Active turbulence cancellation makes bumpy flights 80% smoother

Re:Active turbulence cancellation makes bumpy flights 80% sm... by ak217 on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @02:23PM (#38617015)

You don't need thrusters (which would be impractical). I think you can get most of the benefit by sensing with tiny canards in the front next to pitot tubes, and using electric motors to adjust ailerons/flaperons/spoilerons multiple times a second.

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Re:Active turbulence cancellation makes bumpy flights 80% sm... by Kim_Bruning on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @11:43PM (#38622759)

AV-8B and F-35B use bleed air for thrusters (for stability and low speed maneuvering).

Obviously this impacts engine efficiency, so not 100% sure how great it would be for cruise, but doesn't seem entirely impractical?

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Re:Active turbulence cancellation makes bumpy flights 80% sm... by ak217 on Wednesday December 13, 2023 @02:46PM (#38633199)

I think those are great examples of platforms that are not practical - they are only used in situations where they absolutely must get a plane to take off/land vertically, no matter the cost (in maintenance overhead or efficiency). I don't think they clear the bar in commercial aviation - a bleed air thruster system, even confined to the wing, would add a ton of complexity and hazards and weight. By comparison, the actuators, control surfaces, and airflow sensors are already there in commercial planes - in some planes it might even be possible to retrofit without introducing any new hardware, aside from more, bigger, more sensitive AoA sensors perhaps (which Boeing needs to do anyway, zing.)

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