This study proposes a new operational concept of the Point Merge System, called Multi-Arrival Route Point Merge System (MAR-PMS), which is an air traffic control method used to sequence aircraft arrivals in a given terminal control area. The proposed concept enables the additional arrival routes that have an angular difference to each sequencing leg. Furthermore, a time-indexed 0-1 linear programming model is formulated. The obtained results are validated in a real time simulation. The comparison results of PMS and MAR-PMS show that the average reduction of 19% of total flight time, 23% of total flight distance, and 19% in total fuel burned and reduction in CO2 emissions in favor of a proposed concept.

Shock-induced vortex breakdown, which occurs on the delta wings at transonic speed, causes a sudden and significant change in the aerodynamic coefficients at a moderate angle-of-attack. Wind-tunnel tests show a sudden jump in the aerodynamic coefficients such as lift force, pitching moment and centre of pressure which affect the longitudinal stability and controllability of the vehicle. A pneumatic jet operated at sonic condition blown spanwise and along the vortex core over a 60° swept delta-wing-body configuration is found to be effective in postponing this phenomenon by energising the vortical structure, pushing the vortex breakdown location downstream. The study reports that a modest level of spanwise blowing enhances the lift by about 6 to 9% and lift-to-drag ratio by about 4 to 9%, depending on the free-stream transonic Mach number, and extends the usable angle-of-attack range by 2°. The blowing is found to reduce the magnitude of unsteady pressure fluctuations by 8% to 20% in the aft portion of the wing, depending upon the method of blowing. Detailed investigations carried out on the location of blowing reveal that the blowing close to the apex of the wing maximises the benefits.

This paper presents a study of a novel type of magnetic nozzle that allows for three-dimensional (3-D) steering of a plasma plume. Numerical simulations were performed using Tech-X’s USim® software to quantify the nozzle’s capabilities. A 2-D planar magnetic nozzle was applied to plumes of a nominal pulsed inductive plasma (PIP) source with discharge parameters similar to those of Missouri S&T’s Missouri Plasmoid Experiment (MPX). Argon and xenon plumes were considered. Simulations were verified and validated through a mesh convergence study as well as comparison with available experimental data. Periodicity was achieved over the simulation run time and phase angle samples were taken to examine plume evolution over pulse cycles. The resulting pressure, velocity, and density fields were analysed for nozzle angles from 0° to 14°. It was found that actual plume divergence was small compared to the nozzle angle. Even with an offset angle of 14° for the magnetic nozzle, the plume vector angle was only about 2° for argon and less than 1° for xenon. The parameters that had the most effect on the vectoring angle were found to be the coil current and inlet velocity.

Estimation of the structural weight of an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) during conceptual design has proven to be a significant challenge mainly due to its unconventional configuration. We investigate development of a customised approach for structural weight estimation of UCAV based on statistical weight of the manned fighter’s components by applying minor modifications on weight formulations of fuselage, wing, empennage, power plant and landing gear. The modifications are applied by considering the corresponding differences between manned fighters and UCAVs such as manned requirements and mission variances. Some new empirical formulas for estimating the weight of UCAV’s components are proposed. Results for the empty weight estimation are validated against actual values of some well-known UCAVs. Moreover, the structural weight is validated against the benchmark UCAV case studies. The results show that the ratio of structural to takeoff weight for UCAVs is approximately between 20% to 10%. Finally, a generalised equation is developed for estimating the structural weight of UCAVs in conceptual design phase.

