A morphing airfoil system includes an airfoil including a bulkhead and an airfoil body extending from the bulkhead, at least one inflatable/deflatable bladder positioned within the airfoil body, and a bladder pressurization mechanism configured for controlling pressurization of the at least one bladder. The system also includes one or more processors and a memory communicably coupled to the one or more processors and storing an airfoil control module including instructions that when executed by the processor(s) cause the processor(s) to control operation of the bladder pressurization mechanism to increase or decrease internal pressure in the at least one bladder to change a configuration of the airfoil.

A skin for an aircraft is configured to be disposed on a first rigid member (182). The first rigid member has at least a portion of a structural frame for the aircraft. The skin is configured to be disposed on a second rigid member (184) that has at least a portion of the structural frame for the aircraft. The second rigid member (184) is movable with respect to the first rigid member (182) and a distance is defined between the first rigid member and the second rigid member. A morphing member of the skin extends between the first rigid member and the second rigid member. The morphing member compensates for at least one of a change in the distance and a change in an orientation between the first rigid member and the second rigid member.

An aircraft (1) including a fixed wing (7) and a wing tip device (9) moveably mounted thereon. The wing tip device (9) is movable from a load-alleviating configuration to a flight configuration. The wing tip device includes an airflow channel (88) extending between respective apertures (83, 84) on the upper surface and lower surface of the wing tip device. The channel (88) is configurable between an open state in which air can flow through the channel and a closed state in which the airflow through the channel (88), via the apertures (83, 84), is blocked. The channel (88) is configured such that when the wing tip device (9) is in the load-alleviating configuration and the channel (88) is in the open state, the aerodynamic loading on the wing tip device in flight urges the wing tip device towards the flight configuration.

A vehicle comprising a morphing wing and a body is disclosed. The aircraft is configured to transform from a first configuration into a second configuration for ascent or descent of the aircraft. The drag force and lift force on the aircraft in the second configuration are less than in the first configuration. Transforming from the first to the second configuration comprises: contracting the wing within a geometric plane defined by the wing, and rotating the outer edge of the wing downwards, out of the geometric plane.

The aircraft (10) comprises a fuselage (11) and a rhombohedral wing structure (12) comprising front wings (13, 14) mounted on a front wing-root support (17) and rear wings (15, 16) mounted on a rear wing-root support (18). One end of each front wing is articulated to one end of a rear wing and at least one of the wing-root supports is able to move along the fuselage. The wing-root supports (17, 18) are positioned respectively underneath and on top of the fuselage (11). The length (41) of the rear wings (15, 16) is strictly less than the length (48) of the front wings (13, 14). The aircraft (10) comprises an adaptor for adapting the position of each wing root (17, 18) to suit the flight conditions.

A morphing wing includes a pantograph mechanism capable of being extended and contracted in a predetermined direction, a plurality of flight feathers attached to the pantograph mechanism, connection members configured to connect flight feathers adjacent to each other among the plurality of flight feathers, a first rotating mechanism configured to rotate the pantograph mechanism around one axis of a plane that intersects the direction, and a second rotating mechanism configured to rotate the pantograph mechanism around another axis of the plane. Each of the plurality of flight feathers is configured so that an angle formed by adjacent flight feathers connected via the connection members increases as the pantograph mechanism extends.

A vehicle comprising a morphing wing and a body is disclosed. The aircraft is configured to transform from a first configuration into a second configuration for ascent or descent of the aircraft. The drag force and lift force on the aircraft in the second configuration are less than in the first configuration. Transforming from the first to the second configuration comprises: contracting the wing within a geometric plane defined by the wing, and rotating the outer edge of the wing downwards, out of the geometric plane.

A blade or wing element includes a plurality of ribs (20) rotatable and/or slidable with respect to one another whereby to vary the aerodynamic configuration of the blade or wing element by causing a twist thereof. A blade or wing or blade or wing assembly, including such a blade or wing element is disclosed, as well as an aerodynamic apparatus such as an aircraft, or a wind turbine. A method of assembling a blade or wing element is also disclosed.

Systems and processes that integrate thermoplastic and shape memory alloy materials to form an adaptive composite structure capable of changing its shape. For example, the adaptive composite structure may be designed to serve as a multifunctional adaptive wing flight control surface. Other applications for such adaptive composite structures include in variable area fan nozzles, winglets, fairings, elevators, rudders, or other aircraft components having an aerodynamic surface whose shape is preferably controllable. The material systems can be integrated by means of overbraiding (interwoven) with tows of both thermoplastic and shape memory alloy materials or separate layers of each material can be consolidated (e.g., using induction heating) to make a flight control surface that does not require separate actuation.

In a method for manufacturing prestressed shells having tunable bistability, in order to determine the appropriate prestress to be applied to the bistable structure/shell, it provides: clamping a shell by applying a predetermined curvature on a portion of its edge; defining a discrete shell model dependent on a small number of configuration parameters q_i, (i<5), by projecting the non-linear shell model of Marguerre-von Kármán onto an appropriate finite dimensional space so that the projection does not significantly alter the strain elastic energy; tracing the stability maps in the space of the design parameters by minimizing the discrete representation of the strain elastic energy E(q_i;p_i) thus obtained; and choosing the design parameters providing the prestress needed to obtain the desired response in terms of project requirements.