Glowing jester plane reveals invisible wind eddies

[Nipuna]

(Image: NASA Langley/Preston Martin)

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With two engines for eyes, a wry smile on its face and psychedelic-blue jester's hat, this aircraft wouldn't look out of place at a 3 am rave. It is actually in a NASA wind tunnel, where researchers are studying the flight characteristics of possible future planes.

The plane is a 5.8 per cent scale model of the X-48C, the latest in a series of blended wing aircraft being developed by NASA and Boeing. As the name suggests, blended wing designs merge a plane's body with its wings, in the hope of increasing fuel efficiency. But without a conventional tail rudder, the design is harder to control, so the concept needs extensive testing.

Here, researchers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, have sprayed the model with fluorescent oil to see air flow patterns during tests in a wind tunnel. Studying the glowing lines will help them better understand how the full-scale aircraft behaves in the air.