Reducing Aircraft Radar Cross-Section with Owl Wing Type Serrated Trailing Edges

Serrations at trailing edges of aircraft wing have long been known to suppress flow noise by suitably altering the flow at the trailing edge. Serrations at trailing edges are now also being used to reduce surface edge return contribution in scattering of electromagnetic waves by combat aircraft wing in order to reduce detectability by radar. A study was carried out on the efficacy of trailing edge serrations found in the wing of a barn owl, formed by its primary remiges or flight feathers, towards minimizing trailing edge related contributions by a common combat aircraft wing in an electromagnetic field. The barn owl is especially well known for its silent flight which is usually attributed to multiple adaptations in its wings including at the trailing edge. Barn owl type trailing edge serrations are appended to a planar metallic delta wing and subjected to an incident electromagnetic field. Electromagnetic scattering is predicted by numerically solving Maxwell's equations using a finite volume time domain method and the radar cross-section calculated.