The preparation of a composite structure for a first large scale ground test of a smart and gapless wing leading edge

At the Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems (FA, Prof. Wiedemann) of the DLR the structure of a flexible and gapless wing leading edge has been developed for testing in large scale structure-system ground tests. The absence of gaps in a flexible wing leading edge allows for a significant noise reduction and provides an additional key technology for realizing wings with a fully natural laminar flow. In the years 2009 and 2010 the work in the project SmartLED within the 4th German Aviation Research Program (LuFo) was focused on the preparation and realization of the first ground test of the in the project developed overall system. The overall smart droop nose concept arose from the cooperation of Airbus and EADS, whereas the DLR Institute FA dealt with the structural design, the test of the material systems, the simulation of the overall system, and the development of manufacturing technologies for the composite structures to be employed in the planned tests. The detailed presentation of this work forms the content of this paper which has been made possible through the application of the process chain for composite structures estab-lished at the Institute FA of the DLR