An aircraft includes a body, a wing coupled to and extending from the body, and a strut. The wing includes a wing thickest region bounded by a wing thickest region leading boundary and a wing thickest region trailing boundary. The strut includes a strut thickest region bounded by a strut thickest region leading boundary and a strut thickest region trailing boundary. In a planform view, the wing thickest region overlaps the strut thickest region at an overlap region, where the overlap region including less than fifteen percent of the strut thickest region.

Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to monitor a shock wave proximate a surface of an aircraft are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a first camera at a first location on an aircraft to capture a first image of a surface of the aircraft during a first time period, and capture a second image of the surface during a second time period, a second camera at a second location to capture a third image of the surface during the first time period, and capture a fourth image of the surface during the second time period. The example apparatus further includes a position calculator to identify a first position of a shock wave based on the first and third images, and a second position based on the second and fourth images, and calculate a difference between the first and the second positions, and a command generator to generate a command to control at least one of an actuator and a control surface based on the difference.

A system and method for optimizing winglet airfoil geometries in the presence of interference conditions at cruise Mach speeds. The method includes performing a first analysis on the airfoil at a first Mach speed and a second Mach speed greater than the first Mach speed. The analyses provide resultant values that can include any one or more of a coefficient of lift (CL), a coefficient of drag (CD), and a coefficient of pressure (CP). A desired pressure distribution curve on the airfoil can be specified based on the resultant values. An inverse analysis can then be performed to derive a modified airfoil geometry that corresponds to the desired pressure distribution. The modified airfoil geometry can be incorporated into a blended winglet and analyzed by way of running a CFD++ code to verify improved airfoil performance in a full airplane geometry.

A fixed wing aircraft has a wing with an aerofoil cross-section defining an upper and lower geometric surfaces which meet at a geometric leading edge of the wing. The wing has an upper and lower aerodynamic surfaces while in flight. The upper aerodynamic surface and the lower aerodynamic surface meet at an aerodynamic leading edge at the intersection with an attachment line dividing the air that passes over the upper aerodynamic surface from the air that passes over the lower aerodynamic surface. The lower geometric surface adjacent the geometric leading edge has a roughness strip with a step height of at least 50 microns over the lower geometric surface. The roughness strip is located on the lower aerodynamic surface of the wing when the aircraft is flown at a load factor of 1 g and is located on the upper aerodynamic surface when the load factor is above 1.2 g.

An aircraft portion includes a fuselage oriented in a longitudinal direction, an airfoil made up of at least one pair of wings arranged on either side of the fuselage in a transverse direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction, and an airfoil-fuselage junction fairing at the interface between the airfoil and the fuselage. The junction fairing has, in a vertical plane, a lower profile and, in a horizontal plane, a horizontal profile at the junction of the outer surface of the junction fairing with the convex side of each wing. The horizontal profile and/or the lower profile successively has, in the longitudinal direction, a convex front segment, a concave intermediate segment, and a convex rear segment.

[Object] To provide a wing achieving reduction of friction drag and easy to design and also easy to manufacture and an aircraft including such a wing.

[Solving Means] A wing 1 is typically used as a main wing of an aircraft 100. The wing 1 is a swept-back wing having a swept-back angle A. The wing 1 is configured such that a surface pressure (pressure distribution (Cp)) on an upper surface of a vicinity of a leading edge 11 in a fluid increases from a wing root 17 to a wing tip 15. A cross-flow component of an external streamline of a surface of the wing 1 is reduced in the vicinity of the leading edge 11, and boundary layer transition is not easily induced in the vicinity of the leading edge 11. With this, friction drag caused by cross-flow instability can be reduced.

An aircraft has a fuselage, a wing assembly, and a pair of struts. The wing assembly has a center wing structure and a pair of outer wing structures. The center wing structure is coupled to the fuselage at a wing-fuselage joint, and has a pair of engine mounting locations respectively on opposite sides of a wing centerline. Each of the struts is coupled to the fuselage at a strut-fuselage joint, and to one of the outer wing structures at a strut-wing joint. Each strut-fuselage joint is located below and aft of the wing-fuselage joint. Each outer wing structure is coupled to the center wing structure at a mid-wing joint located no further inboard than the engine mounting location, and no further outboard than the strut-wing joint.

A disclosed method reduces a wave drag on an airfoil traveling at a speed. At least a portion of the airfoil is configured to be selectively moveable between a first position and a second position. The first position is a neutral position, and the second position generates a shock wave near to the leading edge of the airfoil. The method includes the steps of maintaining the airfoil in the first position when the speed is less than a first limit and moving the airfoil to the second position when the speed is greater than a first limit.

An aerodynamic structure comprising a shock bump (3) extending from its surface. The shock bump is asymmetrical about a plane of asymmetry, and the plane of asymmetry: passes through a centre (6) of the shock bump, is parallel with a principal direction of air flow over the structure, and extends at a right angle to the surface of the structure.

Apparatus and articles of manufacture are disclosed of an aircraft comprising: a brace to support a wing of the aircraft, the brace including a first end coupled to the wing and a second end coupled to a fuselage of the aircraft, the brace including: a strut extending between the first end and the second end; and an airfoil having a cavity containing the strut.