Disclosed herein is a VTOL tilt-wing aircraft that serves as a 4-6 passenger airliner for scheduled service between city centers and that is optimized for travel distances from 100-500 miles fully loaded with passengers and fuel. The VTOL aircraft solves technical, cost, and time problems inherent in other forms of transportation, including, but not limited to, rail, passenger airlines, and helicopters. The VTOL aircraft (1) takes off and lands like a helicopter, (2) flies fast like a jet, and (3) costs less than or comparable to a helicopter.

An aircraft and an aircraft wing assembly for an aircraft. The wing assembly includes a wing body assembly including a wing body; and at least one protruding portion connected to the wing body. The protruding portion extends aftwardly from an aft side of the wing body assembly, a leading edge of the wing body assembly defining a leading edge line, a trailing edge of the wing body assembly defining a trailing edge line extending between the inboard end and the outboard end, the trailing edge including a trailing edge of the protruding portion, the trailing edge line being a smooth line, a chord distance being defined longitudinally from the leading edge line to the trailing edge line, the chord distance at a center of the protruding portion being greater than the chord distance inboard of protruding portion and outboard of the protruding portion.

A temperature monitoring unit may be removably installed inside an aircraft wing structure for monitoring temperature conditions along the span of the wing. The wing structure has a temperature-sensitive device (162) for monitoring a temperature condition, which is attached to a support frame (173). The support frame and attached temperature-sensitive device may be installed as a unit within the wing structure. The support frame may be configured for sliding engagement inside the wing structure, for example, with a set of tracks.

An airfoil including: an airfoil portion having an airfoil surface; and a communication hole extending at least in the airfoil portion and a first opening open in the airfoil surface, through which the first opening is communicated with a second opening provided in a portion of the airfoil. On a cross-section perpendicular to the spanwise direction through a position of the first opening of the spanwise direction, an angle A1 satisfying a condition (a) exists within an angle range −10 degrees to 10 degrees with respect to an extension line obtained by extending a camber line of the airfoil portion from a leading edge. The condition (a) is a static pressure at a position of the first opening is equal to a static pressure at a position of the second opening when the airfoil portion receives a fluid flow from a direction of the angle A1 toward the leading edge.

An apparatus is provided for analysis of a leading edge rib of a fixed leading edge section of an aircraft wing. The apparatus may identify geometric or inertial properties of a plurality of stiffeners of the rib in which respective stiffeners are represented by a collection of geometry within a solid model of the rib, and perform an analysis to predict a failure rate of the leading edge rib under an external load. From the failure rate, the apparatus may determine a structural integrity of the leading edge rib under the external load. Identifying the properties may include, extracting a section cut of the geometry that corresponds to and has one or more properties of the respective stiffener, and identifying the properties of the cross-section and thereby the respective stiffener based on a correlation of the cross-section to a generic profile of a plurality of different cross-sections.

Various embodiments of an airfoil and machines with airfoils are disclosed. The airfoils include a thicker leading airfoil portion and a thinner trailing airfoil portion. In one embodiment, the leading airfoil portion is formed by bending a body of the airfoil back toward itself. In another embodiment, the leading airfoil portion has a solid geometry and includes two elliptic surfaces. To prevent detachment of airflow, the leading airfoil portion includes at least two arc portions or surfaces that act to direct the airflow down to the trailing airfoil portion in a manner that stabilizes vortexes that may form in the region of changing thickness.

A wing structure for a supersonic aircraft including a pair of supersonic wave-tripping channels formed on each of two laterally extending wings of the supersonic aircraft, wherein each of the pair of supersonic wave-tripping channels extend in a span-wise direction of the wings respectively, wherein an upper supersonic wave-tripping channel of the pair of supersonic wave-tripping channels is disposed on an upper surface of each of the wings and a lower supersonic wave-tripping channel of the pair of supersonic wave-tripping channels is disposed on a lower surface of each of the wings, wherein the upper supersonic wave-tripping channel and the lower supersonic wave-tripping channel are set back from a leading edge of the wings respectively.

A system for suction of the boundary layer of a wing and protection against icing of this wing includes a wall including micro-perforations and delimiting a leading edge extended by a pressure-side wall and by a suction-side wall. The system also includes a perforated tube running along the leading edge, an exhaust duction for sucking air from this tube in order to suck the boundary layer successively via the micro-perforations of the wall and via the perforations of the tube, and a supply duct for blowing hot air into this perforated tube during a phase of protection against icing, this hot air being discharged successively via the perforations of the tube and via the micro-perforations of the wall.

Various embodiments of an airfoil and machines with airfoils are disclosed. The airfoils include a thicker leading airfoil portion and a thinner trailing airfoil portion. In one embodiment, the leading airfoil portion is formed by bending a body of the airfoil back toward itself. In another embodiment, the leading airfoil portion has a solid geometry and includes two elliptic surfaces. To prevent detachment of airflow, the leading airfoil portion includes at least two arc portions or surfaces that act to direct the airflow down to the trailing airfoil portion in a manner that stabilizes vortexes that may form in the region of changing thickness.