Flying Dinosaurs May Inspire The Design Of Future Aircrafts

It seems that the next generation airplanes will have a tail wing rudder at nose. Researchers at the Texas Tech University and University of Florida believe that the smaller aircrafts will fly more efficiently if they are designed with the vertical tail in front near the nose. This weird design is based on the cranial crest of the Pterosaur, a flying lizard found in the Jurassic Age. The research group comprising of Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University and Brian Roberts and Rick Lind from University of Florida recently published their study on this Pterosaur inspired airplane in the latest issue of Bioinspiration and Biomimetrics. These winged reptiles appeared first on the planet some 225 million years ago and became extinct around the same time as the dinosaurs some 65million years ago. There were many species of pterosaurs but each of them had this unique, prominent cranial crest on its forehead. Till now, the researchers believed that these crests helped the pterosaurs to remove the excess body heat. However, some aerodynamic simulations and structural analysis tests reveal that this crest actually was used for steering and changing direction during the flight.
#-Link-Snipped-#For understanding the role of this crest better, the scientists designed an aero model with the vertical tail placed at the front of the aircraft. The design analysis and simulations verified the fact that when the tail wing was moved closer to the nose, the turn radius got reduced by an astonishing 14%. This difference arises from the fact that when the tail is at the back, it has to be directed away from the desired direction in which the plane has to turn. While in this new model with the rudder in front, the tail is moved in the direction of turning. This makes the turning radius smaller and the pilot finds it easier to navigate the aircraft. However, having the rudder in front has its own disadvantages. One of them is that the static as well as dynamic stability of the plane get compromised. However, the benefits of this tradeoff between the stability and turning radius are more. Also the stability can be increased by providing a morphing system for repositioning the rudder.
In the experimental model, the designers had allowed the tail to not only be moved on the nose axis along the entire fuselage but it could also rotate 45º on its leading edge axis. Such small aircrafts can find wide applications in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in missions like search and rescue, damage assessment, surveillance, drug interdiction, border security, and communication. Let’s hope that this concept is developed and commercial application of this theory becomes a reality in the near future.
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