Morphing metals to be used in air force planes.

Morphing metals to be used in air force planes.


NASA announcement that its' scientists have developed an aircraft with the flight characteristics of a bird, complete with flapping wings. According to NASA it will be able to unfurl its' wings on command and flex and react like a natural organism. The technology to be employed sounds like it is a direct result of back-engineering alien space craft. The stunning features of what could be the ultimate result of the 'Aurora Project', inlcude:

'smart materials' with shape memory are being researched.

they can bend on command and feel pressure to mimic bird feathers

they can transform from a liquid to a solid when in a magnetic field.

metals on the plane could be shot through with bullets only for them to 'remember' their original shape and revert to it, instantaneously 'healing' its' wounds.

These studies and developments are being undertaken by a team specializing in Morphing Projects and in what seems like an extremely long time period, the group see their project coming into reality in 20 years.




Artists impressions of Morphing Aircraft


During a NASA budget briefing April 9 2001, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin described the aircraft that will be one of the linchpins of the Agency's aerospace research for the next 20 years.

Using computer animation that showed an eagle in flight and an aircraft that also used bird-like movements in the flexing and morphing of its wings and other components, he explained how the new concept could work.

"NASA will open the door to a bold and revolutionary era by using technology to mimic nature. The seemingly effortless flight of birds provides the inspiration for new aircraft utilizing wings that reconfigure in flight. The vehicle changes -- or morphs -- from a low-speed configuration to one more suited for high speed," Goldin said.

Such a vehicle will be built of a wing construction that will employ fully integrated embedded "smart" materials and actuators that will empower the wings with an unprecedented level of aero-dynamic efficiencies and aircraft control.

The NASA Administrator continued to describe the aircraft as the computer animation illustrated the concepts.

"The wings sweep back and change shape for high speed drag reduction and low sonic boom. The engine inlets and nozzles morph as well. Small jets of air and feather-like control surfaces provide additional control forces for extreme maneuvers and added safety," he said.

This future aircraft will be able to respond to constantly varying conditions using its sensors as nerves in a bird's wing to measure pressure over the entire surface of the wing. The response to these measurements will direct actuators, which will function like muscles in a bird's wing and change shape to optimize conditions.

"To convert to the low-speed configuration, the wings unsweep and increase in thickness and span to improve efficiency," Goldin continued. "Instead of a vertical tail, the vehicle uses thrust vectoring. Adaptable wings are envisioned to have controllable, bone-like support structures covered by a flexible membrane with embedded muscle-like actuators. Embedded sensors provide health monitoring and control feedback."

As the vehicle morphs for landing, the wingtips split for tip vortex control and the wings lengthen for a shorter runway landing. A tail deploys providing noise shielding, increased lift and additional control," Goldin concluded.

The details of the technologies required to achieve the vision he outlined and the division of work were not covered in the briefing. However, it is expected to take about two decades to develop and capitalize on new breakthroughs in nano, bio and information technologies.

The technologies developed during the research of this new aerospace vehicle are potentially applicable to both civilian and military aircraft and are expected to have a number of benefits. Some of the benefits include reduced noise, increased fuel efficiency, improved ride quality, increased safety, better maneuverability, lower landing speeds, adaptation to shorter runways and extensive versatility.

Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., will lead the effort and Dryden Center Director Kevin Petersen said it is likely that this Center will help validate technologies in flight experiments leading to flight research of the new aircraft.

For example, one control surface experiment known as the Active Aeroelastic Wing is studying the twisting motions of the wing for aircraft control on a dedicated F/A-18.

Dryden's past research on projects such as thrust vectoring, fully electronic actuators and smart controls are other potential areas where Dryden research might be utilized for the envisioned future aircraft.

www.gpgwebdesign.com.au...

Nice post Quaneeri.
Where did you get this ?

ultra_phoenix

It was posted on
Blackvault.

One must wonder why those who believe this material do not simply ask, why?

