MAKING AIRCRAFT LESS DETECTABLE
Description
A team of NATO experts is developing new technology that will make military aircraft less detectable. Most forms of aircraft need actuators (vertical and horizontal flaps) to enable flight and control.
The technology being developed leaves these flaps redundant in certain phases of flight, replacing them with an active flow control system using air to help manoeuvre the aircraft.
The research into innovative control effectors, or ICE, is being carried out by a NATO task group under NATO’s Science and Technology Organization, which includes representatives from the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, the Illinois Institute of Technology and Lockheed Martin. The first model of the ICE aircraft was made in 2015, measuring just 28 centimetres in wingspan. It has since undergone numerous rounds of testing in a wind tunnel at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado.
