Wind beneath the wings

Simulation Wind beneath the wings

2024-08-06 Source: HS Coburg | Translated by AI 2 min Reading Time

A piece of Coburg University is now also in Munich: For a media station in the German Museum, two scientists from Coburg University measured the wing of an iconic airplane and created a simulation that visualizes the airflow.

Visitors to the German Museum in Munich can see what an airstream on an airplane wing looks like, visualized with all the technical details.(Image: freely licensed / Pixabay) — Visitors to the German Museum in Munich can see what an airstream on an airplane wing looks like, visualized with all the technical details.
(Image: freely licensed / Pixabay)

Who hasn't stuck their hand out of the window of a moving car to feel the wind on their outstretched fingers? Visitors to the German Museum in Munich can see what such an airstream looks like on a real airplane wing and with all the technical details visualized. A media station is now available in the Modern Aviation exhibition, where Prof. Dr. Philipp Epple from the HS Coburg, along with his research assistant Dr. Michael Steppert, have worked. It shows the simulation of an landing approach and how the air behaves around the wing during this process.

Practical knowledge for the holiday flight

Visitors can now gain a daily impression at this media station of the flight mechanical contexts and the operation of aircraft components that they might observe from the cabin window during their approach to their vacation destination.

On display is the wing section of a VFW 614, one of the first passenger aircraft developed in the Federal Republic after World War II and equipped with two jet engines. The focus lies on the change in airflow when braking and deploying various landing flaps: "Here, the function of a wing with landing flaps and spoilers was explained using a complex numerical flow simulation during the landing approach, and the flow was visualized," explains Prof. Epple.

From CAD to CFD

Collaboration between Coburg University and the German Museum Munich: Prof. Dr. Phillip Epple, Dr. Robert Kluge, curator for aviation after 1945 in the German Museum, and Dr. Michael Steppert.
(Image:Coburg University)

For this purpose, special recordings of the wing geometry were made in the Flugwerft Schleißheim, as the German Museum did not have a CAD model or a drawing. In addition to the shape, detail shots were also needed, such as the path movement of the landing flaps and the air brake.

In Coburg, a CAD model was then created from the data, which served as the basis for a CFD simulation, says Epple: "As a result, it was possible to replicate the landing process of the corresponding wing section of the VFW 614 in the flow simulation at the German Museum. Using the displayed wing section, all stages of the landing approach can be tracked in terms of the position of the landing flap and air brake. At the same time, visitors can see the change in the airflow at any time during the landing approach."

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Date: 08.12.2025

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