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BY DAVID AXEThe MAGMA test craft was revealed
in December. BAE SystemsIt’s long been a
goal of aerospace
developers to eliminate
moving control surfaces
from airplanes. Besides
boosting an aircraft’s
radar cross-section, or
RCS, moving surfaces
are heavy, complex and
expensive to build
STEALTHY
NEW
DRONE
HAS
NO
MOVING
SURFACES
R
ESEARCHERS AT BAE Systems and
the University of Manchester in
the UK successfully test- ew an
experimental unmanned aerial
vehicle (UAV) with no moving control
surfaces, BAE Systems announced in
December 2017.
Instead of rudders, ailerons and other
conventional control surfaces, the MAGMA relies
on two new technologies for maneuverability.
Wing circulation control ‘takes air from the aircraft
engine and blows it supersonically through the
trailing edge of the wing to provide control for
the aircraft’, according to BAE Systems.
Fluidic thrust vectoring, meanwhile, ‘uses
blown air to de ect the exhaust, allowing for the
direction of the aircraft to be changed.’
‘These trials are an important step forward in
our e orts to explore adaptable airframes’, Bill
Crowther, leader of the MAGMA project at the
University of Manchester, said in a BAE Systems
release. ‘What we are seeking to do through this
program is truly groundbreaking.’
For its rst ight, MAGMA featured two
small vertical ns for stability. But the ns,
themselves a signi cant source of radar
re ectivity, could be temporary. ‘Further ight
trials are planned for the coming months
to demonstrate the novel ight control
technologies with the ultimate aim of ying the
aircraft without any moving control surfaces or
ns’, BAE Systems stated.
MAGMA is not BAE Systems’ rst test of a UAV
with no moving control surfaces. In 2010, the
company — along with Cran eld University —
tested the smaller Demon drone, which also
used blown air for maneuverability. Demon
was the result of a ve-year, $8-million research
initiative that BAE Systems launched in 2005.
MAGMA represents a continuation of that work.
It’s long been a goal of aerospace developers
to eliminate moving control surfaces fromaircraft. Besides boosting an aircraft’s radar
cross-section, or RCS, moving surfaces are
heavy, complex and expensive to build.
In 1975 John Kelly, a Boeing researcher,
identi ed moving control surfaces as a
major impediment to developing stealthy
warplanes. ‘Elimination of control surfaces is a
consideration that should be examined for low-
RCS designs’, Kelly wrote in a company study.
Kelly compared a smooth representational
airframe to one with moving control surfaces.
The smooth airframe possessed a radar cross-
section of 0.1 square feet. By contrast, the
airframe with moving surfaces re ected a radar
cross-section of up to ve square feet.
The ight control systems on current stealth
warplanes including the B-2, F-22 and F-35
reportedly feature low-observable modes that
limit control surfaces’ movements in order
to minimize radar re ectivity. With MAGMA,
BAE Systems could be working toward aircraft
designs with fewer, or no, moving surfaces —
and thus much greater stealth.94 March 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
94 Cutting Edge C.indd 94 19/01/2018 16:59