Concept and design of extended hybrid laminar flow control suction panels

Abstract Fully laminar aircraft are one step towards reaching eco-efficient aviation. However, high system complexity and significant manufacturing effort prevent the wide usage of existing laminarisation concepts such as laminar flow control, which are rarely found in commercial aircraft. Hybrid laminar flow control concepts reduce the manufacturing effort significantly at the cost of only achieving partial laminar flow. This paper presents extended hybrid laminar flow control concepts for fully laminar wings, with reduced system complexity. A detailed study of structural and aerodynamic requirements provides the foundation for partial design solutions of active suction structures. The authors derive two concepts for active suction panels from the structural design space. While the first concept relies on state of the art manufacturing techniques, the focus of the second concept is on additive manufacturing technologies. Based on these concepts, it is feasible to design fully laminar wings with structurally integrated active suction systems. The authors propose an aerodynamic test strategy for further developing extended hybrid laminar flow control.