Birds' Feathers Inspire Turbulence-Reduction System

Oct-29-14 Air travel may soon get a bit less stressful with the development of a feather-inspired sensor system that helps reduce airplane turbulence.

The system, developed by a team at RMIT University in Australia, is based on the phase-advanced sensing concept, which senses disturbances in flow before they affect the aircraft and cause it to move. These disturbances can be sensed in advance by monitoring the pressure on the front edge of the wing or even by measuring the gusts before they hit the wing. This early warning, though slim, allows the plane to adjust to the oncoming gusts and helps prevent it from jostling about.

The system works best on small planes, which are the most affected by turbulence, but could also be beneficial to larger planes as well.

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[PHYS.ORG]
[RMIT.EDU.AU]

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