MIT and NASA create a flexible aircraft wing

• Researchers at MIT and NASA have developed an aircraft wing that can change shape and increase the efficiency of aircraft flight, production and maintenance, according to MIT News.
• On a traditional aircraft wing, only parts of the wing, such as flaps and ailerons, can move to change the direction of the plane.
• The wing designed by MIT and NASA researchers would be able to move in its entirety.
• Since the wing could adapt to the particular characteristics of each flight stage (take-off, landing, steering, etc.), it could perform better than traditional wings.

Researchers at MIT and NASA have developed an aircraft wing that can change shape and increase the efficiency of aircraft flight, production and maintenance, according to MIT News.

On a traditional aircraft wing, only parts of the wing, such as flaps and ailerons, can move to change the direction of the plane. The wing designed by MIT and NASA researchers would be able to move in its entirety.

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The wing is composed of hundreds of identical small pieces containing rigid and flexible components that make it lighter and more efficient than traditional airplane wings. Since the wing could adapt to the particular characteristics of each flight stage (take-off, landing, steering, etc.), it could offer better performance than traditional wings, which are not designed to optimize performance during any part of the flight.

"We are able to gain efficiency by adapting the shape to the loads from different angles of attack," said Nicholas Cramer, NASA research engineer at MIT News.

The parts of the wing are arranged in a lattice structure that creates a large amount of empty space and is covered with a thin polymeric material. The combination of materials and the structure of the wing makes it as firm as a polymer similar to rubber (although much less dense) and as light as an airgel.

Benjamin Jenett, a graduate student at MIT, told MIT News that the wing had performed better than expected during a wind tunnel test at NASA's Research Center in Langley, Va.