ON SOME COOL FLIGHT TECH

TAKING CONTROL

As a student of aviation related technologies, this piece in Gizmodo really caught my eye:

"DARPA, the Pentagon's source for R&D (and lovers of acronyms big and small) have released a video illustrating the Damage Tolerance and Autonomous Landing Solution they developed alongside Athena Technologies.

Basically, DTALS is designed to take over for a pilot in the event that the aircraft sustains heavy damage. The system automatically detects the damage and adjusts the flight control system to land the aircraft safely.

In the demo video, a scale model F-18 manages to return safely to the earth despite the loss of over 60% of its wing. At this point, the DTALS system is being confined to UAVs and other unmanned aircraft, but it seems that it could be applicable to manned an commercial aircraft somewhere down the line. Hit the following link to see the full video. [Rockwell Collins and Business Wire]"

The short video is really remarkable to watch.  This is technology that should be incorporated in all planes, both military and civilian.

Comments

[Alex Tolley]

very interesting piece. I agree about civilian aircraft being fitted with this technology - pilots just cannot be expected to be superhuman in situations like this. Recall the Japanese pilot who flew a 747 without it's tail fin for quite a while until it eventually crashed into Mt. Fuji. Simulator tests showed that pilots couldn't even do as well as that pilot. I've seen experimental work at NASA showing that aircraft can be steered using differential thrust on engines, but that this control really needs to be done with a computer.