NASA-MIT develop radical wing

A team of engineers from NASA and the Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT) has built and tested a radically new airplane wing, assembled from hundreds of tiny identical pieces, which can change shape to control flight. It may even provide a boost to aircraft production, flight, and maintenance efficiency, according to researchers in the March 31 edition of the journal Smart Materials and Structures co-authored by research engineer Nicholas Cramer and MIT alumnus Kenneth Cheung both of NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.; Benjamin Jenett, a graduate student at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms; and eight others. The new wing design was tested at NASA Ames’ wind tunnel. The tested assembly system makes it possible to deform the whole wing or parts of it by incorporating a mix of stiff and flexible components. The structure, made up of thousands of mini-triangle like struts, is composed mostly of empty space, forms a “metamaterial” to combine a structural stiffness of polymer and the extreme lightness and low density of an aerogel. The team designed the system to automatically respond to changes in its aerodynamic loading conditions by shifting its shape in a passive wing-reconfiguration process “to produce the exact same behavior you would do actively,” Cramer says. Research shows promise for reducing cost and increasing performances of large, light weight, stiff structures, says Daniel Campbell, structures researcher at Boeing’s Aurora Flight Sciences, who was not part of the research. Promising applications include structural applications for airships and space-based structures, and wing-like blades for wind turbines. (Source: MIT News 03/31/19)