The Modern Multi-Wings

We live on a planet with atmosphere. The advantage of air is its lifting power and its disadvantage is the drag. Therefore, while we are traveling inside the atmosphere it’s best to optimize the advantages and disadvantages. In the early days of aviation, multi wing planes were experimented a lot. Unfortunately, not these days. Our designs are too much illusioned by the fancy computer illustrations that have single wings. I don’t know the details of the wing design and simulation software, but they may not even have proper options to test and design multi wings.

Since the early days of aviation, the material science and the engine designs have evolved considerably. I propose that we should experiment more with drone planes that have multiple wings that are made of advanced composite materials such as carbon nanotube. High aspect ratio wings produce the highest lift. However, they are fragile. Multi-wing design makes them stronger even compared to traditional wings. This allows the plane to fly at a higher altitude, reducing the drag penalty. More importantly, the use of advanced materials allows much thinner profile for wings, reducing the drag further.

The multi-wings can even be used on the first and the second stages of the rocket that travel inside the atmosphere. It would even help the recoverability of the second stage as well. More lifting allows more thrust to be directed to horizontal acceleration instead of counter acting the gravity. Additionally, the used rocket stages can stay longer aloft. Allowing more gradual deceleration by air drag instead of using more propellent to slow down.

With todays advanced prototyping technologies, it is very fast to experiment with such ideas. If you want to differentiate your company from the competition. You should think more out of the box.