A Vienna-based company has come up with a surprising development.
Everyone wants a comfortable trip, but we can face a lot of inconvenience while traveling by plane. Examples include turbulence, the cause of which is usually found in atmospheric pressure differences, jet streams, weather fronts, and thunderstorms. Interesting geometry.
Although many studies have already proven that disturbances are increasing due to climate change, an Austrian company claims to have developed a system that can reduce this problem. The Viennese company will use sensors, lidar and flight control software to monitor, predict and manage the shock, which is terrifying to many.
The system mainly consists of two-metre-long rods with sensors mounted on the aircraft’s wing. They detect air pressure fluctuations in different parts of the fuselage, on the basis of which they can also adjust the wings. The data is fed to software that can make decisions about the alignment of the aircraft’s control surfaces in milliseconds.
Yves Rimmler, Turbulence Solutions project manager, can accurately read the airflow direction from the incoming data, based on which we can predict the direction and strength of the turbulence. The system works independently of the pilots, so according to the company there is no need for further training, but at the moment it has only been tested on sports aircraft, so it will take many years before the development reaches passenger carriers as well.
