Aircraft with active control of the warping of its wings
AssigneeAirbus France
InventorBernard Barriety
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
According to the invention, at the outer end (10) of each wing of the aircraft is articulated an additional aerodynamic plane (14) swept back with respect to said wing. The pivoting of said plane (14) is controlled in such a way that, at at least certain flight points of said aircraft, the aerodynamic forces engendered by said plane (14) modify the reference warp of the wing into an aerodynamically optimal warp for the relevant flight point.
Claims10
A process for imparting the aerodynamically optimal warp to an aircraft wing (3) at a flight point of said aircraft (1),
- wherein:
- at the outer free end (10) of said wing (3) is articulated, about a line of articulation (A-A) at least substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis (L-L) of said aircraft (1), at least one additional aerodynamic plane (14), whose leading edge (17) is swept back with respect to the leading edge (8) of said wing (3);
- and
- at said flight point, said additional aerodynamic plane (14) is given an angular position for which said additional aerodynamic plane engenders aerodynamic forces exerting a torsion on said wing (3) and bringing the latter to said aerodynamically optimal warp.
An aircraft (1), each of whose wings (3) consists of a plurality of elementary aerodynamic profiles (11, 12, 13) distributed along its span and respectively set angularly with respect to a reference axis (R-R) of said aircraft so as to impart a reference warp to said wing, said aircraft comprising, for each wing (3):
- at least one additional aerodynamic plane (14), articulated at the outer free end (10) of said wing (3), along a line of articulation (A-A) at least substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis (L-L) of said aircraft;
- and
- actuation means (19, 20) able to pivot said additional aerodynamic plane (14) about said line of articulation (A-A),
- wherein:
- the leading edge (17) of each additional aerodynamic plane (14) is swept back with respect to the leading edge (8) of the corresponding wing (3);
- and
- control means are provided which, for at least certain flight points of said aircraft, address a pivoting order to said actuation means (19, 20) so that the latter give said corresponding additional aerodynamic plane (14) a pivoted position, for which said additional aerodynamic plane (14) engenders aerodynamic forces able to modify the current warp of the wing, resulting from said reference warp, into an aerodynamically optimal warp for the relevant flight point.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.