Air Force Research Lab scientists have finished wind tunnel testing of an “adaptive compliant wing,” a flexible wing that can change shape during flight. Next up for the technology being developed by Michigan-based FlexSys, Inc. is a flight test this month aboard Scaled Composites’ White Knight aircraft. Researchers expect the flight tests to provide much colder temperatures and a different flow measurement for the flexible wing technology, which AFRL expects to employ on a future concept vehicle—the SensorCraft—for high-altitude, long endurance surveillance.
A top Pentagon tech official called on industry this week to help the military develop “lighter, more efficient” directed energy weapons designed to go on aircraft and conduct special operations missions or down drones—areas where the Air Force’s directed energy efforts have been quiet as of late.