SMART flaps inside jet engines could make supersonic aircraft fly faster,
farther and more economically, say scientists in Chicago. Their trick is to
recycle turbulent air that is normally discarded.
Supersonic air entering a jet engine has to be slowed to subsonic speeds to
avoid damaging its compressor blades. This slowdown leads to shock waves within
the inlet duct that disrupt the smooth flow of air entering the engine, says
Eric Loth, an aeronautical engineer at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. “You also get distorted flow going into the compressor
blades,” he says. This leads to metal fatigue.
To…
