A Review of The de Havilland Augmentor-Wing Powered-Lift Concept and Its Future Applications

The development of the de Havilland Aircraft of Canada (DHC) augmentor-wing powered-lift concept is briefly reviewed from the mid-1960's to the present day.

A parallel DHC research program over the period from the mid-1970's to the present day has developed a very thick high speed compound or multi-foil wing section for the Augmentor-Wing concept. This program proved more successful than initially anticipated and has led to the development of both blown and unblown wing sections up to 24% thickness-chord with C_L (cruise) greater than 0.6 and design cruise Mach numbers around 0.7, two-dimensionally. This research is also reviewed.

More recently, design studies have shown that integration of these technologies leads to very efficient transport aircraft which can achieve Ultra-Stol capability with only the thrust installed for cruise. This has led to a proposal for a high speed operational demonstrator aircraft based upon a C130 Hercules fuselage and empennage powered by a blowing derivative version of the PW2037 engine.

Some other applications for the thick compound section, blown and unblown, are discussed briefly.