A smart morphing winglet driven by piezoelectric Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) is designed to adjust cant angle autonomously for various flight conditions. The smart morphing winglet is composed of the MFC actuator, DC-DC converter, power supply, winglet part and wing part. A hinge is designed to transfer the bending deformation of intelligent MFC bending actuator to rotation of the winglet structure so as to achieve the adaptive cant angle. Experimental and numerical work are conducted to evaluate the performance of smart morphing winglet. It is demonstrated that the proposed intelligent MFC bending actuator has an excellent bending performance and load resistance. This smart morphing winglet exhibits the excellent characteristic of flexibility on large deformation and lightweight. Moreover, a series of wind tunnel tests are performed, which demonstrate that the winglet driven by intelligent MFC bending actuator produces sufficient deformation in various wind speed. At high wind speed, the cant angle of the winglet can reach 16 degrees, which is still considered to be very useful for improving the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft. The aerodynamic characteristics are investigated by wind tunnel tests with various attack angles. As a result, when the morphing winglet is actuated, the lift-to-drag ratio could vary up to 11.9% and 6.4%, respectively, under wind speeds of 5.4 and 8.5m/s. Meanwhile, different flight phases such as take-off, cruise and landing are considered to improve aerodynamic performance by adjusting the cant angle of winglet. The smart morphing winglet varies the aerofoil autonomously by controlling the low winglet device input voltage to remain optimal aerodynamic performance during the flight process. It demonstrates the feasibility of piezoelectric composites driving intelligent aircraft.

An evaluation of the effects of different ice configurations on the flight characteristics of a fixed-wing aircraft is presented. Within a joint research project of German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer simulation models of three supercooled large droplet (SLD) ice configurations were developed for one Phenom 300 prototype. A specific flight test campaign with artificial SLD ice shapes on the aircraft was conducted to gather the relevant flight data. The simulation models for the different ice configuration were obtained by system identification, and specific results for the SLD-ice simulation models are provided. The analysis of aircraft characteristics was based on the results of these high-quality simulation models: the icing-induced changes of the flight performance characteristics evaluated by the interpretation of several parameters like thrust-to-weight ratio and specific excess power. The typical flight performance degradation was found for all ice configurations with different magnitude. The change of aircraft eigenmodes was investigated in detail by analysing the system matrix of the linearised models at a specific trim points. In addition, the diverse effects found for different ice configurations (App. C and SLD) are discussed and the change of root locus is analysed. Furthermore, ice-induced changes of the handling qualities are evaluated using numerical criteria of flying qualities standard “MIL-STD-1797 A”: no significant deterioration was found for the investigated ice configurations.

The main purpose of this study was to combine the currently separate objectives of aerodynamic performance and manufacturing efficiency, then find an optimal point of operation for both objectives. An additional goal of the study was to explore the effects of changes in design features, the position of the spars, and analyse how the changes influenced the optimal operating conditions. A machine-learning approach was taken to combine and model the gathered aero-manufacturing data, and a multi-objective optimisation approach utilising genetic algorithms was implemented to find the trade-off relationship between optimal target objectives (mission performance and manufacturability). The main achievements and findings of the study were: The study was a success in building a machine-learning model for the combined aero-manufacturing data utilising software library XGBoost; multi-objective optimisation, which did not include spar positions as a variable found the trade-off region between high manufacturability and high mission performance, with choices that offered reasonably high values of both; there was no clearly identified correlation between a small change in spar position and the target objectives; multi-objective optimisation with spar positions resulted in a trade-off relationship between target objectives, which was different from the trade-off relationship found in optimisation without spar positions; multi-objective optimisation with spar positions also offered more flexibility in the choice of manufacturing processes available for a given design; and the range of bump amplitudes for solutions found by multi-objective-optimisation with spar positions was lower and more focused than those found by optimisation without spar positions.

The aim morphing of this study is to detect and reconstruct a fault in angle-of-attack sensor and pitot probes that are components in commercial aircrafts, without false alarm and no need for additional measurements. Real flight data collected from a local airline was used to design the relevant system. Correlation analysis was performed to select the data related to the angle-of-attack and airspeed. Fault detection and reconstruction were carried out by using Adaptive Neural Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), which are machine-learning methods. No false alarm was detected when the fault test following the fault modeling was carried out at 0–1 s range by filtering the residual signal. When the fault was detected, fault reconstruction process was initiated so that system output could be achieved according to estimated sensor data. Instead of using the methods based on hardware redundancy, we designed a new system within the scope of this study.