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