Aurora Flight Sciences altered its Liberty Lifter design from a T-tail design to a Pi-tail—a feature it called ‘more structurally efficient.’ [Courtesy: Aurora Flight Sciences]
Key Takeaways:
Aurora Flight Sciences has reconfigured its Liberty Lifter seaplane design, changing the tail section from a T-tail to a Pi-tail and relocating floats to the wingtips, based on preliminary testing results.
These design modifications aim to improve structural efficiency for an aft cargo door and balance affordability with performance in ground effect aerodynamics.
To reduce risk, Aurora is collaborating with maritime manufacturing and engineering firms, building full-scale structural test articles, and conducting further testing on hull slamming and wave detection.
Aurora Flight Sciences, one of two teams vying to design and build a military seaplane with heavy-air-lift capability, has reconfigured the tail section of its Liberty Lifter design.
The decision was spurred by results from preliminary testing, according to the company.
CREATE A FREE ACCOUNT
Sign up to keep reading
Create a free account to continue. Already a member? Sign in below.
