Raptor-Inspired Drone Could Lead To Increased Maneuverability

A pair of aerodynamic researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have created a raptor-inspired drone that uses its tail feathers to control bank, rather than wingtip feathers mimicked by ailerons on airplanes. Hoang-Vu Phan and Dario Floriano built a feathered drone with morphable wings and a twistable tail that they have shown can induce bank angle.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/hawk-videos-led-researchers-to-explore-new-concepts-in-drone-controls

Why not apply it to occupied aircraft too, and not just drones?

Okay here goes… 3…2…1…

Only Cessna pilots think that ailerons turn the airplane.

(ducks)

1 Like

Is this not pretty much the same as the horizontal stabilators that have been used by many fighter planes for the last 50 years, like the F-15, F-16, F18, F-22, probably the F-35? When a roll control is input, the ailerons as well as the horizontal stabilators deflect differentially.

A guy named Bob Hoey wrote that paper 30 years ago. He was an engineer at Edwards AFB and he even built bird shaped RC gliders. The tilting tail stabilizes and controls the bird in yaw. The tip feathers do more for control than most people realize too.

Too complicated. In the American Aviation Yankee, all I had to do was lean my shoulders over and the plane would roll in that direction.

This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.