China launched an airfoil design system and database on Wednesday to provide key technical support for independent innovation in the aviation sector.
The airfoil database was built by the National Key Laboratory of Aircraft Configuration Design in northwest China’s Xi’an City, which was jointly run by the Northwestern Polytechnical University and the First Aircraft Institute of Aviation Industry Corporation of China.
The database integrates a customized airfoil profile system designed for eight types of advanced aircraft, creating China's first such database for industrial applications.
"The research and development team, consisting of members of three generations, has devoted over 30 years of efforts to build up the theoretical foundation of airfoil design and combine it with model development, thus creating a comprehensive airfoil system in China from scratch. Now China has developed over 1,000 airfoils with complete independent intellectual property rights. The release of China's airfoil system marks a breakthrough in its independent development of basic research and design development in this field, which has great historical significance," said Tang Changhong, director of the National Key Laboratory of Aircraft Configuration Design, during the launch event.
As airfoil design is the foundation of aircraft design and development, experts said that the establishment of the airfoil database provides technical support for China's general aviation and drone sectors, which will play an important supporting role in the development of the aerospace industry in China.
"The release of this set of system and database can greatly reduce the work in the early stage of the design department, thus speeding up the development process. In the future, people can look for the suitable [ airfoil design] in our system according to their performance requirements. If they have more specific requirement, they can use this system as a basis, and our supporting design software can quickly make customized airfoil to meet their requirements," said Gao Zhenghong, a professor from the School of Aeronautics of Northwestern Polytechnical University.
China launches airfoil database to support innovation in aviation technology
China launches airfoil database to support innovation in aviation technology
