Umm, new kind of wing? I’m pretty sure the Wright Flyer used the same principle. I guess the author never hard of the Wright brothers.
Can just imagine the software necessary to modify wing configuration throughout a flight. What possibly can go wrong?
Wright Brothers should sue!.......................
Eventually NASA will get around to leaking the liquid-wing and aircraft haul designs. These allow the exoskin to stretch and retract during different phases of flight and takeoff. Once we build the stretchable skin bodies on space and other craft, speeds and efficiencies will increase.
Paging the Wright Brothers....
This has been happening with windsurfing racing sails for years. They have always been adjustable and you can change the shape of the sail (which is essentially a high tech wing) on the fly simply by tightening or loosening the outhaul lines.
I would think this could be useful for de icing also. Like the flexible ice cube trays.
Wet wing?.. (hmm), or will it use bladders for fuel tanks? (No I didn’t go to the link)
Birds have been doing that for centuries.
Wing Warping. That is so Wright!
“The fact that most aircraft are the same shape”—essentially a tube with wings—”is because of expense. It’s not always the most efficient shape.”
Very interesting article.
AS others have noted ... “Everything old is *new* again.”
When I first started hang gliding the foldable wings had evolved from single surface Rogallo style kite wings to very efficient double surface structures with battens to maintain the proper airfoil shape. These wings were much more efficient and improved the glide ratio from approximately t to 4 to up to 1 to 8 or sometimes even up to 1 to 10.
Previously if you wanted this type of efficiency you had to purchase or build a non-foldable double surface hang glider such as a “Mitchel Wing”. And the pioneers of long distance hang glider records at that time such as George Worthington used this type of hang glider to establish their world records.
The problem with the double surface folding wings and the non-folding “Mitchel Wing” type of hang gliders as compared to the simple single surface Rogallo kite type of wings were that the stall speeds were much higher which made them more difficult to land safely. So single surface gliders evolved which had a high aspect ratios similar to the double surface foldable gliders minus the bottom surface.
But I mention all of this because the battens in the foldable double surface gliders evolved from stiff pieces of aluminum tubing to flexible pieces of fiberglass or carbon fiber which were designed to flatten out at higher speeds. With one of these new style gliders at low speeds the chord of the wing is much thicker at slow speeds which reduces the stall speed and makes it easier to land. But when you fly more quickly the battens flatten out which increases the wing’s glide ratio. It is a fairly simple but ingenious solution which reminds me of this “new” style of aircraft control.
I of course put quotes around “new” because as others have already noted here and in the comments attached to the source article the Wright brother’s early aircraft used wing warping and not ailerons to bank and control direction. So this form of directional control is a return to the roots of aviation.
Uh, the Wright Brothers did this over a century ago.
And the first lighting strike will....