Towards landing a deep-stalled flying-wing in a powered flat spin: a proof of concept

Flying-wings show great potential for a vast number of applications, in both commercial and military sectors, thanks to their long range and fast forward flight, but suffer due to their lack of vertical take-off and landing capabilities. This paper presents a proof of concept for a novel landing method for a conventional flying wing that does...

Reinforcement Learning for Flight Control of the Flying V

Recent research on the Flying V - a flying-wing long-range passenger aircraft - shows that its airframe design is 25% more aerodynamically efficient than a conventional tube-and-wing airframe. The Flying V is therefore a promising contribution towards reduction in climate impact of long-haul flights. However, some design aspects of the Flying V...

Improving the Flying V Directional Control Power by the Implementation of Split Flaps

This thesis is performed with the aim to investigate whether split flaps can be a feasible solution for increasing the Flying V directional control power. In order to do so, a set of wind tunnel experiments have been concluded with a 4.6% half wing model in the Open-Jet-Facility at the Delft University of Technology. Here, several split flap...

Design of a Flying V Subsonic Transport

Ten years after the initial sketches of the Flying V were made, we intend to give an overview of the development of this concept until the present day. The Flying V is a new concept for an efficient aircraft. It is a pure flying wing which includes a V-shaped passenger cabin. In this work, we describe how the concept developed - from the first...

Experimental Investigation into the Effect of Aerodynamic Add-ons on the Aerodynamic Characteristics of the Flying V

This research has been performed with the purpose of understanding the cause of the unstable pitch break experienced by the Flying V at a lift coefficient of CL = 0.95. Without understanding and possibly elimination of the pitch break, the flying V’s usable maximum lift coefficient is lower and the pitching moment behavior and gust response...

Engine Integration of the Flying V: Quantification of Engine Integration Effects using Wind Tunnel Experiments

An experimental investigation was done regarding the propulsion system and airframe integration issues associated with the novel Flying V configuration. The experimental investigations involved a series of wind tunnel tests with a 4.6% scale half model, conducted in the TU Delft OJF low speed wind tunnel. Balance measurements allowed significant...

Numerical Investigation of the Influence of Ground Effect on the FV Aircraft: Influence of Ground Effect on the Flying V Aircraft

In order to meet the growing market demands of quieter, more aerodynamically efficient aircrafts, manufacturers constantly strive to innovate and optimize their designs. Over the years however, the extent of innovation related to the conventional 'tubular fuselage' configurations have somewhat reached a stalemate as the gains obtained have only...

Analysis of the flight characteristics of a highly swept cranked flying wing by means of an experimental test

The Flying V is a concept proposed and patented by Benad and Airbus Operations GmbH, which is a flying wing aircraft in the shape of the letter V. Multiple researches already showed promising results, with a 25% increased lift over drag ratio compared to conventional aircraft like the Airbus A350-900. Before research of sub-scale flight testing...

Engine-Airframe Integration for the Flying-V

The Flying-V is a novel flying wing concept where the main lifting surface has been fully integrated with the passenger cabin. Previous studies have focused on the aerodynamic and structural design of the airframe; but, prior to determining which engine-airframe integration alternative is most beneficial (e.g. boundary layer ingestion, distributed...

Development, Model Generation and Analysis of a Flying V Structure Concept

The Flying V, a concept aircraft configuration, has been proposed by Airbus and TU Berlin. The initial indications of potential improvements in performance over conventional aircraft gave rise to a continuation of the research. For this, the mass characteristics of the configuration must be explored. <br/><br/>A primary structure concept is...