Research in Natural Laminar Flow and Laminar-Flow Control: Part 3

Since the mid 1970's, NASA, industry, and universities have worked together to conduct important research focused at developing laminar-flow technology that could reduce fuel consumption for general aviation, commuter, and transport aircraft by as much as 40 to 50 percent. This research, which was initiated under the NASA Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program and continued through the Research and Technology Base Program, has proved very successful with many significant and impressive results having been obtained.

This symposium was planned in view of the recent accomplishments within the areas of laminar-flow control and natural laminar flow and the potential benefits of laminar-flow technology to the civil and military aircraft communities in the United States. The symposium included technical sessions on advanced theory and design tool development, wind tunnel and flight research, transition measurement and detection techniques, low and high Reynolds number research, and subsonic and supersonic research.