Wake Vortex Reduction Trials Go Live at Vienna Airport

Very interesting trial of ground-based plates to reduce wingtip vortices near Vienna airport.

If this works, airports can reduce in-trail distance, allowing more landings and takeoffs per hour. The A380 has such a major vortex problem that airport passenger capacity is reduced by the delay time needed after it departs for other aircraft.

Could inspire other real-time control of aerodynamics, somewhat similar to adaptive optics in astronomy.

For example, transsonic shock waves “dance” at approx. 60 Hz across the fuselage and control surfaces of aircraft, and the forward-swept X-29 used a dancing canard to stabilize flight.

This project was sponsored by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), their equivalent of NASA. State organizations play a very important role in fundamental aerospace research, with the X-Planes program influencing the design of every airliner.

Note movable ground-based parallel green plates that dampen vortices. Wingtip vortices are the result of induced drag, and roll off the wingtips – they have upset smaller airliners and businzess jets.