Were the Wright Brothers in Newton's camp?

[old man emu]

This is from NASA: https://wright.nasa.gov/airplane/warp.html

 

Question: What is the perceived advantage of this new generation of wing warping technology, what are barriers to its adoption, and how practicable is it for it to trickle down to general aviation?

 

Answer: A warped wing or a morphing airfoil, shows significant improvement in lift to drag ratio and in decreasing the overall drag of the vehicle. Depending on the specific technology many of the components are internal which has several benefits (decreased drag, increased life span) and with advancing technology and research the power consumption and additional weight of these components has been significantly reduced.

 

In the world of UAS's morphing wings have been show in some cases to increase stall AoA by 8 degrees or more (see Membrane Wing-Based Micro Air Vehicles) The complexity of analyzing morphing wings and airfoils however can present a challenge, as now there is significantly more fluid structure interaction, requiring solvers with more capabilities, or an increase in experimental data. Large scale implementation is currently underway (see NASA Successfully Tests Shape-Changing Wing for Next Generation Aviation or Morphing Wing Passes Test, Business Jet Flew Concept Years in Making) and in a aerospace world that is concerned about improvements to develop faster and more efficient vehicles this technology holds some appeal.

 

 

[facthunter]

 Most wings  we deal with are designed to control twist to  a minimum. Aileron reversal effect is not unknown however where this is inadequate.  The same could happen with the elevator or rudder. The horizontal stabilizer of the Boeing B 727 is designed to twist if the MMo is exceeded  under the action of a supersonic (local)  shock wave which forms at excess speed and that tends to cause it to raise the nose and correct the situation.  Nev

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

Big gliders with thin wings ( like the ASH25 ) could not have been built without using carbon fibre. If you tried to build a glass wing like this, the twisting effect would cause the wingtips to unload and the extra span would be wasted . It was the stiffness of the carbon which made the difference.