Gust Mitigation Through Spanwise Twisting

Wind gust encounters impose a highly unsteady and unpredictable environment for air vehicles. Small aircrafts are particularly vulnerable to gust-induced disturbances due to their limited size and weight, resulting in pronounced fluctuations during flight. This study proposes a new concept that involves implementing a twisting mechanism along the wingspan, enabling active control of individual wing sections' angles of attack. By adapting to varying gust conditions, this twist-based spanwise pitch control system demonstrates promising potential in enhancing small aircraft's stability and safety during flight. We present our experimental results of time resolved lift and flow field measurements to demonstrate the effects of spanwise twisting for gust mitigation.