BAE Demon FLAVIIR (Flapless Air Vehicle Integrated Industrial Research) has successfully test flown.
The 2.7m wingspan Demon is the result of £6.5 million programme jointly funded by BAE Systems and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
UK newspaper the Daily Mail reports,
Richard Williams, BAE Systems programme director for Future Capability, said: ‘What the FLAVIIR Team have achieved in such a short time is nothing short of remarkable. I was in Cumbria to watch DEMON fly and I feel sure I have witnessed a significant moment in aviation history.’
He added: ‘What makes it even more poignant is that this is the result of British brains collaborating to produce world-leading technology. It, and other initiatives like it, will help ensure we maintain both a level of sovereign capability and a competitive edge.’
The flapless system, developed around a concept called fluidic flight control was tested in wind tunnels and on models before the full-scale trials on DEMON took place.
Professor John Fielding, chief engineer and lead for the DEMON demonstrator team from Cranfield University, said: ‘To make an aircraft fly and manoeuvre safely without the use of conventional control surfaces is an achievement in itself; to do that while at the same time bringing together new construction techniques and new control mechanisms could be said to be over-ambitious – but we have done it
