The SmartFish Project is a coalition of European designers and aviation/aerospace firms. Included are:
Extra (world leader in aerobatic aircraft) for system integration and test flights, Leichtwerk for interpretation statics and dynamics, LTB Borowski for composite manufacturing, Liebherr Aerospace for Landing Gear System development, DLR (German Aerospace Center) for flutter analysis and inlet optimization, RUAG Aerospace for wind tunnel testing, and EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (they did a great job for Alinghi) for overall design optimization. (Thanks to Mike Elgan who featured the SmartFish on aviationblog.com earlier this year).
One of the project leaders (board member) is Claude Nicollier who has been for nearly 30 years a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut of Swiss nationality. He was a member of the first group of ESA astronauts selected in 1978 and flew on 4 Shuttle missions before retiring from ESA in 2007. He is currently professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne or EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) where he teaches a course on “Space Technology and Operations”.
He is also involved in the “Solar Impulse” solar powered aircraft program as Head of flight test operations. This project was launched by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg and has as objective to fly round the world in several legs on solar power only, with one pilot on board. (Solar Impulse was featured on the AeroInnovate.org blog in April, 2010).
Nicollier said of SmartFish, “I support the SmartFish project because the conventional designs have been widely exploited so far, mostly with success, but the time has come to be creative and try other approaches using new technologies and different, low drag aerodynamic shapes – this is exactly what the SmartFish team is doing”.
Modeled after a tuna, the SmartFish flies without slats, spoilers or flaps. During April and May, an autopilot prototype has been flying proof of concept missions, which are viewable on video on http://www.smartfish.ch/.
The unique design is scalable: the prototype is less than 7 meters long, but a general aviation version for 20 passengers and a SpaceFish version for missions to and from the International Space Station are both in early stages of construction. Photos of the outer shell and inner workings are viewable on http://www.smartfish.ch/.
THIS is truly a game-changing design, relying on new forms of manufacturing processes and materials, revolutionary avionics & control surfaces, and innovative propulsion systems.
Nice post, good info.