Material Memory Aircraft Wing Filament Strategy
Not long ago, I was reading a very interesting article in Medical Xpress online news which was talking about how human muscles and the muscles in most species use a filament strategy whereby the filament is pumped full of blood in between the muscle as it is flexed, and how the filament recedes while it is at rest.
It seems if we are creating material memory strategies from polymers and artificial muscles, we might better employ this strategy.
It makes sense to look at what nature and evolution has done and all the various strategies we might use.
Often engineers are bio inspired with their innovations, concepts, inventions, and ideas they come up with.
In this case I wouldn't be the first one to notice this filament strategy, or wish to apply it to potential applications in the real world such as in aviation.
After all, birds to flap their wings and use muscles, so why not start there.
Birds also flexed their wings to get more lift, and on aircraft we have a leading-edge of the wing which has a specific amount of camber to it which is the best compromise for the aircraft's purpose.
For instance a very fat wing is able to carry greater loads take off in shorter distances, as it provides more lift.
Of course by the same token it is creating more drag so it isn't very good for higher speeds.
We really do need the best of all worlds, and we need material memory in the aircraft's leading edge camber so it can be large during take-off, and thinner once airborne and we need to increase speed.
An interesting article in Plastics Today titled; "Graphene, acrylic elastomer team to produce artificial muscles, by Doug Smock, published on February 4, 2013 suggests maybe we might find use for this new material and strategy.
Why not apply this new material for the filament in the middle of the leading edge of an aircraft? The filament would hold the leading-edge at the fattest point for take-off, and once it took off that filament would slide a fluid or less dense material back into the center of the wing allowing that leading-edge to be greatly reduced in size and shape.
What a huge benefit for STOL or short takeoff and landing aircraft, this would mean less power to take-off and break the friction of the ground, carry more weight in fuel in the beginning stages of flight, and then once up to speed have the potential to go supersonic.
Does anyone dare try to experiment with this? Maybe we need some funding here because this may solve all the problems we face in aviation today with regard to efficiency feel costs, and safety.
Please consider all this and think on it.
It seems if we are creating material memory strategies from polymers and artificial muscles, we might better employ this strategy.
It makes sense to look at what nature and evolution has done and all the various strategies we might use.
Often engineers are bio inspired with their innovations, concepts, inventions, and ideas they come up with.
In this case I wouldn't be the first one to notice this filament strategy, or wish to apply it to potential applications in the real world such as in aviation.
After all, birds to flap their wings and use muscles, so why not start there.
Birds also flexed their wings to get more lift, and on aircraft we have a leading-edge of the wing which has a specific amount of camber to it which is the best compromise for the aircraft's purpose.
For instance a very fat wing is able to carry greater loads take off in shorter distances, as it provides more lift.
Of course by the same token it is creating more drag so it isn't very good for higher speeds.
We really do need the best of all worlds, and we need material memory in the aircraft's leading edge camber so it can be large during take-off, and thinner once airborne and we need to increase speed.
An interesting article in Plastics Today titled; "Graphene, acrylic elastomer team to produce artificial muscles, by Doug Smock, published on February 4, 2013 suggests maybe we might find use for this new material and strategy.
Why not apply this new material for the filament in the middle of the leading edge of an aircraft? The filament would hold the leading-edge at the fattest point for take-off, and once it took off that filament would slide a fluid or less dense material back into the center of the wing allowing that leading-edge to be greatly reduced in size and shape.
What a huge benefit for STOL or short takeoff and landing aircraft, this would mean less power to take-off and break the friction of the ground, carry more weight in fuel in the beginning stages of flight, and then once up to speed have the potential to go supersonic.
Does anyone dare try to experiment with this? Maybe we need some funding here because this may solve all the problems we face in aviation today with regard to efficiency feel costs, and safety.
Please consider all this and think on it.