NASA and Boeing have completed wind tunnel testing to study an innovative advanced aircraft design intended to improve aerodynamic efficiency.

A truss-braced wing configuration, involving a long, thin wing with aerodynamically shaped structural supports, has the potential to reduce fuel and operational costs for future airliners, which is why NASA has collaborated with Boeing to advance the design.

But this kind of wing would be much more than a simple tweak to existing designs – for an aircraft the size of a passenger jet, it would be a revolutionary redesign, requiring extensive study from NASA and Boeing.

The most recent round of testing used a complex wind tunnel model to collect data on how air flows around a truss-braced wing model and the forces that would be exerted on such a wing in flight.

The test used a semispan model – essentially half an aircraft mounted on a wind tunnel floor. The model has features built in to simulate the mechanisms that increase the amount of lift a wing produces. By adjusting the model’s slats, flaps, and other moving control surfaces, the team can configure it to the low speed, high-lift settings of takeoff and landing conditions.

The model is part of a collaboration to test what’s known as Boeing’s Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) concept.

In December, teams completed testing of the model wind tunnel operated by the company QinetiQ in Farnborough, England. This large wind tunnel uses pressurized conditions to predict airplane behavior in takeoff and landing conditions.

The large size of the tunnel gives the model fidelity to better predict the behavior of a plane in flight. This capability allowed the team to confidently assess aerodynamic performance.

NASA and Boeing research teams analyzed data in real time to ensure the model performed as expected. Researchers are still reviewing the full results, but the test has already added valuable information to a growing body of research aimed at reducing fuel use in future aircraft designs.

The testing was just the latest stop for this research. NASA and Boeing have tested the concept at multiple NASA facilities to collect data as they work to build a comprehensive understanding of this advanced airframe concept.

This collaboration serves as an example of how NASA serves as an incubator for breakthrough technology with profound commercial applications. The transonic truss-braced wing concept originated from NASA aeronautics-supported research and NASA and Boeing engineers have worked together, test-by-test, to move this wing design from an idea to a practical reality.

The work began in NASA’s Advanced Air Vehicles Program and continues as part of the Subsonic Flight Demonstrator project under the Integrated Aviation Systems Program in the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.