Making wings sing

Using sound to control the flow of air over an aircraft's wing, greatly boosting its lift, has propelled UNSW aerospace engineering student Ian Salmon into the list of finalists for the Australian 2005 Fresh Science awards.

Salmon, who works at Qantas as an aircraft development engineer, is working on applying this idea to a new generation of light aircraft. He has developed a technique in which an aircraft's wing is covered with flexible plastic panels which vibrate when an electric current is passed through them, producing sound.

At a carefully selected frequency, the air passing over the wing can be made to remain more closely attached, increasing the wing's efficiency.

While the theory behind the technique is not new, the method of applying sound directly to the wing during flight is novel. Previous studies used large speakers pointing at a model in a wind tunnel with encouraging results but painful sound levels.