Metamorphic Wings: The Future of Flight is Here

First thing that comes to mind is temperature. Early mobilephone stations suffered terribly from temperature change, going out of tune as the weather changed. Getting these flexible surfaces to behave consistantly over the temperature range airliners experience will be a substancial challenge.

Flaps on landing. Whilst they do increase drag when deployed and therefore reduce airspeed as you say, their primary function is to maintain lift at lower airspeeds. 😊

Thanks for watching! It would be great to hear your thoughts on shape-shifting wings and maybe where you think they will become mainstream first? Also, if you want to design your own or anything else you can dream up, check out OnShape CAD for FREE at my link: onshape.pro/Ziroth Here is an example of an online CAD file (it's really cool): cad.onshape.com/documents/5783cd9799b63cd7f8947218…

Been watching your channel since the beginning, knew it was going to be a hit from day 1. Crazy to see how much it's already grown! So proud of you!

The the extra maintenance cost, extra weight and the extra danger for flutter. Will probably prevent this from ever getting used in larger aircraft.

Back in the days when I was a sailplane pilot, for high speed flight when jumping from one thermal to another, we would select negative flap (flaps deflected upwards) to modify the aerofoil to a high speed, low drag section. Once in the thermal we would lower maybe 10° of flap and slow right down to about stalling speed to be in the rising air for as long as possible. This was a really efficient way of flying.

Even if shape shifting wings become a reality, Fowler style flaps will probably still be needed on large aircraft due to separation at large curvatures. Fowler flaps have several elements. The gaps between the elements allow air to bleed from below the wing to above which prevents separation. A shape shifting wing could not do this. Shape shifting does seem useful for all other moving surfaces like ailerons, rudders and trim surfaces. It would be really interesting if they could also change the thickness and other aspects of the section to tune efficiency to speed and angle of attack to move the drag bucket around.

I would be VERY suprised if this method of increasing wing efficiency (over many tried and proven ones) would generate a net gain in efficiency at a useful scale and therefore cost savings once you factor in the absurd increase in conplexity, moving parts, weight and service requirements, not to mention the additional reinforement that would be required for the wing structure and the substantial decrease in usable capacity for holding fuel in the wings. Oh and then theres the manufacturing costs which would be... A lot.

I work in airplane maintenance, structure engineering to be more specific, and damages on these surfaces are quite often, like dents, punctures, lightning strikes or disbond. I wonder how repaireable are these new metamorphic parts, I mean, they are awesome, but if you could provide some info about the repairability of these parts would be really appreciated

This is super cool! Excited to see where this technology goes. Another great video :)

I worked on a very similar design about 20 years ago in a AFRL funded project. It might have some applications for small vehicles but for larger vehicles there is no advantage over conventional “morphing” systems like flaps and slats.

I spent some time designing a morphing wing which transformed from an ultralight (high speed low lift low drag low landing approach angle) configuration to a microlight (low speed high lift high drag high landing approach angle) configuration which used just two morphing control points, for a small 3 seat amphibian. It was also a weight shift control arrangement with the wing assembly attached above the fuselage with a stiff rhombic truss that was controlled with a standard stick arrangement either floor mounted or roof mounted, as was the 1935 Waterman Aerobile. I also included a Goldschmeid drag reduction feature in the fuselage ( a little more difficult in an amphibian fuselage), all of which I never got to test to see if it worked as envisaged. I achieved the water breakaway function in the fuselage with a trim tab which reduced drag when retracted after lift off. My 2 favourite aircraft are the Brazilian Airmax Seamax (which can land gear down on water) and the Waterman Aerobile. And the A380 of course.

Impressive! Thank you very much showing us 😊

Pretty good channel. Good source material, supporting media and animation, and excellent speaking skills. Liked, subscribed. Thank you, from across the pond.

Ever since I learned in school that even dolphins use the trick to swim faster, I've been excited about morphing. I'm a comfort guy and love my motorcycle not so much for it's handling but for the option to electrically adjust the windscreen height to my actual speed, and electrically fold the mirrors when approaching a narrow passage, like a traffic jam (I just don't understand this isn't standard on every bike; it really should). So I fully believe in this development. When it comes to aerodynamics morphing is the holy grail.

Thanks for this video. The most impressive thing, I think, is just how much research and how many examples are shown, from three different continents. I hope we'll see commercial applications of this tech quite soon.

Wildly interesting research. You have a perfect narrator’s voice. Content well structured and executed. Pleased I found your work. Subscribed immediately after first view.

Excellent video. Thank you.

Cheers bud, I think this was exactly the information I was looking for. Very well researched (from what I can tell).

Reminds me of the Aero-elastic wings E.D.I. had in the movie Stealth