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Aircraft wing designers have drawn their inspiration from birds since the dawn of aviation. But engineers are still finding ways of improving design based on examples found in the ornithological world.

In the world of unmanned air vehicles, one team of engineers has designed a morphed wing prototype which uses in-built shape memory alloy actuators that deform the shape of the wing when heated. Inspiration for this design was drawn from birds, as the University of Toronto’s Professor Shaker Meguid (MIE), who is heading the morphed wing research program, explains. “To achieve flight mission adaptability, birds change the size and shapes of their wings,” he says.

“We are trying to use similar principles to morph aircraft wings to make them highly adaptable. A bird glides for maximum lift and folds its wings for reduced drag. This is the basic principle adopted from birds that prompted us to focus on wing planform.”

Trees also played a part in inspiring the design because they have the ability to morph the shape of their leaves to decrease heat loss. “One could also mimic the shape and morphing characteristics of a leaf and apply them to an aircraft wing to optimise the aerodynamic characteristics of the wing,” says Professor Meguid.

He believes the technology behind the UAV morphed wing design could eventually be applied to civil aircraft, and claims that “some of the big airplane manufacturers are already interested in this technology and current research is being done to implement morphed wings.

“The fact that morphing wings will be used in commercial aircraft is certain; the only unknown is when this will happen,” he adds.  “Most likely it will be in the near future.”

 

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