Saab’s smart wing promises to cut aircraft fuel burn

The company's engineers have created a single-piece, carbon-fibre, leading edge and upper wing cover section with no joints or rivets

Aerospace engineers have taken a leap forward with plans to produce a highly aerodynamic ‘smart wing’ by creating a single-piece, carbon-fibre, leading edge and upper wing cover section with no joints or rivets and therefore a smooth surface finish.

The production of the section will feed into the European Union-funded Smart Fixed Wing Aircraft (SFWA) project. This aims to integrate passive and active laminar flow and load control technologies into a smart wing flight demonstrator that could reduce wing drag by 25%, helping the aviation industry to reduce fuel consumption.

The integrated leading edge and upper wing cover has been produced by engineers at Saab Aerospace in Sweden. Unlike a standard wing, the panel is completely smooth – there are no joints or rivets. The entire section is cured in a single piece. The attachment points that fix the panel to the wing box itself are all made of composite materials and integrated into the underside of the wing shell. The completely smooth outer surface and wing leading edge reduce drag, facilitating natural laminar airflow over the wing.

Dan Jangblad, head of Saab’s industrial products and services unit, said: “Our expertise in aerodynamics and carbon-fibre composites has been crucial in the development of the wing panel. Effort has gone into improving the wing’s aerodynamic properties, in order to maintain the laminar flow and ensure less drag and reduced fuel consumption. We have also been able to reduce weight and cost by using knowledge of composite design and manufacturing.”

The section will now travel to Aernnova in Spain for the assembly phase of the laminar wing – which will eventually be installed by SFWA partner Airbus on its A340-300 MSN001 flight test aircraft.

Meanwhile,  industrial partners are also working on radical technologies for the SFWA project, including an innovative power-plant, empennage and rear-fuselage concept. A counter-rotating open-rotor engine design is predicted to reduce fuel burn by 20%.