They are torture for people who suffer from a fear of flying: Even large, heavy aircraft are shaken vigorously by violent turbulence. The invention of a doctoral student at TU Wien is now set to significantly reduce this problem: aircraft are equipped with special sensors and as soon as turbulence is detected, sophisticated control technology can be used to counteract it. Simulations and flight experiments show that the stability of the flight path and thus the comfort of the passengers can be significantly improved.

Even better results could be achieved in the future with new wing designs that can change their geometry and adapt to the turbulence, similar to the wings of birds. The new control technology for solving turbulence problems will now be presented to the trade public for the first time at one of the most important aviation trade fairs, the Paris Aérosalon from June 17 to 23.

Fly straight through turbulence instead of avoiding it

Today, attempts are made to predict turbulence and fly around particularly turbulent air regions. This costs time, money and fuel. In the future, it should be possible to fly directly through turbulence without suffering severe shocks - using aircraft that already exist today. If their wing flaps are controlled in the right way, the impact of turbulence can be drastically reduced.

"First, sensors are installed in sensors in front of the aircraft that measure the air pressure and thus register turbulence," explains András Gálffy, inventor and now assistant at the Institute of Automation and Control Technology at TU Wien. "Fractions of a second later, when the wings enter this air region, we can already take countermeasures with the help of an intelligent actuator control system developed at our institute," says Prof. Georg Schitter, head of the research group for intelligent mechatronic systems. Small oscillating movements of the wing flaps that precisely counteract the turbulence are enough to vary the lift and thus significantly dampen the vibrations of the aircraft. "You can think of it like noise-canceling headphones: the disturbances that affect the system from the outside are generated in exactly the same way and cancel each other out. The result: a turbulence-free flight," explains András Gálffy.

Simulation calculations and unmanned test flights have shown that the disruptive effects of turbulence can be reduced by over 80% with the new technology. A patent application has already been filed for the new method. Tests on manned aircraft are now to show that the results can be transferred to commercial aviation.

The technology is also particularly interesting for aircraft taking off vertically - here the vertical thrust and the new lift control act in the same direction, resulting in particularly good damping.

Wing movement of birds as a model

The effects of turbulence could be cushioned even better if there were even more drastic ways to intervene in the aerodynamics of the wings. This should be possible with new types of aircraft by incorporating special adaptive elements into the wings. "If we could not only respond to the wing flaps on a short time scale, but also change the geometry of the wing, our method would be even more effective," says András Gálffy. "We are now aiming to achieve this with adaptive wings, so-called morphing wings, which are modeled on bird wings." Further research into this is already planned.