Chinese scientists break design ‘curse’ that killed US Navy’s drone programme

Chinese aerospace engineers have a revolutionary software design that they say will allow them to overcome a major barrier to stealth aircraft development.

The new platform allows plane designers to have as many design variables as they want without increasing computing load – a feat long deemed impossible in aviation circles.

The researchers described their innovation as breaking the “dimensionality curse” and used the US Navy’s X-47B, a demonstration stealth drone, to illustrate how the system worked.

Once celebrated for its carrier landings and autonomous aerial refuelling, the X-47B project was cancelled in 2015 because of unresolved trade-offs between stealth, aerodynamics and propulsion.

However, the Chinese software design delivered dramatic improvements to the design with 740 variables, including measures to reduce flight drag and its radar signature, as well as improving engine thrust while maintaining airflow stability.

“Traditional global optimisation algorithms face the curse of dimensionality problem,” wrote the team led by Huang Jiangtao from the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre in a peer-reviewed paper published in Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica earlier this month.

The shape of components such as wing leading edges and engine inlet ducts affects two crucial things: how smoothly the plane flies and how easily it can be detected by enemy radars.