Chinese scientists create a ‘plasma shower’ to improve stealth bomber performance
- The device can stimulate air flow and increase the lift coefficient of an aircraft by nearly a third, preventing the aircraft from stalling, say researchers
- China is developing plasma technology for other applications, including attitude control of hypersonic aircraft and to improve invisibility to radar
Chinese researchers say they have developed a plasma device that could significantly improve the aerodynamic performance of stealth bombers.
The device is a strip of thin membrane covering the front area of a flying wing aircraft.
When the speed of air flowing on top of the wings slows to a point that could lead to a stall, the membrane senses danger in advance and ionises air molecules with high-voltage electricity, generating a shower of plasma – or electrically charged particles – over the wings.
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The plasma shower can stimulate air flow and increase the lift coefficient of an aircraft by nearly a third. This could prevent a stall, even if the aircraft drops to an unusually slow speed (108km/h or 67mph) with a pitched-up nose, according to the researchers.
The new device could respond to the change of air flow quickly, using considerably less energy than those consumed by similar devices before, they said in a paper published in the Journal of Aerospace Power, a peer-reviewed publication run by the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
“This is of great significance for the application of plasma active flow control technology in aircraft,” the team, led by Niu Zhongguo from the AVIC Aerodynamics Research Institute in Harbin, wrote
A stealth bomber uses a flat airframe without a tail to reduce the chance of radar detection. But this wing-body design makes flight control more difficult, especially at lower speeds.
