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 shock wave suppression device is configured to suppress a shock wave generated on a blade surface of a blade, the shock wave suppression device including a bump cover provided to follow the blade surface and deformable to protrude outward from the blade surface, and a displacing unit configured to displace the bump cover between a steady state to follow the blade surface and a deformed state to protrude outward from the blade surface. The bump cover has a curved shape in the deformed state configured to be a continuous surface from an upstream side to a downstream side in a flow direction of a fluid on the blade surface.

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 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.

A free-streamline airfoil includes a lower surface which is flat or contoured, and an upper surface that is curved or made of discrete flat elements approximating a curved surface, the upper surface presenting a cavity, a cavity width in an airfoil chordwise direction shorter than the airfoil chord, a position and depth of the cavity triggering a turbulent flow over the airfoil's suction side while preserving the airfoil physical integrity.

A wing includes: an inner end configured to be coupled to a fuselage of an aircraft; an inboard section extending from the inner end; a fixed leading edge of the inboard section having a drooped contour positioned along at least a portion thereof; and an outboard section extending from the inboard section.

A method for the control of a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft which reduces the acoustic profile of the rotary airfoil in hover for VTOL applications. The rotary airfoil incurs an efficiency penalty in order to improve the acoustic performance during hover. The aircraft operates the rotary airfoils of the propeller during hover in the hover angle of attack range, and the aircraft operates the rotary airfoils during forward flight in the forward angle of attack range.

A flow body for an aircraft includes a skin having a first flow surface, having a flow influencing section with at least one first layer, at least one separator layer, at least one third layer, and at least one base layer. The first layer includes lithiated carbon fibers embedded into a matrix to form a negative electrode. The third layer includes carbon fibers with an electrode active material coating to form a positive electrode. The separator layer includes a non-conductive material for electrically isolating the first layer and the third layer from each other. The flow influencing section is configured for selectively raising a region of the arrangement of first layer, separator layer and third layer from the base layer upon application of a voltage between the first and third layers to form a bump on the flow body.

An aircraft includes a fuselage and a pair of wings. Each wing is coupled to the fuselage at a wing-fuselage joint, and is supported by a strut coupled to the fuselage at a strut-fuselage joint and coupled to the wing at a strut-wing joint. The strut-fuselage joint is located below and at least partially aft of the wing-fuselage joint. The wing generates a lifting force when air passes over the wing. The lifting force induces a vertical moment about the wing-fuselage joint due to the location of the strut-fuselage joint below and at least partially aft of the wing-fuselage joint. The wing and/or the strut has a structural arrangement configured to counteract the vertical moment.

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.