A resin film-infused composite winglet is undergoing lightning strike tests under the €79 million ($92 million), four-year Aircraft Wing with Advanced Technology Operation (Awiator) project, a European Union Fifth Framework research programme.
The main lightning test took place on 30 November at the Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire, UK. The winglet will also undergo birdstrike tests during the first week in January, in the run-up to Awiator’s conclusion in July 2006. The same winglet was test-flown in 2003 aboard an Airbus A340.
“Following the flight test, the next stage of the design and manufacturing activity was to create an all-composite assembly without using any jigs, and take it through the certification test for lightning strike and birdstrike,” says GKN Aerospace technical director Philip Grainger.
Meanwhile, finite-element analysis dynamic crash simulations are under way to predict the winglet’s performance in the event of a birdstrike.
The birdstrike rig has been designed and is being installed in Farnborough.
As well as composite winglets, Awiator is evaluating methods of reducing wake vortices and noise, and is investigating wing deformation measurements and flight-control laws using existing and new control surfaces.
ROB COPPINGER/LONDON
Source: Flight International
