June 25, 2004 Feature
Utah
State Professor Patents Technology That Could Save Airlines
Billions
 Utah
State University has applied for a patent for an invention that
may save the airline industry and private, military and transport
airplanes hundreds of millions in fuel costs each year.
Warren F. Phillips, a professor for 30 years in the mechanical
and aerospace engineering department at Utah State and a hang
glider pilot, invented a technology called Twisteron to minimize
drag on airplanes as they fly.
"If we can reduce drag on an airplane by even as little
as one percent, it would create a tremendous amount of savings
in fuel for the airline industry and the U.S. economy,"
Phillips said.
 Phillips,
who recently published a textbook called Mechanics of Flight,
explained drag as the force that one feels when putting an arm
out the window of a moving car. The force pushing the arm back
is drag. When twisting the arm, one will feel an upward force,
which is called lift. Drag and lift are the aerodynamic forces
that act on an airplane in flight.
"Drag is what you pay for; it is a hindrance," Phillips
said. "In my hang glider the drag is what causes me to
eventually sink back to Earth. When an airplane like a 747 is
flying at 40,000 feet, the engines are running only to overcome
the force of drag."
A typical 747 will burn about 75 gallons of fuel a minute and
can weigh up to 750,000 pounds. Half of its weight can be fuel.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, in 2004 civil
aviation aircraft in the United States are expected to consume
more than 24 billion gallons of jet fuel.
"You can look up anytime, almost anywhere on Earth and
see a plane in the sky," Philips said. "Airplanes
burn a tremendous amount of fuel."
 Twisterons
work by twisting the wings during flight. Twisting wings is
a concept that has been around since the Wright brothers made
their first flight and used wing warping. The wings of the Wright
Flyer were twisted in opposite directions in order to turn.
Utah State's Twisteron technology is a little different. The
wings are twisted in the same direction using a precise formula
to help reduce drag.
"The amount of twist the Twisterons use is determined
by altitude, weight and the speed the airplane is traveling,"
Phillips said. "Those conditions change during flight.
The Twisterons adjust to those changes to always produce minimum
drag."
This technology was tested during the 2003 National Design,
Build, Fly competition. Utah State students designed and built
an airplane with Twisterons. Their design report won first place.
The airplane experienced a 20 percent reduction in drag during
steep turns and a seven percent reduction in level flight.
 "High-lift
or low-speed situations, such as takeoff, landing and steep
turns are when you get the greatest fuel savings," Phillips
said. "You wouldn’t experience a significant G-force
when turning in a commercial airliner, but even a small savings
would make a huge impact."
Phillips said the idea came to him overnight. He woke up one
morning knowing all about Twisterons and did not know anything
about them when he went to bed the night before. He said his
experience as a hang glider pilot may have played a role.
"Hang gliding gives you a real feel for flight,"
the Utah State professor said. "I have flown airplanes,
and when you are flying an airplane you are driving a machine.
When you are flying a hang glider it is literally like being
a bird; you feel the air and your thoughts control the glider.
It gives a real feel for lift, drag, and how the air interacts
with the wings, much more so than you would get from flying
a machine."
Phillips said he won an award for a paper he published on Twisteron
technology, and his peers are impressed with the technology
because of its simplicity and the beauty of the mathematics
that led to it. He hopes the technology will be put to use and
his invention will change the airline industry for the better.
Utah State University Research Foundation's Technology Commercialization
Office (TCO) is looking to license the technology to commercial
aircraft manufacturers and possibly others. The technology may
also have use beyond aviation. The technique may be applied
to water craft or land vehicles.
"With jet fuel costing more than $15 billion in the United
States in 2003, this technology will have significant economic
impact, especially in a time when we are seeing a continual
increase in fuel prices," said Ray DeVito, Ph.D., physical
science commercialization manager at TCO.
Using the 2003 figures, DeVito calculated that if a reduction
in drag of 2.5 percent was achieved in commercial airplanes,
it would amount to about $400 million of savings in fuel costs.
"As jet fuel consumption increases and prices rise, the
potential savings would approach a billion dollars per year
over the next decade," DeVito said.
 Utah
State University's mechanical and aerospace engineering students
have notable experience in designing and building planes. Their
accomplishments include the building of the internationally
renowned USU Wright Flyer, the only stable flying replica of
the Wright Flyer. They won first place for their design report
in the National Design Build Fly Contest four times and won
the total competition twice, giving Utah State University the
distinction of being the only university to have won it more
than once.
Contact: Trina Paskett, (435) 797-4678, (435) 881-2823, trina.paskett@usu.edu
Photos by: Steven VonNiederhausern, stevenv@cc.usu.edu
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