Dufour Aerospace is developing a tilt-wing aircraft that will be able to take-off and land vertically but fly like regular fixed wing aircraft.

The prediction of the behavior of tilt-wing aircraft in the transition between hover and cruise flight is extremely difficult. On tilt-wing aircraft strong aerodynamic interactions between propeller, wing and tail occur which is not the case for conventional aircraft. There are no ready-to-use simulation tools that can accurately predict these aerodynamic forces within time and cost constraints of industry applications.

During the project existing aerodynamics theory was taken and implemented into an industrial tool able to predict the aerodynamics of tilt-wing aircraft. In addition, wind tunnel tests with a detailed wind tunnel model were conducted to enhance the input data for the simulation tool. The wind tunnel tests also improved the understanding of the aerodynamic behavior during the transition phase.