Skunk Works morphing UAV 3 weeks away from 1st flight

Paris Air Show: Lockheed Martin Skunk Works details Morphing UAV progress

14-Jun-2005
Janes.com

"The Lockheed Martin Skunk Works Advanced Development Programs (ADP) 'Morphing' unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is three weeks away from achieving its first flight, according to Frank Cappuccio, vice-president and general manager of Skunk Works ADP. Morphing technology promises to revolutionise the way UAVs and their combat equivalents, unmanned combat aerial ..."


From what I've seen on tv about morphing aircraft, it usually means having the wings sweep forward from their swept back position. But it could be changing the shape of the wing to make it more bird-like.


[edit on 15-6-2005 by NWguy83]

Heres some pics of Lockheed Skunkworks Morphing UAV. Its in-flight transition is still a week out.

There was supposed to have been a project many years ago using either an F or EF-111 that was developing the morphing wing. They could change the shape to thcker for slow flight, to almost supercritical for high speed flight.

This was NASA's project in 2003 and 2004. It was only on a blue print, I think you need to verify to what extent the run of this Morphing craft is, since to my knowledge 2 things have problems. One being the Lockheed has little to do with the French, and Two being that the original morphing wing project was NASA's only.

Originally posted by Murcielago
Heres some pics of Lockheed Skunkworks Morphing UAV. Its in-flight transition is still a week out.

Can't see your pictures ...

centurion1211
Can't see your pictures ...

yeah...give it time...My yahoo geocities account has a certain quota...if you cant see the pics...its been reached. But It gets refreshed every day or so...so just give it a little time and the supply will catch up with the demand.

Originally posted by Murcielago
yeah...give it time...My yahoo geocities account has a certain quota...if you cant see the pics...its been reached. But It gets refreshed every day or so...so just give it a little time and the supply will catch up with the demand.

should use photobucket.com its alot better than wat u using. i dink it has no quotas.

Zaphod58, the project I think you were refering to was the Mission Adaptive Wing (MAW) bolted onto a F1-11 which had all the flaps, slats etc mounted inside the skin of the wing which was flexable thus leaving no joints or gaps anywhere on the wing. Don't know how successful the project was but it would of helped a steathy design!

Sv out!

I guess a derivative of these would be a replacement for the aurora...

Yeah that's the one I was thinking about. I heard they were testing it, but I never heard anyting more about it after that. I kinda miss the 111s now. They were some of the first planes I got to be around when my father was stationed at Pease AFB NH. I watched one crash one day, and got yelled at for lying when I told my mother about it. lol.

Cool, It'l be nice to see it flying...

the plane that zaphod was refering to would be pretty sweet for stealth. put a skin over the plane coat it in RAM and with no cracks etc you would be able to find a single angle to bounce and radar back.

[edit on 7-7-2005 by Canada_EH]

Just found more info on the MAW

Quote from X-Planes site

"Over a span of about 23 years from 1967 to about 1990, records indicate around six General Dynamic F-111 Aardvark aircraft at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. During this time span, four areas of significant flight testing stand out. The first tests occurred during the late 1960s when NASA worked on evaluating problems with the early F-111A (#63- 9771 and #63-9777) for the Air Force and Navy. The early 1970s through the late 1980s brought the second and third phases of testing with an on-going effort to improve the F-111A (#63-9778). The second phase called transonic aircraft technology (TACT/F-111A) added an highly efficient supercritical wing and later the third phase applied advanced wing (Mission Adaptive Wing-MAW) flight control technologies and was called Advanced Fighter Technology Integration (AFTI/F-111A). The fourth effort, utilizing an F-111E (#67-0115), ran from 1973 to 1976, and used an engine with an electronic control system (fly-by-wire) in place of the traditional hydro-mechanical system. This program called the integrated propulsion control system (IPCS) helped validate the Digital Electronic Engine Control (DEEC) concept."

"With the phasing out of the TACT program came a renewed effort by the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory to extended supercritical wing technology to a higher level of performance. A joint NASA and Air Force program called Advanced Fighter Technology Integration (AFTI) was born. In the early 1980s the supercritical wing on the F-111A aircraft was replaced with a wing built by Boeing Aircraft Company System called a “mission adaptive wing” (MAW). This wing had an internal mechanism to flex the outer wing skin and produce a high camber section for subsonic speeds, a supercritical section for transonic speeds, and symmetrical section for supersonic speeds. The surface irregularities from leading edge slates was eliminated and trailing edge flap effects reduced. The use of flexible wing skins to produce a smooth upper surface brought this wing a little closer in concept to that of a bird. A digital flight control system provided automatic changes to the wing geometry. The system had four automatic control modes: (1) Maneuver Camber Control - adjusting camber shape for peak aerodynamic efficiency; (2) Cruise Camber Control - for maximum speed at any altitude and power setting; (3) Maneuver Load Control - providing the highest possible aircraft load factor (4) Maneuver Enhancement Alleviation - in part attempting to reduce the effects of gusts on airplane ride. The AFTI/F-111 MAW system had 59 flights from 1985 through 1988. The flight test data showed a drag reduction of around 7 percent at the wing design cruise point to over 20 percent at an off-design condition. The four automatic modes were tested in flight with satisfactory results."

No mention of any steath improvements but the results might of been classified.

Hopefully this picture will give you an idea of what the wing looked like!



Sv Out!

looks like the pic didn't work eh. anyways now that you posted all of that SV whats your take on it?

Originally posted by iris_failsafe
I guess a derivative of these would be a replacement for the aurora...

1)You talk as if you're sure the Aurora Project is even real.
2)Bomber??? Aurora project was supposedly based around reconnaissance if it is even real.

Shattered OUT...

Sorry about the pic, don't know what happened to it! Anyway all the info and lots of pictures can be found on the X-plane data site.

As for my take on the project I know from having worked on various military aircraft for over 26 years (14 of them being on the Tornado) that the flexable wing covering would need to be very hard wearing and able to stand up to extremes of temperature and abuse by "linies" (aircraft mechanics/fitters).

I have seen many an intermittant fault fault diagnosed by hitting the pylon or area of the aircraft with a large rubber chock!!!!!

Access panels would have to be carefully designed and positioned in the wing so as to enable easy access to inner components and for adjustments to the various actuators and screwjacks required to move the various elerments of the wing to the desired positions/angles of attack.

All this is probably not required now anyway as material design and construction has advanced so rapidly in the years since the MAW flew that a flying brick could be made steathy!

So I think it was a good idea but material and aircraft design technology has probably overtaken the MAW concept.........either that or it has gone a very deep shade of black!

Sv Out!

Hey, wooden chocks make great attitude adjusters for a cranky plane. I personally haven't used them, but I know others that have occasionally. It's amazing how quick the plane starts to behave after you smack it around a little.