Winging it

Landing a plane after all the engines on one side have cut out is fraught
with danger. But a new system developed at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center
in Edwards, California, could make such emergency landings safer. The system
automatically pumps fuel out of the wing with the damaged engine to the opposite
wing. This shifts the plane’s centre of gravity closer to the working engines.
At the same time, the system increases power to the remaining engines to prevent
the plane from stalling. Another system tested at Dryden uses a neural network
to help fly a plane when its…