A manufacture configured to and process for inhibiting, from wear, a lock in a latching system comprising: a gland surrounding an actuator translating the lock through: a first fixed lock receptor and a moveable lock receptor. The manufacture and process include: inhibiting a skewing, of a lock central axis of the lock with the lock translating through the first opening and the opening in the moveable lock receptor, away from substantially aligning with: a first central axis of a first opening of the first fixed lock receptor, and an actuator central axis of the actuator, via fitting a first translation guide into the first fixed lock receptor. Also included is inhibiting: wear of a gland around an actuator in the lock while translating, and leaking, past the gland, of an actuator fluid within the lock; and skewing of an actuator central axis of the actuator.

A split winglet configured for attachment to a wing tip of a wing. The split winglet may include an upper winglet extending from the wing tip above a chord plane of the wing and a ventral fin projecting below the chord plane. The upper winglet and the ventral fin may include tip configurations. At least one of the upper winglet tip configuration and the ventral fin tip configuration may be provided by a curved blade cap attached thereto. The curved blade cap may include a leading edge having a first curve with a first radius, and a trailing edge having a second curve with a second radius different from the first radius. The curved blade cap may also include a distal segment oblique to the first curve and the second curve.

An aircraft wing comprises a fixed wing, and a wing tip device at the tip thereof. The wing tip device is configurable between (i) a flight configuration for use during flight, and (ii) a ground configuration for use during ground based operations. In the ground configuration with span of the wing is reduced. The wing further comprises a locking mechanism including a locking pin with a longitudinal axis, the locking pin associated with one of the fixed wing and the wing tip device, and a bush associated with the other of the fixed wing and wing tip device, the bush configured to receive the locking pin. The bush is located within a bush housing arranged to allow relative movement of the bush in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the locking pin when the locking pin is received within the bush.

Stop pads for aircraft folding wing tips are described herein. An example aircraft wing includes a fixed wing portion and a wing tip moveably coupled to the fixed wing portion about a hinge axis. The wing tip is moveable between an extended position and a folded position. The aircraft wing also includes a first stop pad coupled to the fixed wing portion, the first stop pad having a first contact surface, and a second stop pad coupled to the wing tip, the second stop pad having a second contact surface. The first and second contact surfaces are to engage each other when the wing tip is in the extended position. A contact plane between the first and second contact surfaces is coplanar with the hinge axis.

A wingtip device for a wing is provided. The wingtip device has an inner end and an outer end, and in which the local dihedral of the wingtip device increases or reduces from the inner end to the outer end, with a pressure-side flow surface and a suction-side flow surface. At least two ancillary wing sections are arranged on the wingtip device, projecting in each case from the flow surface of the wingtip device. The ancillary wing sections in each case form an interface with the surface of the wingtip device; which interfaces are located spaced apart from one another. A wing with such a wingtip device is also provided.

Example active flow control systems and methods for aircraft are described herein. An example active flow control system includes a plurality of nozzles arranged in an array across a surface of an aircraft. The nozzles are oriented to eject air across the surface to reduce airflow separation. The active flow control system also includes an air source coupled to the nozzles and a controller to activate the nozzles to eject air from the air source in sequence from outboard to inboard and then from inboard to outboard to create a wave of air moving from outboard to inboard and then from inboard to outboard across the surface.

A method of improving performance of an aircraft, including attaching a wing tip to a wing of the aircraft. The wing tip includes a winglet and a ventral fin. The winglet includes a winglet leading edge, a winglet trailing edge, an adapter section, a transition section attached to the adapter section, a blade section attached to the transition section, and a first tip section attached to the blade section. The ventral fin is coupled to the winglet at an attachment location adjacent the transition section. The ventral fin includes a second tip section. The wing has a wing leading edge and a wing trailing edge in a wing chord plane. Attaching the wing tip to the wing includes connecting the adapter section to the wing such that the winglet leading edge continuously transitions from the wing leading edge, and the winglet trailing edge continuously transitions from the wing trailing edge.

An active winglet includes a body portion substantially parallel to a wing of an aircraft, as if it were an extension of the wing. The body portion is attachable to an aircraft wing and includes a controllable airflow modification device coupled thereto. By virtue of having a controllable airflow modification device, the winglet is capable of adjusting a control surface of the controllable airflow modification device in response to in-flight conditions, to reduce wing loads, increase range, and/or increase efficiency.

Thermally configurable structural elements (e.g., aircraft components such as an aircraft winglet spar) capable of assuming at least first and second structural configurations are provided whereby the structural element includes an integral actuation mechanism may be formed of sintered shape memory alloy (SMA) particles and sintered non-SMA particles formed by an additive layer manufacturing (ALM) process, such as 3D printing. The ALM process thereby provides by at least one thermally configurable region, and at least one non-thermally configurable region which is unitarily contiguous with the at least one thermally configurable region. The at least one thermally configurable region is capable of assuming at least first and second positional orientations in response to the presence or absence of a thermal input to thereby cause the structural element to assume the at least first and second structural configurations, respectively.

An aircraft is described that comprises: a fuselage with a first axis of longitudinal extension; and a tail portion arranged at a tail end of the fuselage; the tail portion comprises two surfaces arranged in a V-shape, inclined to each other and symmetrical with respect to the first axis; each surface comprises an associated winglet arranged transversely with respect to the surface and fixed with respect to the surface.