What advantage (over fuel propulsion) would such flight offer large aircraft? Certainly not speed. Certainly not lighter weight.

Retention metallurgy is not advanced to the point, nor will likely advance to such a point, as this article claims. Retention materials do not "heal" when damaged -- once the structure is broken, it cannot reform. Retention only applies to the caste shape of the metallic object.

This is nothing more than fanciful fiction, based on a slight amount of actual science.

Originally posted by quaneeri
ultra_phoenix

It was posted on
Blackvault.

Damn. I tryed to gain access to this website. It wasn't possible. Server was shutdown.

It should be OK now.

Try again.

R. Daneel Olivaw,

You've got to remember one thing...

The government, especially the millitary is ALWAY'S around 50 year's ahead of us technology wise. The information released now might say one thing, but add 50 year's of advancment to that and you have a rough idea of were the technology really is...

i've seen something like this they use currently called 'memory metal'. bend it to a certain shape and then heat it up and it folds back to its original shape. n-e-ways thanks for the post! very cool....

is it me or technology is getting more and more weird??

british force fields, water oscilitaion anti-grav, Ion engine, and NOW THIS???
whoa...

Originally posted by quaneeri
It should be OK now.

Try again.

Yep. It's working.

For this metal, we have it already , no ?
We are using it for antennas i.e.

We don't have to wait more than 50 years.

Retention metallurgy has been in various stages of advancement for a long time. In its most simple form, a spring is based on the concepts of shape-retention metallurgy.

Advanced retention metallurgy relies on "alignment memory" at a molecular level. However, there will likely never be a means to enable metallic objects to move, as this article suggests, without external mechanical forces.

I've seen (and verified) some of the NASA papers about this posted around the web... but the idea of flying as birds do (flapping) seems a bit absurd to me.

For one thing, it's less efficient than a ramjet. And just think of all the gyros you'd need to achieve a fairly smooth flight (bird flights are anything but smooth.) And landings? Oy! The lawsuits from whiplash would eat you alive!

Now, the instant-heal metal surface (the most popular application) does indeed have a lot of promise.

Yeh.

I agree the idea of the flapping wings is a bit out there.

But the memory metal is something that needs to be considered seriously.

This is a little off topic but my glasses have a form of 'memory metal'

All it really amounts to is that my frames are excessively flexible, I can wrap the bow around my finger and it won't break. It doesn't require heat tho. They are made by flexon if your interested.

cool concept tho

maybe a smaller version could be used as a sort of jetpack if light enough.
However because of a person's body weight the wings would have to be huge so probably not.

I remember seeing something on the discovery channel that talked about a 60-70's architect that was experimenting with metal like this. He attemopted to build oval shaped houses then almost "squish" them or compact them some way, then when a tthe destination, tehy would heat the metal up and it would expand into the house.... this was quite interestng. They also showed clips of the guy almost rolling the ball up, twisting and twriling it into one big blob, then heating it with a heat gun and it eventually rgained its rigid shape. I def believe this research is being done, but making metal bird mobiles seems a little bit of a waste of energy.

I must say I am very skeptical of such a metal were bullets may pass through and the metal can simply remember where to align itself. I suppose if you shot at it enough you could eventually destroy the object by forcing it to use a tremendous amount of energy and heat to replace its original shape. Though, if I were a pilot, I would not like the idea of a plane that not only flaps like a bird, but allows intentionally for bullets to simply pass through. Sounds bad. I'd rather develop a metal that simply repels bullets, more than likely by magnetic forces.

Sounds like the metal from T2 that Robert Patrick's character was made of.

Digging much, lord axalon? I'd hate to post the image again, it's terribly tacky.

The link is dead now, but the concept is fantastic. We've progressed in this area a bit, but I've heard nothing major on the subject. The applications are amazing, of course.

Times have changed, however. NASA has other things to think about, and the military budget is focused elsewhere.