Design of a smart leading edge device

To make use of low-drag future generation wings with high aspect ratio and low sweep for natural lami-nar flow, new high lift devices at the leading have to be developed(ACARE,2008; Horstmann,2006). At the leading edge a smart e.g. morphing high lift device is developed which provides a high-quality sur-face without gaps and steps. Due to the low maturity of morphing skins (Thill, 2008) the challenge of high strains has to be solved by an adequate design process. In the DLR a design process for the design of such smart devices is developed. It com-prises the requirements of the smart leading edge device, its design for wind tun-nel tests, the structural pre-design and sizing of a full-scale leading edge section