Learn how this team of NATO experts is developing technology that will make military aircraft less detectable.
Synopsis
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.
Footage includes various shots of NATO experts working on, and testing, a prototype unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Transcript
Various shots - model display of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
TEXT - NEW TECHNOLOGY IS BEING DEVELOPED
Various shots - aircraft takes off and in air
TEXT - TO MAKE MILITARY AIRCRAFT LESS DETECTABLE
TEXT - Dr Douglas Smith, US Air Force Office of Scientific Research -- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH)— DR DOUGLAS SMITH, US AIR FORCE OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH “Typically when you’re flying an airplane, you’re deflecting control surfaces in order to manoeuvre or to reject wind gusts. These deflecting surfaces make the airplane more vulnerable to being detected by hostile forces.”
GFX - demonstrating how wind gusts affect the movements of an aircraft
Various shots - fighter jets on airfield
Various shots - NATO experts working in workshop
TEXT - A NATO TASK GROUP HAS BUILT AN UNMANNED AIRCRAFT
Various shots - UAV is wheeled out of hangar and taken to launch site
TEXT - WHICH LEAVES THESE SURFACES REDUNDANT
Various shots - UAV is launched and flying at test site
TEXT - Daniel Miller, Lockheed Martin
--SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH)— DANIEL MILLER, LOCKHEED MARTIN “We’re looking at modern flow control techniques, which permit you, potentially, to be able to control the airplane in flight, without the use of any kinds of mechanical surfaces. And we do that with a distributed array of tiny little jets on the surface and trick the aerodynamics into believing that a flap’s been deployed where in fact, it’s not been deployed.”
Various shots - UAV in flight
TEXT - THIS PROJECT IS THE WORK OF
US Air Force Office of Scientific Research US Air Force Academy Illinois Institute of Technology Lockheed Martin
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