Future aircraft designs look set to use longer wingspans to increase the aspect ratio and therefore overall aerodynamic efficiency of the airframe. Such larger wingspans also reduce roll rates and require increased control surface area to achieve the roll maneuver requirements for certification. In this work, the effect of using flared folding wingtips (FFWTs) on the roll performance of simple aircraft wings is investigated numerically and experimentally. A unique rolling rig is designed, manufactured, and tested, with a series of steady roll and transient tests performed for different wingspans, with and without folding wingtips. It is shown that the use of FFWTs on aircraft wings can enable improved aerodynamic performance due to the increased span while also significantly reducing the aerodynamic damping due to roll, such that the roll performance of a wing incorporating FFWTs is comparable to that of one without the additional span.

未来的飞机设计看起来将使用更长的翼展来增加展弦比，从而增加机身的整体空气动力学效率。这种更大的翼展也降低了滚转率，并需要增加控制表面积来达到认证的滚转机动要求。在这项工作中，通过数值和实验研究了使用外展折叠翼尖 (FFWT) 对简单飞机机翼侧倾性能的影响。设计、制造和测试了一个独特的滚动设备，对不同翼展进行了一系列稳定滚动和瞬态测试，包括折叠翼尖和不折叠翼尖。结果表明，在飞机机翼上使用 FFWT 可以由于增加的跨度而提高空气动力学性能，同时还显着降低了由于滚转引起的空气动力学阻尼，