Viresaero-movable wing surface?

Anybody know anything about this? http://www.viresaero.com/products.html

 

It is an application of a moving surface to a lifting body - in this case, an airfoil. Not a new technology, and I strongly doubt can pay-off the costs of installation, maintenance and added weight on an airplane. You can read something more about moving-surfaces and their use in this recent thread: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/hy...e-boundary-layer-control-hydrofoil-48886.html . Everything I wrote there remains valid for this application too.

Frankly, the only thing that impresses me on their web page is gorgeous Ms. Kristen Gallogly. The rest is unconvincing at best.

Cheers

 

Their video depicts a very low Reynolds number flow, judging by the thickness of the boundary layer. I don't think you'd see eddies that big on the Global Hawk they depict.

I can't find anything on their website that says what their product actually is. But it appears to be a moving belt type of boundary layer control. Such systems have been used for a long time in wind tunnels to simulate ground effects, because it avoids the buildup of a boundary layer along the ground board.

Most moving wall boundary layer studies have looked at rotating cylinders along the leading edge, such as https://circle.ubc.ca/bitstream/id/98948/UBC_1988_A1 M64.pdf‎. A moving belt would probably boost the maximum lift a bit more compared to cylinders at the leading trailing edges, but it would be interesting to see how competitive it is with Fowler flaps.

I'm skeptical about how beneficial it would be with regard to reducing cruise drag, especially if one considered putting the same power into propulsion as is used to run the belt.