Civil aviation has instilled new perceptions of a smaller world, creating new opportunities for trade, exchange of cultures and travelling for leisure. However, it also brought with it an unforeseen impact on the environment. Aviation currently contributes to about 3·5% of the global warming attributed from human activities. With the forecasted rate of growth, this is expected to rise to about 15% over the next 50 years. Although it is projected that the annual improvements in aircraft fuel efficiency are of the order of 1-2%, it is suggested that the current gas turbine design is fully exploited and further improvements are difficult to achieve. A new generation of aero engine core concepts that can operate at higher thermal efficiencies and lower emissions is required. One possibility of achieving higher core efficiencies is through the use of an inter-cooled (IC) core at high overall pressure ratios (OPR). The concept engine, expected to enter into service around 2020, will make use of a conventional heat exchanger (HEX) for the intercooler. This paper seeks to introduce a heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHEX) as an alternative design of the intercooler. The proposed HPHEX design takes advantage of the convenience of the geometry of miniature heat pipes to provide a reduction in pressure losses and weight when compared to conventional HEX. The HPHEX will be made of a number of stages, each stage being made of a large number of miniature heat pipes in radial configuration, that will extend from the inter-compressor duct to the bypass split, thus eliminating any ducting to and from the intercooler. This design offers up to 32% reduction in hot pressure losses, 34% reduction in cold pressure losses and over 41% reduction in weight.

With the ever-increasing pressure for cleaner and more fuel efficient aero engines, gas turbine manufacturers are faced with a big challenge which they are bound to accept and act upon. The path from current high bypass ratio (BPR) engines to ultra high BPR engines via geared turbo fans will enable a significant reduction in SFC and CO2 emissions. However, in order to reach the emission levels set by the advisory council for aeronautics research in Europe (ACARE), the introduction of more complex cycles that can operate at higher thermal efficiencies is required. Studies have shown that one possibility of achieving higher core efficiencies and hence lower SFC is through the use of an intercooled recuperated (ICR) core. The concept engine, expected to enter into service around 2020, will make use of a conventional fin plate heat exchangers (HEX) for the intercooler and a tube type HEX as the recuperator. Although the introduction of these two components promises a significant reduction in SFC levels, they will give also rise to higher engine complexity, pressure losses and additional weight. Thus, the performance of the engine relies not only on the behaviour of the usual gas turbine components, but will be heavily dependent on the two heat exchangers. This paper seeks to introduce a heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHEX) as alternative designs for the intercooler and the recuperator. The proposed HPHEX designs for application in an ICR aero engine take advantage of the convenience of the geometry of miniature heat pipes to provide a reduction in pressure losses and weight when compared to conventional HEX. The proposed HPHEX intercooler design eliminates any ducting to and from the intercooler, offering up to 32% reduction in hot pressure losses, 34% reduction in cold pressure losses and over 41% reduction in intercooler weight. On the other hand the proposed HPHEX recuperator design can offer 6% improvement in performance, while offering 36% reduction in cold pressure losses, up to 80% reduction in hot pressure losses and over 31% reduction in weight. An ICR using HPHEX for the intercooler and recueprator may offer up to 2·5% increase in net thrust, while still offering 3% reduction in SFC and up to 7·7% reduction in NOX severity parameter, when compared to the ICR using conventional HEX.

Vision-based control is being aggressively pursued for autonomous systems. Such control is particularly valuable for path planning to achieve mission objectives like target tracking and obstacle avoidance. This paper presents a multi-rate strategy that utilises a fast-rate optic flow approach and a slow-rate scene reconstruction approach. The vehicle uses scene reconstruction to generate an accurate map for path planning; however, optic flow is used to avoid obstacles while the scene reconstruction is computed. A switch element is used in the feedback path to determine whether information relating to the reconstructed map or the optical flow should be used for navigation. The resulting controller is able to generate flight trajectories and perform obstacle avoidance within a computational cost which is reasonable given performance demands and computational resources on a wide range of aircraft. A simulation demonstrates the performance of an aircraft that uses the multi-rate controller to avoid an obstacle which is only observed after a turn. Essentially, the fast-rate optic flow indicates the presence of the obstacle during the time that slow-rate scene reconstruction is being performed. The resulting flight path is able to follow mission objectives and avoid a collision.

This research aims to develop a method which predicts the task demand load as experienced by pilots while flying an area navigation (RNAV) approach. First, this will yield insight in which aspects of an approach actually influence pilot task demand load. And second, during the design of approaches this method can be used to rapidly evaluate a potential approach and to ‘optimise’ an approach with respect to pilot task demand load. During previous research, focusing on approaches flown with a B747, a list of factors that influence pilot task demand load has been obtained, as well as a method to keep pilot task demand load at an acceptable level. The method consists of seven guidelines to be adhered to during approach design. This paper shows that the list of factors and the method do not only apply to a B747 aircraft but are generally applicable to other aircraft as well. This is underpinned by results from both flight simulator tests and real flight tests with TU Delft’s Cessna Citation laboratory aircraft. Additionally, it is shown that there are no discrepancies between the list of factors influencing pilot task demand load resulting from the flight simulator tests and the list of factors resulting from the real flight tests.

Three-component laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) has been used to measure the complex flow distributions over the suction surface of a symmetrical 40°swept wing model at an angle of incidence of 9° and for the relatively low Reynolds number (based on the root chord) of 2·1 × 105. Emphasis was placed on the separation and reattachment of the boundary-layer flow, and the formation of vortical structures.

The experimental programme now described utilised a large wind tunnel and several advanced measurement techniques to produce an unusually detailed collection of results. Thus, data are presented here for the behaviour of the three-dimensional boundary layer developing on the suction surface at positions from 30% to 90% semi-span. These results show the spatial variations of the time-averaged mean and fluctuating velocity components in three orthogonal directions, including the distributions of the normal and shear stress levels. Further analysis has enabled the time-averaged vortical structures to be identified and compared with the results of surface flow visualisation.

Flow over a swept wing poses many challenges for the computational modeller. The underlying aim, here, therefore, was to produce a data archive for the validation of computer predictions. As will be shown, some of the experimental results have already been used in this way and the data base is available for use by other workers.