Air Force to Test Aeroelastic Wings

firegate writes "The New Scientist is reporting that the US Air Force is planning to test a variant of the Wing Warping steering system used on the original Wright Brothers plane to steer new supersonic jets. They've invested $41 million in the project so far, and the first test flight will take place next month at NASA's Dryden research center in California."

Space Age Materials

[iamjim]

Are they going to be using plywood and fabric too?

Test speeds.

[Jade E. 2]

From the article:

The technology will be tested at subsonic and supersonic speeds, though not in the unpredictable range close to the speed of sound.

Now, I'm no aerospace engineer, but how exactly do you test at supersonic speeds without at least passing through the range of speeds 'close to the speed of sound'? Or, if the wing snaps in half as it passes mach 1, do they just say "Oops, that didn't count, better not tell anyone."?

good sign

[Pretzalzz]

This is a good sign. We were sorely technologically overmatched in the war in Afghanistan so it is good to see that we will be spending a couple of trillion more dollars improving our weaponry.

Wright Bros Patent Royalties

[tdsotf]

So does this mean the (long dead) Wright Bros get royalties on their wing-warping patent?
I guess it took us a hundred years to figure out they were right all along :-)

Re:uh...excuse me...

[Anonymous Coward]

F111?!? How big a keyboard do you have?

Oh wait...

Aeroelastic Wings....

[Anonvmous Coward]

"New from Tampax: Aeroelastic Wings. Now you can go horseback riding with your legs beh..." Err, okay I grossed myself out.

Re:More information on the subject...

[lommer]

"Active aeroelastic wing (AAW) technology is a multidisciplinary, synergistic technology that integrates air vehicle aerodynamics, active controls, and structures to maximize air vehicle performance."

Wow, I can hardly count the number of technobabbling, get-the-investors-drooling phrases in that sentance.