A composite structure aiming for its first large scale ground test in 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 flxible wing leading edge allows 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 project developed overall system. The overall smart droop nose concept arose from the systems, simulation of the overall system and the development of manufacturing technologies for the composite structures to be employed in the planned tests. The detailed pres-entation of this work forms the content of this paper which has been made possible through the application of the process chain for composite structures established at the Insitute FA of the DLR