Print Email Facebook Twitter An inflatable wing using the principle of Tensairity Title An inflatable wing using the principle of Tensairity Author Breuer, J. Ockels, W. Luchsinger, R.H. Faculty Aerospace Engineering Department Aerospace Design, Integration and Operations Date 2007-01-01 Abstract The paper describes the new concept Tensairity which can be used to significantly improve the load bearing capacity of inflatable wings. The basic principle of Tensairity is to use an inflatable structure to stabilize conventional compression and tension elements. So far, Tensairity has been mainly used in civil engineering application like roof structures and bridges. In this work, considerations to apply Tensairity to wing structures are given and the construction of two wing-like Tensairity kite prototypes is described. Test results on the Tensairity structure used in these kites are presented and compared to purely air inflated structures. Finally, the advantages of Tensairity wings are discussed and some application areas of these wings are suggested. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:306785d0-f75b-4378-a145-75905c83efa7 Publisher American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Source 48th AIAA Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference, Waikiki, Hawaii, USA, 2007 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights (c) 2007 The Author(s) ; American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Files PDF Ockels_2007.pdf 382.67 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:306785d0-f75b-4378-a145-75905c83efa7/datastream/OBJ/view