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A new study says that within three years jumbo jet–makers could be testing a new type of wing that reduces midair drag and cuts fuel costs by an estimated 20 percent. The wing would do this using small, built in jets that redirect air around the wing during flight.

"This has come as a bit of a surprise to all of us in the aerodynamics community," Duncan Lockerby, an associate professor of fluid-solid mechanics at the University of Warwick in the U.K. and head of the research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and aircraft maker Airbus, said in a statement. "It was discovered, essentially, by waggling a piece of wing from side to side in a wind tunnel."

Lockerby acknowledged that he and his team weren't sure exactly how the small jets actually reduce drag, but they're building prototypes they hope will be ready for testing as early as 2012 and will eventually reduce surface friction drag by up to 40 percent.

Part of this learn-as-they-go approach stems from the Advisory Council for Aeronautical Research in Europe's (ACARE) goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions from passenger aircraft in half by 2020, Lockerby notes on Warwick's Web site.

Airlines and aircraft makers are already experimenting with biofuels to cut the amount of greenhouse gases their aircraft emit high in the atmosphere. Virgin Atlantic Airlines, the U.S. Air Force, Airbus, and Florida-based Green Flight International are testing coconut and babassu oils mixed with regular petroleum-based jet fuel as well as "synfuel" liquid jet fuel made from coal or natural gas.

Cargo ships are also turning to new technology in an attempt to reduce drag and cut fuel costs, including an experimental approach that pumps air about 25 feet (less than 10 meters) below the waterline into subsurface cavities—broad, shallow recesses built into the underside of the ship's hull—creating buoyant pockets that help ships slip more easily through the sea surface.

Image © Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

9 Comments

1. 1. pgtruspace 09:50 PM 5/22/09

   The head line says it all, the article says almost nothing on "high tech wing."
   what a waste of space.

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2. 2. mike cook 06:55 PM 5/23/09

   There may be much better and more efficient ways to waggle a wing, but Airbus must think they are on to something here and Boeing is on notice that they need to answer, which they could do by contacting me, Michael L. Cook of Cookaerospace, here in Kent, WA

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3. 3. mike cook 06:57 PM 5/23/09

   There may be much better and more efficient ways to waggle a wing, but Airbus must think they are on to something here and Boeing is on notice that they need to answer, which they could do by contacting me, Michael L. Cook of Cookaerospace, here in Kent, WA

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4. 4. Chris PW 08:43 AM 5/25/09

   There have been a few wings with tiny jets of air that help airfow. How is this one different?

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5. 5. galaxy_man 08:53 AM 5/27/09

   This article essentially says nothing.

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6. 6. Fayin 03:00 PM 5/27/09

   I'd say this studies and new technology applied to the marine bussiness will become extremely important in the near future. Thank you for sharing the news.
   Marine Entrepeneur

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7. 7. ThinkConceptually.com 04:13 PM 5/27/09

   Agree the article is light but click on the blue "midair drag" link and there is a more informative discussion, including a good explanation of
   Helmholtz resonance.

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8. 8. mikethurgood 04:49 AM 5/28/09

   The idea of laminar airflow across the surfaces of aircraft wings is in no way a new idea.
   
   After graduating in 1952 - just a few years ago, as I vaguely recall! - my first job was with the long defunct British aircraft manufacturer, Handley Page Limited, in their also long defunct Test Department not far from the City of St Alban's in Hertfordshire (HP Ltd were probably best noted for their Victor vee-wing aircraft, which was originally intended to carry US-made atom bombs, but which had to be transformed to air-to-air refueling tankers when the Americans substantially upgraded their atom bomb design. But that's merely an aside to my story).
   
   Handley Page had a small experimental department at their HQ in Cricklewood, north London, and one of their staff was an expat engineer from Poland, Dr Larksman, if I correctly recall his name - about 55 years ago! He was looking at laminar air flow, to be achieved by drilling tens of thousands of small holes - I suppose around 1.5 to 2.0 mm in diameter - in the outer wing skin, through which compressed air was to be driven to leak outwards from inside the wing. The myriads of small air jets were supposed to provide the required laminar air flow, ie by reducing the friction force of the surface layers of the airflow across aircraft wings. I recall seeing one of his test specimens.
   
   Achieving laminar airflow is only important when you have large and fast aircraft. So if you have your own Cessna high wing monoplane for personal use, forget all about it! It will achieve nothing useful for your petrol consumption.
   
   I left Handley Page after 6 years, into the nuclear industry, so I never kept up any contact. I don't know if this particular proposal to achieve laminar airflow was determined by experiment to achieve its objective or not. I have just a vague idea that some test pieces of skin were used on a Victor vee aircraft, but I never came across any results. In any case it was all rather secret at the time.
   
   So, the idea of achieving laminar airflow to reduce air frictional forces across aircraft wing surfaces certainly isn't anything new. But the technique to achieve this could, of course, well become updated - if any such scheme can be demonstrated to be successful.
   
   Didn't someone years ago suggest covering the wing surfaces with some sort of fur-like material to break up the firmly attached air molecules in contact with the wing surfaces? A crazy idea, really. I presume that the idea got absolutely nowhere.
   
   The current wing shaking idea would present vast fuselage attachment problems

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9. 9. whatbox 04:07 PM 6/30/09

   Where do the "high in the atmosphere" craft get the oxygen? Not from the preozone layer I hope?
   
   

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