Explosive bubbles: Is it really the future of subsonic flow control?

Concerns over global climate change have prompted many countries to re-think about the concept of transport. Indeed, it is of primary importance to reduce impacts of transport on the environment. This is no different for the aerospace industry, which is particularly focused on the idea of greener aircraft, due to the level of fuel consumed by …

INNOVATE and AVIO AERO: Bringing Industry and Academia Together

INNOVATE is a University of Nottingham European-funded doctoral training program that offers a researcher the opportunity to study for a PhD as well as spending a minimum period of six months in a company. Here INNOVATE Early Stage Researcher (ESR), Sara Roggia, talks about her role as part of the INNOVATE project and her secondment …

Feedback control of unsteady flows: using plasma to improve aircraft aerodynamics

Flow control is a fast growing multidisciplinary science aimed at altering a natural flow state into a more desired state, which could be chosen depending on control objectives (e.g. manipulation of flow separation and flow reattachment, drag reduction, noise suppression, etc.). It incorporates essential and non-trivial elements of fluid dynamics, numerical methods and control theory and this is …

What will future aircraft look like?

Nowadays travelling by plane has become a common habit. We can reach different continents in a few hours and with an ever increasing level of comfort. That’s even more impressive if one considers that the first flight took place just a little more than a century ago.  Since then progress has been made in leaps …