Aerodynamics research in the Dryden wind tunnel

As flying vehicles move into and explore new domains (surveillance drones, air taxis, personal air vehicles, last-mile package delivery vehicles, round-the-corner, mobile observation platforms) we find an exhilarating array of new designs, some real, and some imaginary.  Which ones work, and why?  Here we conduct research on the aerodynamics of all kinds of flying devices.  In particular, we focus on these questions:

• how do wings work at small scale?
• what would a rational configuration for aircraft be if we were to start from scratch, today?
• for modern, small-scale flying devices, there is considerable overlap with birds, and bats, and soon, insects.  Are there lessons to be learned?

Have a look through the [Research] page to see some of these questions explored a bit more, and then check the [publications] page for details.

GS