The supersonic blown air means moving wing flaps and other mechanical control surfaces are not needed.
The benefits are:
* greater control in flight
* reduce weight and maintenance costs
* allow for lighter, stealthier, faster and more efficient military and civil aircraft in the future.
The two technologies to be trialed first using the jet-powered UAV, MAGMA, are:
* Wing Circulation Control, which takes air from the aircraft engine and blows it supersonically through the trailing edge of the wing to provide control for the aircraft
* Fluidic Thrust Vectoring, which uses blown air to deflect the exhaust, allowing for the direction of the aircraft to be changed.
In 1975, tests showed 50 times less radar cross-section for planes without control surfaces (0.1 square feet instead of 5.0 square feet).
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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