The Flight Testing of Natural and Hybrid Laminar Flow Nacelles

Abstract

The achievement of large areas of laminar flow over aircraft engine nacelles offers significant savings in aircraft fuel consumption. Based upon current engine configurations nett sfc benefits of up to 2% are possible. In addition the engine nacelle is ideally suited to the early inclusion of laminar flow technology, being relatively self contained with the possibility of application to existing airframes. In September 1992 a European Consortium managed by Rolls-Royce including MTU and DLR began flight testing of a natural laminar flow nacelle. This programme was later extended by R-R and DLR to flight test a hybrid laminar flow nacelle featuring boundary layer suction and insect contamination protection. The tests evaluated the effects of flight and engine environment, boundary layer transition phenomena, suction system operation and insect contamination avoidance strategies. This paper describes the global conclusions from these flight tests which are a significant milestone leading to the future application of laminar flow technology to engine nacelles.