09/09/21, 08:35 BAE Systems selected by DARPA to progress revolutionary aircraft design and testing | BAE Systems | International

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BAE Systems selected by DARPA to progress revolutionary aircraft
design and testing
7 Sep 2021

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BAE Systems will progress the Related news

design and testing of
revolutionary flow control Successful
demonstration of
technologies that could deliver breakthrough blown-

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09/09/21, 08:35 BAE Systems selected by DARPA to progress revolutionary aircraft design and testing | BAE Systems | International

significant operational air flight technologies

to revolutionise future
enhancements to tomorrow’s aircraft design

warfighters. 2 May 2019

Successful first flight

trial completion of
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
unmanned aerial
(DARPA) awarded the contract to BAE Systems to vehicle, MAGMA.
design a full scale demonstrator concept with Active
13 Dec 2017
Flow Control at its core. The aircraft’s ability to
maneuver in flight without conventional flight control
surfaces will enable improved performance,
maintainability, and survivability.
Twitter
 
BAE Systems Air
The contract award forms part of DARPA’s Control of
Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE)
project, which intends to inject Active Flow Control
technology early into the aircraft design process to
demonstrate significant efficiency benefits, as well as
improvements to aircraft cost, weight, performance, and
reliability.
 
BAE Systems’ role in Project CRANE builds on its
innovation demonstrated through MAGMA in 2019,
where a subscale aircraft was successfully maneuvered
in flight using supersonically blown air and Active Flow
Control technologies for the first time in aviation history.
 

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09/09/21, 08:35 BAE Systems selected by DARPA to progress revolutionary aircraft design and testing | BAE Systems | International

Tom Fillingham, Senior Vice President – Tweets by

US Programs, BAE ‎@BAESystemsAir
Systems Air said:
 
BAE Systems Air
Retweeted
“BAE Systems has been at the
Team Tempest
forefront of digital design for more @TeamTempestUK
than 20 years. This award enables This time next week
us to progress Active Flow Control and our digital (15/09) we have a
engineering capabilities at full scale, in collaboration fascinating day of Future
Combat Air System panel
with DARPA and the University of Manchester in the UK. discussions at
Since our groundbreaking MAGMA trials, our engineers @DSEI_event’s
across the UK, US, and Australia have continued to Aerospace Forum lined
up. Here’s a thread giving
innovate to identify improvements in the aircraft digital you a rundown of what to
design process to deliver military value and operational expect: [1/6] #DSEI2021

advantages to the warfighter.”

Embed View on Twitter
 
As military aircraft confront increasingly contested and
sophisticated threat environments, Active Flow Control
offers potential military benefits that could deliver
operational advantage in the battlespace. Active Flow
Control technologies can supplement or replace
conventional moveable control surfaces to improve the
performance of an aircraft at various points in the flight
regime, as well as reduce mass and volume compared
to aircraft with conventional controls to enable greater
payloads and greater flexibility to the operator.
 
The contract will see BAE Systems mature design,
integration, and de-risking activities, including wind

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09/09/21, 08:35 BAE Systems selected by DARPA to progress revolutionary aircraft design and testing | BAE Systems | International

tunnel testing at its facilities in the North West of

England in 2022. This innovative work will inform future
phases of the CRANE program, including the concept
design activity.

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