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NASA Meatball NASA Dryden AFTI F-111 banner
F-111 AFTI/MAW cockpit instrument left side panel F-111 AFTI/MAW cockpit instrument left side panel

Photo
Description:

View of the left cockpit and pilot's seat of the F-111 MAW aircraft. Unlike most fighter aircraft of the time, the F-111 had side-by-side seating. The pilot sat on the left side, and the weapons systems officer on the right. Both had control sticks to fly the aircraft. The two yellow and black striped handles would be used in an emergency to eject the entire F-111 cockpit. The F-111 also did not have ejection seats, but used a capsule.


Formats: 515x480 JPEG Image (127 KBytes)
1099x1024 JPEG Image (538 KBytes)
3000x2793 JPEG Image (4,364 KBytes)

Project
Description:
With the phasing out of the F-111A TACT program came a renewed effort by the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory to extended supercritical wing technology to a higher level of performance. A joint NASA and Air Force program called Advanced Fighter Technology Integration (AFTI) was born.

In the early 1980s the supercritical wing on the F-111A aircraft was replaced with a wing built by Boeing Aircraft Company System called a "mission adaptive wing" (MAW). This wing had an internal mechanism to flex the outer wing skin and produce a high camber section for subsonic speeds, a supercritical section for transonic speeds, and symmetrical section for supersonic speeds.

The surface irregularities from leading edge slates was eliminated and trailing edge flap effects reduced. The use of flexible wing skins to produce a smooth upper surface brought this wing a little closer in concept to that of a bird. A digital flight control system provided automatic changes to the wing geometry. The system had four automatic control modes: (1) Maneuver Camber Control - adjusting camber shape for peak aerodynamic efficiency; (2) Cruise Camber Control - for maximum speed at any altitude and power setting; (3) Maneuver Load Control - providing the highest possible aircraft load factor (4) Maneuver Enhancement Alleviation - in part attempting to reduce the effects of gusts on airplane ride.

The AFTI/F-111 MAW system had 59 flights from 1985 through 1988. The flight test data showed a drag reduction of around 7 percent at the wing design cruise point to over 20 percent at an off-design condition. The four automatic modes were tested in flight with satisfactory results.


NASA Photo by: Susan Bledsoe

Keywords: AFTI F-111; Mission Adaptive Wing; MAW


Last Modified: June 30, 2008
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