Fast Morphing Wings and Prop Blades
Towards Bird-like Control of Thrust, Lift, Drag, Flare and Ride Quality
Elastic design, or compliant, design, exploits the natural elasticity of materials, embracing deflection rather than avoiding it, to create monolithic, load-bearing flexible structures that change shapes on demand. By applying the principles of compliant design, various multifunctional FlexFoil shape adaptive control surfaces were developed enabling significant reduction in drag and noise. This talk will provide an overview of development, application, and flight testing of FlexFoil control surfaces for fixed and rotary wing aircraft.
