Worlds first 'flapless' plane

If I'm understanding this right, it's a similar idea to what several F1 racing teams have been using this year, a concept that's been dubbed the "F-duct". [1]<p>The idea is that downforce on the car is generally paid for by aero drag, and thus if you want grip in the corners, you have to sacrifice straight-line speed. But what if you could aerodynamically disable that wing on the straights, so you don't suffer from the drag? (mechanically movable wings are illegal)<p>They devised a completely passive system that routes some air from the front of the car back to the rear, dumping it out behind the engine intake, just in front of the rear wing. When the driver seals the duct with his knee (or hand, in the case of Ferrari), the air can flow through this path, thus stalling out the rear wing, significantly diminishing its aero effect both in terms of downforce and drag.<p>From the video, it sounds to me like the plane is doing sort of the opposite: directing air not to stall, but to cause an aero effect over the normal surface.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.suite101.com/content/the-mclaren-f1-f-duct-how-it-works-a256163" rel="nofollow">http://www.suite101.com/content/the-mclaren-f1-f-duct-how-it...</a>

I'm reading a book all about the Wright brothers at the moment (and this story made me think about it), absolutely fascinating to see how unbelievably revolutionary they were.<p>And in a way this highlights just how much; (one of) their great innovation(s) was flaps and wing warping for control, it put them light years ahead of other inventors (who mostly were trying for "automatically stable" flight). It's fascinating to see that it is only now we are (in a sense) re-innovating their invention.<p>If you get chance to read up on the Wrights it is worth it; they were simply brilliant hackers. They were smart and creative, and had no concerns about disagreeing with established theory if they thought it was wrong (in fact going to great lengths to correct theories).<p>My favourite "story" about them, though, is that the propeller was an after thought - they spent so long perfecting the wings, flight control and the engine and had assumed a normal boat propeller would work. When they realised the error - just a few months before making their attempt they - they hacked something together using wind tunnel data collected for wing designs. And when they went to Kill Devil Hills in 1903 were simply confident "it would work", because they had calculated it to do so.<p>You may gather I'm a little in awe of them :)<p>(all of which is not entirely related to this story, but still seemed an interesting semi-relevant thing to share :))<p>EDIT: although as pointed out below I am assuming that by "flaps" they mean all flaps because Ailerons were <i>not</i> a Wright innovation (they used Wing warping) but a rudder and flaps were part of the Wright flyer and crucial to the control.

Minor nit: this is not the world's first flapless plane. The Wright Flyer used a technique called "wing warping," where instead of movable control surfaces, they flexed the wing to change its shape and lift properties.<p>NASA has a neat simulator to show how this works here: <a href="http://wright.nasa.gov/airplane/warp.html" rel="nofollow">http://wright.nasa.gov/airplane/warp.html</a><p>Also, the article seems to refer all control surfaces - aileron, elevator, rudder, etc. - as "flaps." I have several hundred hours logged in Citabria 7ECA and 7GCAA aircraft, neither of which have flaps.<p>"Flaps" in aviation refers to movable panels that increase the wing surface area and angle of attack in order to produce additional lift at low speeds for takeoff and landing. Again, NASA has a pretty good explanation: <a href="http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/flap.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/flap.html</a>

And you thought ice on wings was a problem now, de-icing would be an absolutely crucial part of this system. If any one hole is even partially obscured, the balance between both sides is off. Clearly this is computer controlled and can be compensated for, but it seems to me that there's quite a few problems to overcome before it comes back to the mainstream.

I assume they mean aileronless rather than just flapless?<p>Or is "flap" a general term for flaps, ailerons and rudder surfaces?

While not exactly 'flapless', blown flaps have used compressed air as part of the flap system for quite some time (it's even had time to fall out of favor due to complexity and costs!)<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blown_flaps" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blown_flaps</a><p>(Though it does look like the article linked refers to ailerons and elevators, not flaps proper).

Didn't Orville and Wilbur's prototype steer by twisting the wings?

What do you do when it loses power and you have to land?<p>(and WTF is with the greenwashing statement that guy made?)

Figures that this is right on the heels of the news of the first (successful) human-powered <i>flapping</i> plane.