Long, slender wings promise major efficiency gains for future passenger jets, but they come with a serious drawback: extreme flexibility that can trigger violent vibrations. Engineers from NASA and Boeing are now working together to solve that problem.
As part of their Integrated Adaptive Wing Technology Maturation collaboration, the teams recently completed wind tunnel testing of a high aspect ratio wing model. These wings are thinner and longer than those on today’s aircraft, reducing drag and fuel burn, but they are also far more susceptible to turbulence, gusts, and structural oscillations.
Testing took place at NASA Langley Research Center’s Transonic Dynamics Tunnel in Virginia using a large scale aircraft model built by NextGen Aeronautics. The model featured a 13 foot wing fitted with 10 movable control surfaces along its trailing edge. By actively adjusting these surfaces during airflow tests, engineers were able to significantly reduce unwanted vibrations.
According to NASA aerospace engineer Jennifer Pinkerton, highly flexible wings experience much stronger responses to gust and maneuver loads. These motions can excite the wing’s natural frequencies and lead to flutter, a dangerous aeroelastic instability where oscillations grow rapidly and can cause structural failure if not controlled.
The tests focused on understanding and suppressing this flutter behavior. Early results show that adaptive control systems developed by NASA and Boeing were highly effective at damping wing motion and improving stability, while still preserving the aerodynamic efficiency benefits of the longer wing design.
The data is now being analyzed and will be shared with the broader aviation industry. The work is part of NASA’s Advanced Air Transport Technology project, which aims to cut fuel consumption and environmental impact in future fixed wing aircraft. If successful, the research could help enable a new generation of ultra efficient commercial jets with wings that are both longer and smarter.