Rabat – Moroccan research engineer Othmane Benafan is part of a new project at NASA to improve the sustainability of the aviation industry.
Benafan is a materials research engineer at the NASA Glenn Research Center, High Temperature and Smart Alloys Branch. His research focuses on developing lighter weight alloys that are also capable of shape-shifting for aerospace purposes.
His research and experience into shape memory alloys helps in creating devices for planetary research on Mars, NASA’s website says.
That same technology is being used to produce alloys for the aviation industry that could help make the business more sustainable and lessen some of its financial burden.
“It doesn’t bend out of shape. It doesn’t extend. It doesn’t shrink. It twists on its axis,” said Benafan, explaining the properties of the materials they are developing, which are mainly intended to be used on planes’ vortex generators (VG).
NASA is working on the project with aviation giant Boeing. The VGs that were tested could fold or extend as required based on the temperature.
“We’ve worked with Boeing on this idea from the start. Given some basics of the device’s geometry, the temperatures, etc., we designed the alloys to match those requirements,” Benafan added.
Initial concepts for the project have been shown, but the technology is still undergoing testing to ensure that it is compliant with durability and reliability standards.
The prospect of reducing costs for airlines could be a very tempting one, as the industry remains very hard to enter due to the high costs. With the aviation industry contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, the project could help lower emissions, another strong proposition during an age when there is so much focus on green energy.
