NASA To Conduct Adaptive-Wing Trials

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=awst&id=news/awst/2010/03/08/AW_03_08_2010_p51-207505.xml

Radical aerodynamic and structural design technologies offering potential fuel-saving and noise-reduction breakthroughs will be tested in back-to-back experiments by NASA in partnership with the U.S. Air Force.

Tests of a laminar-flow wing section dotted with micron-scale "roughness" features and a flexible, morphing trailing edge will be carried out on a modified Gulfstream III business jet, representing the first flight experiments of their kind on such a large scale. NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, which acquired the G-III from the Energy Dept., is using the aircraft because of its performance as well as its large area, swept wing and suitably high Reynolds number—a measure used to characterize flow regimes in fluid dynamics.