrates when an electrical signal is
applied, producing sound."

This sure sounds (no pun intended) like aftermarket stuff to me. It
might find its way into production eventually, but it sounds like you
could go stick some tweeters on your Cessna tomorrow and start landing
at 35 knots. That'd raise a few eyebrows among the line judges.

Of course, the best way to avoid stalls is to learn how to fly. No
technology in the world is going to render pilot error obsolete. OK,
I'll make one concession, for wind shear on final. It would be nice to
stay airborne when dropping through the bottom of a 20 knot headwind
layer.

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 20:05:57 -0700, Richard Riley
wrote:

On 20 Aug 2005 19:32:02 -0700, "
wrote:

:I was thinking perhaps at least drones could benefit from this
:technology, since they tend to be smaller and might have to travel at
:lower speed to do ground surveillance.
:
:Hmm, or what about at least toy RC hobby aircraft?

He he he. It'd drive the people writing the requirements nuts.

I just read an RFP for UAV's. One requirement was that it couldn't be
detected by the human ear from directly below at 4000 AGL. But
another was that it have all the necessary equipment to operate in the
airspace. And THAT meant strobes and position lights. So when the
bad guys can see strobes in the sky and can't hear it, they know for
sure it's one of the drones.

The Stealth Fighter and the Stealth Bomber both have position lights, strobes,
and landing lights. This isn't to say they leave them on all the time....

Ron "Activate cloaking device" Wanttaja

Richard Riley wrote:
In the airspace for this program, they had to leave them on all the
time, along with their transponder - which had to have a mode that I'd
never seen before, mode 3. This program wasn't for a battlefield, it

Um, serious question: are you being serious that you have never seen
Mode 3? You probably have, but by a different name. Mode 3 is your
plain vanilla 0000-7777 transponder (if it has altitude reporting
technically is is Mode 3/C).

Modes 1,2 and 4 are military systems (in the free world anyway). 1
and 2 are similar to 3, and 4 is also known as IFF (identify friend
or foe, although in function it is more like identify friend and
everyone else is a regular radar blip).

Well, could this technology be used to augment the performance of
canards? We know that aerobody designs that are optimized for
high-speed supersonic flight may unfortunately not be so efficient for
low-speed flight around takeoff and landing. Could this sonic lift
technology be used instead of canards, or maybe to boost the lift from
canards? Then maybe you could have smaller canards at least, although
I'm not sure liability canards pose to begin with. Also I don't know
what you'd do in the event of an unpowered landing.

I was also thinking about how stubby-winged re-entry vehicles like the
old X-15 or even the new SpaceshipOne might benefit from that 20%
increased lift.

What about using this technology for something more exotic, like a
martian aeroplane? With the thinner atmosphere producing less lift,
perhaps this sonic boost might make a crucial difference.

"Richard Riley" wrote in message
...

I can see it now, Threshold numbers - 140 kt dash speed, 16 hours
endurance, 1500 AH available power, 300 lb payload, 500 watt surround
sound system, 5g flash memory with Ozzy Ozborn's Greatest Hits.

Oh Lord, let it be so. Let Thy lift elevate that *&^%$ in the Mitsubishi,
with the 16" bass speaker, that drives by my house at 2 am, unto Thy bosom
and keep him forevermore. Selah.

Rich "Ever hopeful" S.

There is one other significant fact not mentioned. Turbulent drag,
basically a fluid flow is highly unstable. There is the classical
statement of the butterfly in Japan causing a hurricane in the Gulf.

This represents the control of chaos. Stalling represents the complete
breakdown of laminar flow. So it will not only improve stall
performance, it will (potentially) reduce fuel consumption. Turbulent
drag is caused by vorices in an unstable fluid flow. Fewer vortices =
more kilometers, fewer liters.