The Active Aeroelastic Aircraft Testbed – A3TB

The Active Aeroelastic Aircraft Testbed – A3TB

The A3TB is a flying-wing configuration designed as a modular experimental research platform, to demonstrate static and dynamic aeroelastic shape control that targets performance and stability goals. The A3TB was designed, built, and tested by Aerospace undergraduate students in their capstone senior year project over three years, with the support of the Lab’s graduate students.

The aircraft design is accompanied by detailed disciplinary models and analyses of the aerodynamics, structures, and aeroelastic response, which were verified in ground and flight tests. It is designed for 3D-printing technology production. The detachable wings are fitted with eight trailing-edge control surfaces for trim and aeroelastic response control.

The A3TB wing (clamped) was tested at the University of Michigan wind tunnel in a study of flutter prediction using different novel techniques and measurement devices.

 

Watch the A3TB in flight, demonstrating Body-freedom Flutter (BFF) at approx. 1 minute into the video.

People

The A3TB was a project of many dedicated undergraduate and graduate students at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Technion.

The project was led and guided by Dr. Lucy Edery-Azulay. The three-year project student leaders were Tsoof Joels, Ariel Mayer, and Amit Gabay. Project student members were Evyatar Matmon, Tal Sayag, Yasmin Nusbaum, Amit Sayag, Lidia Naftalayev, Amitay Haimovitch, Ofek Karp, Michael Shtepman, Roee Schacter, Noam Yechieli, Dor Naftali, Guy Levi, Ariel Kantor, Liel Arazani, Kay Levinson, Oren Montegomery, Jenia Grichenovsky, Ishai Glam, Saber Boulhajar, Matan Winter, Guy Gordon Biberstein. And, our very talented pilot was Roee Schacter.

Conference Papers