Innosuisse is supporting Dufour Aerospace with a grant to verify the aerodynamic design of Dufour’s manned tilt-wing, aEro 3, with a wind tunnel test campaign. The project will be supported by academic partners ZHAW and ETH.
According to the aerospace company:
“Our head aerodynamicist Felix Rubin will lead the test campaign to confirm the aircraft’s aerodynamic behavior through the full flight envelope, especially transition regimes. The project will be supervised by our advisors Prof. Dr. Leonardo Manfriani and Dr. Pierluigi Capone.
“The wind tunnel test campaign builds on our experience with previous small-scale wind tunnel tests, and our VTOL technology demonstrator flight testing. The aerodynamic effects during the transition phase between vertical take off and cruise, and from cruise back to hover, are difficult to fully predict with conventional calculation and simulation methods. This is due to transient aerodynamic phenomena, flow detachments and propeller slipstream interactions.
“We will use the results of the tests to refine the design of aEro 3, and our aerodynamic models and control laws.”
For more information
https://dufour.aero/innosuisse-supports-dufour-aero-3-wind-tunnel-testing/
