High-Speed Flight Without an Engine: A Unique Performance Capability Enabled by Dynamic Soaring

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 812-824
Author(s):  
Gottfried Sachs ◽  
Benedikt Grüter
Aerospace ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 229
Author(s):  
Gottfried Sachs ◽  
Benedikt Grüter ◽  
Haichao Hong

Dynamic soaring is a flight mode that uniquely enables high speeds without an engine. This is possible in a horizontal shear wind that comprises a thin layer and a large wind speed. It is shown that the speeds reachable by modern gliders approach the upper subsonic Mach number region where compressibility effects become significant, with the result that the compressibility-related drag rise yields a limitation for the achievable maximum speed. To overcome this limitation, wing sweep is considered an appropriate means. The effect of wing sweep on the relevant aerodynamic characteristics for glider type wings is addressed. A 3-degrees-of-freedom dynamics model and an energy-based model of the vehicle are developed in order to solve the maximum-speed problem with regard to the effect of the compressibility-related drag rise. Analytic solutions are derived so that generally valid results are achieved concerning the effects of wing sweep on the speed performance. Thus, it is shown that the maximum speed achievable with swept wing configurations can be increased. The improvement is small for sweep angles up to around 15 deg and shows a progressive increase thereafter. As a result, wing sweep has potential for enhancing the maximum-speed performance in high-speed dynamic soaring.


Aerospace ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Gottfried Sachs ◽  
Benedikt Grüter

Dynamic soaring is a non-powered flight mode that enables extremely high speeds by extracting energy from thin shear wind layers. Trajectory optimization is applied to construct solutions of the maximum speed achievable with dynamic soaring and to determine characteristic properties of that flight mode, using appropriate models of the vehicle dynamics and the shear wind layer. Furthermore, an energy-based flight mechanics model of high-speed dynamic soaring is developed, with reference made to trajectory optimization. With this model, analytic solutions for high-speed dynamic soaring are derived. The key factors for the maximum speed performance are identified and their effects are determined. Furthermore, analytic solutions for other, non-performance quantities of significance for high-speed dynamic soaring are derived. The analytic solutions virtually agree with the results achieved with the trajectory optimization using the vehicle dynamics model. This is considered a validation of the energy-based model yielding analytic solutions. The analytical solutions are also valid for the high subsonic Mach number region involving significant compressibility effects. This is of importance for future developments in high-speed dynamic soaring, as modern gliders are now capable of reaching that Mach number region.


Author(s):  
E.D. Wolf

Most microelectronics devices and circuits operate faster, consume less power, execute more functions and cost less per circuit function when the feature-sizes internal to the devices and circuits are made smaller. This is part of the stimulus for the Very High-Speed Integrated Circuits (VHSIC) program. There is also a need for smaller, more sensitive sensors in a wide range of disciplines that includes electrochemistry, neurophysiology and ultra-high pressure solid state research. There is often fundamental new science (and sometimes new technology) to be revealed (and used) when a basic parameter such as size is extended to new dimensions, as is evident at the two extremes of smallness and largeness, high energy particle physics and cosmology, respectively. However, there is also a very important intermediate domain of size that spans from the diameter of a small cluster of atoms up to near one micrometer which may also have just as profound effects on society as “big” physics.


Author(s):  
N. Yoshimura ◽  
K. Shirota ◽  
T. Etoh

One of the most important requirements for a high-performance EM, especially an analytical EM using a fine beam probe, is to prevent specimen contamination by providing a clean high vacuum in the vicinity of the specimen. However, in almost all commercial EMs, the pressure in the vicinity of the specimen under observation is usually more than ten times higher than the pressure measured at the punping line. The EM column inevitably requires the use of greased Viton O-rings for fine movement, and specimens and films need to be exchanged frequently and several attachments may also be exchanged. For these reasons, a high speed pumping system, as well as a clean vacuum system, is now required. A newly developed electron microscope, the JEM-100CX features clean high vacuum in the vicinity of the specimen, realized by the use of a CASCADE type diffusion pump system which has been essentially improved over its predeces- sorD employed on the JEM-100C.


Author(s):  
William Krakow

In the past few years on-line digital television frame store devices coupled to computers have been employed to attempt to measure the microscope parameters of defocus and astigmatism. The ultimate goal of such tasks is to fully adjust the operating parameters of the microscope and obtain an optimum image for viewing in terms of its information content. The initial approach to this problem, for high resolution TEM imaging, was to obtain the power spectrum from the Fourier transform of an image, find the contrast transfer function oscillation maxima, and subsequently correct the image. This technique requires a fast computer, a direct memory access device and even an array processor to accomplish these tasks on limited size arrays in a few seconds per image. It is not clear that the power spectrum could be used for more than defocus correction since the correction of astigmatism is a formidable problem of pattern recognition.


Author(s):  
C. O. Jung ◽  
S. J. Krause ◽  
S.R. Wilson

Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structures have excellent potential for future use in radiation hardened and high speed integrated circuits. For device fabrication in SOI material a high quality superficial Si layer above a buried oxide layer is required. Recently, Celler et al. reported that post-implantation annealing of oxygen implanted SOI at very high temperatures would eliminate virtually all defects and precipiates in the superficial Si layer. In this work we are reporting on the effect of three different post implantation annealing cycles on the structure of oxygen implanted SOI samples which were implanted under the same conditions.


Author(s):  
Z. Liliental-Weber ◽  
C. Nelson ◽  
R. Ludeke ◽  
R. Gronsky ◽  
J. Washburn

The properties of metal/semiconductor interfaces have received considerable attention over the past few years, and the Al/GaAs system is of special interest because of its potential use in high-speed logic integrated optics, and microwave applications. For such materials a detailed knowledge of the geometric and electronic structure of the interface is fundamental to an understanding of the electrical properties of the contact. It is well known that the properties of Schottky contacts are established within a few atomic layers of the deposited metal. Therefore surface contamination can play a significant role. A method for fabricating contamination-free interfaces is absolutely necessary for reproducible properties, and molecularbeam epitaxy (MBE) offers such advantages for in-situ metal deposition under UHV conditions


Author(s):  
Brian Cross

A relatively new entry, in the field of microscopy, is the Scanning X-Ray Fluorescence Microscope (SXRFM). Using this type of instrument (e.g. Kevex Omicron X-ray Microprobe), one can obtain multiple elemental x-ray images, from the analysis of materials which show heterogeneity. The SXRFM obtains images by collimating an x-ray beam (e.g. 100 μm diameter), and then scanning the sample with a high-speed x-y stage. To speed up the image acquisition, data is acquired "on-the-fly" by slew-scanning the stage along the x-axis, like a TV or SEM scan. To reduce the overhead from "fly-back," the images can be acquired by bi-directional scanning of the x-axis. This results in very little overhead with the re-positioning of the sample stage. The image acquisition rate is dominated by the x-ray acquisition rate. Therefore, the total x-ray image acquisition rate, using the SXRFM, is very comparable to an SEM. Although the x-ray spatial resolution of the SXRFM is worse than an SEM (say 100 vs. 2 μm), there are several other advantages.


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