Our concept study of a modern, highly agile fighter aircraft
As part of defence technology research into military aircraft, we have improved the design, analysis and assessment capability of future combat aircraft within the DLR research project WingMates. As part of the technology development, the entire spectrum of manned and semi-autonomous configurations was considered. The design of a generic future fighter demonstrator was already the focus of the previous Diabolo research project and was further developed in the follow-up project WingMates. With the help of the fighter aircraft design, technological gaps are to be closed and the design and evaluation capability of the methods and processes developed at DLR demonstrated.
The basis for the aircraft design is a catalogue of requirements in coordination with the Federal Ministry of Defence for a future German fighter aircraft. The design result leads to a fighter aircraft in the size class of a Lockheed F-22. Specific features include internal weapon bays, "bump" inlets for separating the wall boundary layers at the engine duct inlet and the engine design.
A full model of a military generic configuration
The DLR Future Fighter Demonstrator (DLR-FFD) is a lightweight model that was manufactured using a plastic printing process. The triple delta wing configuration with vertical and horizontal stabilisers is a design result of the DLR Diabolo defence technology project. The control surfaces on the strake, on the leading and trailing edges of the wing and the rudders on the vertical tail are in contrasting colours. The engine inlets and the nozzle geometry are realistically represented on the model.
