First flight for 'flapless' UAV

The DEMON UAV made the flight from an airfield at Walney Island on Friday 17 September and was the first of its kind to be authorised by the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

Developed by Cranfield University, BAE Systems and nine other UK universities, DEMON does without conventional mechanical elevators and ailerons that normally control the movement of an aircraft in favour of aerodynamic control using blown jets of air.

According to Cranfield, this ‘flapless’ approach offers several advantages over ‘moving flap’ technology as it requires fewer moving parts, less maintenance and provides the aircraft with a more stealthy profile.

In Cumbria, DEMON successfully demonstrated flapless flight when, for a planned portion of a test flight, the conventional flap control system was turned off and the aircraft flew and manoeuvred using the new technology.

BAE Systems promoted the development of the £6.2m FLAVIIR (Flapless Air Vehicle Integrated Industrial Research) programme that led to the DEMON demonstrator after presenting a ‘Grand Challenge’ to UK universities five years ago.