The British BAE Systems has successfully completed the first phase of flight trials with Magma – a small scale unmanned aerial vehicle with a unique blown-air system. According to the company, the UAV relies solely on blown air drawn from its engine, expelled from several exhausts over its wings to provide control for the aircraft. The developers have deemed a series of test flights a success.

Today, modern aircraft are controlled by aerodynamic parts driven by electrical, mechanical or hydraulic systems. In other words, conventional aircraft rely on a complex array of flaps, ailerons and other control surfaces on the trailing edge of the wing. By moving synchronously, such parts can provide control of the aircraft pitch.

Magma uses the system which takes air from the aircraft engine and blows it through the trailing edge of the wing and air jets inside the nozzle. There are narrow slots around a specially shaped wing tailing edge. Air supersonically blown through them allows for the direction of the aircraft to be changed.

The Magma drone is designed using the ‘flap-free’ technology. Moving ailerons are replaced by narrow slots on its wing. Air jets inside the engine nozzle allow for the deflection of the exhaust gases. This is what developers from BAE Systems call Fluidic Thrust Vectoring.

The flight trials took place in the skies above north-west Wales. The drone successfully completed several test flights. The drone has been tested from 2017. Previously, the aircraft were controlled by moving ailerons. During the new series of tests the drone still relied on a flap system to take off and land, but once in the air the system was no longer in operation.

During previous trial flights the engineers checked operation of the blown-air system and gradually removed moving control surfaces from the aircraft design. The design of the drone tested this year has no mechanically moving control surfaces at all.

According to BAE Systems, by removing the need for moving surfaces the two technologies would allow for better performing aircraft that are lighter, more reliable and cheaper to operate. BAE Systems has been working on a ‘blown air’ drone since the second half of the 2000s. In 2010, BAE Systems had already presented a similar aircraft, called the Demon.

Source: Nplus1

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