User:Akhargis1/Wing Warping

Description
Birds visibly use wing warping to achieve control. This was a significant influence on early aircraft designers. The Wright brothers were the first group to use warping wings. Their first plane mimicked the bird's flight patterns and wing form.

In practice, since most wing warping designs involved flexing of structural members, they were difficult to control and liable to cause structural failure. Ailerons had begun to replace wing warping as the most common means of achieving lateral control as early as 1911, especially in biplane designs. Monoplane wings of the period were much more flexible, and proved more amenable to wing warping – but even for monoplane designs, ailerons became the norm after 1915.

Lateral (roll) control in early aircraft was problematic at best. An overly flexible, involuntarily twisting wing can cause involuntary rolling, but even worse, it can convert attempts at correction, either from wing warping or ailerons, into a counteracting "servo tab" effect. Once this was fully understood, wing structures were made progressively more rigid, precluding wing warping altogether – and aircraft became far more controllable in the lateral plane.

Current technology has allowed scientists to revisit the concept of wing warping (also known as morphing wings).

Applications
Wing warping was a common feature of early aircraft, including:


 * The Wright Flyer (1903)
 * The Antoinette V (1908), a wing-warping variant of the Antoinette IV
 * The Blériot XI (1909) following modifications introduced by Raymond Saulnier
 * The Etrich Taube (1909) originally used a cable-warped horizontal stabilizer trailing edge to give elevator functionality as well
 * The Morane-Saulnier N (1914), a World War I French scout
 * The Caudron G.4 (1915), a French biplane with twin engines.
 * The Fokker Eindecker (1915), the very first German fighter plane
 * Incorporated into unmanned drones (Current)

Modern re-assessment
Several of the reproduction planes built for the film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines used the wing warping control systems of the original aircraft – with mixed results. The wing warping of the Avro Triplane proved surprisingly successful, whereas on the reproduction Antoinette, with its very flexible wing, wing warping offered little effective lateral control. Since the original Antoinette-style ailerons would have probably been even less effective, unobtrusive "modern" ailerons were inserted – even with these, lateral control remained very poor.[1]

Wing morphing is a modern-day extension of wing warping in which the aerodynamic shape of the wing is modified under computer control. The technique, it is hoped, will give improved control at flying speeds near the speed of sound, where traditional control surfaces are less effective.[citation needed] Wing warping and wing morphing are also currently used to get extra control over an aircraft during difficult times such as in a storm. Research into this field is mainly conducted by NASA.

Many major companies and scientists are working on developing morphing wings. NASA is one of these companies. NASA is working to develop a morphing wing made of cells that will twist to mimic birds. The cells NASA is using to construct the wing are small black modules consisting of carbon fiber. The wings will one day be able to form civilian airplanes that fly in any conditions. Currrently, NASA is focusing on unmanned drones.

Inman is another company working on morphing wings. Inman works with bird biologists in the hope of fully mimicking the animals flight patterns. Car companies have invested in Inman for applying wing morphing tecniques to cars to make them more fuel efficient.

Benefits
Replacing the standard airplane model of today with the warping wing would lead to the following benefits:


 * Increased efficiency
 * Reduces fuel consumption
 * Increases stealth properties
 * Fewer number of unique parts used in assembly
 * Easier and cheaper manufacturing
 * Greater simplicity
 * Extends to other machines such as boats