This contribution is based on the Lanchester Lecture of the Royal Aeronautical Society held in Manchester, UK, in October 2009. The lecture reflected on further possible perspectives for aeronautical research, in particular with respect to aerodynamics. The air transport system of today has matured to very high performance and safety standards. However, due to the ongoing global developments of economy and ecology, new challenges have to be faced. Thus, the relevance of all engineering aeronautical disciplines contributing to the final aircraft configuration is now closely scrutinised, and especially aerodynamics is challenged whether any investment in further research is still justified. In this contribution, it is argued that, when carefully exploited, aerodynamics still offers a substantial technological perspective, well beyond the concepts for the next generation of aircraft as currently being pursued. As an example, the aerodynamics of a forward swept-wing are discussed and it is outlined that, when combining the transonic characteristics of a forward swept-wing with the advantages of natural laminar-flow, considerable improvements in efficiency may be gained. However, this potential may only be leveraged through a strategic, long-term orientation of fundamental and applied research.

Intelligent shape optimisation architecture is developed, validated and applied in the design of high-altitude long endurance aerofoil (HALE). The direct numeric optimisation (DNO) approach integrating a geometrical shape parameterisation model coupled to a validated flow solver and a population based search algorithm are applied in the design process. The merit of the DNO methodology is measured by computational time efficiency and feasibility of the optimal solution. Gradient based optimisers are not suitable for multi-modal solution topologies. Thus, a novel particle swarm optimiser with adaptive mutation (AM-PSO) is developed. The effect of applying the PARSEC and a modified variant of the original function, as a shape parameterisation model on the global optimal is verified. Optimisation efficiency is addressed by mapping the solution topology for HALE aerofoil designs and by computing the sensitivity of aerofoil shape variables on the objective function. Variables with minimal influence are identified and eliminated from shape optimisation simulations. Variable elimination has a negligible effect on the aerodynamics of the global optima, with a significant reduction in design iterations to convergence. A novel data-mining technique is further applied to verify the accuracy of the AM-PSO solutions. The post-processing analysis, to swarm optimisation solutions, indicates a hybrid optimisation methodology with the integration of global and local gradient based search methods, yields a true optima. The findings are consistent for single and multi-point designs.

Loss-of-control upsets during normal flight are one of the most common types of aircraft accident. The study of these accidents reveals common characteristics that suggest areas where training can positively impact the safety of flight.

A variety of causes lead to in-flight upsets, including mechanical failures, wakes, spatial disorientation, and stalls. While most upsets occur fairly rapidly, those resulting from spatial disorientation often occur more slowly. Spatial disorientation upsets in roll have occurred when the flight crew was distracted or thought that the autopilot was on when it was off. Spatial disorientation accidents in pitch also have occurred due to the somatogravic pitch-up illusion. Upsets due to mechanical failure, wakes, and spatial disorientation most often occur at unstalled conditions well within the aerodynamic flight data envelope. However, improper responses can cause the aircraft to enter a stall after the initial upset or, if the initial upset was due to a stall, continue in a stall. Such improper responses include not putting the column forward enough, or pulling back even though this makes the situation worse. These responses may be due to an over-emphasis during training on recovering with ‘minimum loss of height’; hardly relevant where hitting the ground is not a problem. Nearer to the ground, improper responses could be due to the visual cue that has been called ‘ground rush’. At all altitudes, it is crucial to train pilots to reduce angle of attack as a primary part of upset recovery at, or near, stall.

Aircrews are likely to rely on stall protection systems to protect against loss-of-control upsets due to stalls. However, stalls due to airframe icing usually occur at a significantly lower angle-of-attack than stalls that occur with an uncontaminated airframe and, as a result, may occur before the stall protection system reaches the trigger angle-of-attack. Stalls may also occur without warning for uncontaminated airframes when the stall protection system fails. Such cases demonstrate the importance of recognising the stall cues and implementing positive sustained recovery controls promptly, without cues from the stall warning system. Even when the stall warning system does provide warnings, accident/incident history shows that crews may ignore stall warnings and either maintain nose-up controls or fail to execute and sustain positive recovery controls. Accident history also suggests that flight crews can be reluctant to move the pitch control in the nose-down direction when they are stalled and the aircraft is pitched nose low and/or significantly banked.

In each of these scenarios, training might prepare pilots to respond correctly. This paper will present short case studies of several aircraft upset accidents and incidents and explore common threads that suggest areas of training that could prevent future upset accidents and incidents.

Data-driven methodologies based on the restoring force method have been developed over the past few decades for building predictive reduced-order models (ROMs) of nonlinear dynamical systems. These methodologies involve fitting a polynomial expansion of the restoring force in the dominant state variables to observed states of the system. ROMs obtained in this way are usually prone to errors and uncertainties due to the approximate nature of the polynomial expansion and experimental limitations. We develop in this article a stochastic methodology that endows these errors and uncertainties with a probabilistic structure in order to obtain a quantitative description of the proximity between the ROM and the system that it purports to represent. Specifically, we propose an entropy maximization procedure for constructing a multi-variate probability distribution for the coefficients of power-series expansions of restoring forces. An illustration in stochastic aeroelastic stability analysis is provided to demonstrate the proposed framework.

Previously it was demonstrated that gravity is directly responsible for the attenuation of sonic booms as they propagate towards the ground, while the gradient in acoustic impedance has no effect on the wave strength. This was a significant departure from the well accepted acoustic theory and naturally led to questions concerning comparison with experiment and the implications for low boom design. This paper presents a comparison of measured ground signatures of the Northrup-Grumman Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstrator (SSBD) with a method of characteristics extrapolation from a close proximity flight measurement of static pressure under the aircraft. Comparison is also made with Whitham’s theory, extended to include gravity and the ambient temperature variation, as presented in the previous paper. The calculations are both in good agreement with the experimental ground signature. The usual equations that define the acoustic propagation (gravitational body force neglected) are transformed so that the computational algorithms of the extended Whitham theory are applicable. The transformation simplifies the acoustic model and reveals the conditions under which the errors in its prediction will be large. At the Mach number of 1.4, corresponding to the SSBD flight, the error is relatively small and the acoustic prediction is also in close agreement with the ground signature.