Materials and Design 31 (2010) 12841292

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Materials and Design

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Shape morphing of aircraft wing: Status and challenges

A.Y.N. Soa a,*, S.A. Meguid a, K.T. Tan b, W.K. Yeo b
a
Engineering Mechanics and Aerospace Laboratory, University of Toronto, 5 Kings College Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G8
b
DSO National Laboratories, 20 Science Park Drive, Singapore 118230, Singapore

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, the recent activity in conceptual design, prototype fabrication, and evaluation of shape
Received 8 July 2009 morphing wing is concisely classied. Of special interest are concepts which include smart materials such
Accepted 7 September 2009 as shape memory alloys (SMA), piezoelectric actuators (PZT), and shape memory polymers (SMP). We
Available online 12 September 2009
will also provide several concepts that have been developed and evaluated by the authors. Our work indi-
cates that antagonistic SMA-actuated exural structures form a possible enabling technology for wing
Keywords: morphing of small aircraft. The use of SMA-actuated structures in shape morphing wing designs reduces
Shape morphing
the weight penalty due to the actuation systems, because such SMA-actuated structures carry aerody-
Recongurable wing
Variable geometry
namic loads.
Smart materials 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction to accumulate current knowledge on wing morphing concepts in a

In the eld of aeronautics, shape morphing has been used to
identify those aircraft that undergo certain geometrical changes
to enhance or adapt to their mission proles. There is neither an
exact denition nor an agreement between the researchers about
the type or the extent of the geometrical changes necessary to
qualify an aircraft for the title shape morphing. There is not a
clear denition for an enabling shape morphing technology
either. However, there is a general agreement that the conven-
tional hinged control surfaces or high lift devices, such as aps or
slats that provide discrete geometry changes cannot be considered
as morphing. No matter how one would choose to dene the
wing morphing, Reich and Sanders [1] listed the major challenges
of shape morphing aircraft design to be: the requirement for dis-
tributed high-power density actuation, structural mechanization,
exible skins, and control law development.
In this work, we focus our attention on the rst two of the above
challenges and classify the underlying technological backgrounds
and advances of shape morphing wing concepts during the past
decade. Specically, we summarize shape changing concepts for
aircraft wings that undergo substantial changes of airfoil prole,
planform, chord or span-wise camber. Therefore, technologies such
as adaptive utter control, or ow control devices via creating local
deformations, are not covered in this paper. Preference is given to
the designs that consist of smart materials such as shape memory
alloy actuators (SMA), piezoelectric actuators (PZT) or shape mem-
ory polymers (SMP). The main objective for this paper, however, is
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 416 978 6853; fax: +1 416 978 7753.
E-mail address: soa@mie.utoronto.ca (A.Y.N. Soa).
clear and concise manner so as to keep the community abreast of
recent developments in the eld.
The wing morphing concepts can be classied into three major
types: planform alternation, out-of-plane transformation, and air-
foil adjustment (Fig. 1). In the planform alternation category, wing
area manipulation techniques such as the resizing of span and
chord length are discussed. Approaches to alter the wing sweep
are also included in the planform morphing category. In the out-
of-plane transformation category, we have included the chord
and span-wise camber changes. The most notable approach in this
category is the twisting of the wing. The airfoil adjustment cate-
gory summarizes the designs that change the wing prole (e.g.
thickness) that do not signicantly change the wing camber. Some
of our recent contributions in the eld are covered at the end.
2. Wing planform alternation
The wing planform can be recongured by the resizing of span
and chord length, and by changing the sweep angle, as depicted in
Fig. 2. Combinations of the above are also possible. The related re-
search is described in the next section and is summarized in Table
1.
2.1. Wing span resizing
Telescopic structures have been extensively used for dramatic
length change of the wing structure. The morphing wing in the
telescopic designs is sectioned longitudinally to form several seg-
ments with reducing cross sectional area, such that each segment
can be accommodated in the adjacent inner segment with a mini-

0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2009.09.011
 A.Y.N. Soa et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 12841292
Shape Morphing Wing
Planform Airfoil Profile Out-of-Plane
Alternation Adjustment Transformation
Chord Sweep
Span Chord-Wise Span-wise
Length Angle
Change Bending Bending
Change Change
Fig. 1. A classication for shape morphing of wing: (I) planform alternation, (II)
out-of-plane transformation, and (III) airfoil prole adjustment.
mum sliding clearance. Given the required length change, the
number of segments can be determined. Neal et al. designed and
demonstrated a variable planform aircraft capable of such wing
span resizing [2]. To effect this change, they used a telescopic
pneumatic actuator with thin-walled stainless steel cylinder and
a carbon steel rod. Their wing underwent 38% of span change.
Wind tunnel results showed that variable planform capability al-
lows low drag to be maintained throughout a range of lift coef-
cients. Blondeau et al. also designed and fabricated a three
segmented telescopic wing for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
[3]. To reduce the weight, they replaced the wing spars with inat-
able actuators that could support the aerodynamic loads on the
wing. Their telescopic spar design consisted of three concentric cir-
cular aluminum tubes of decreasing diameter and increasing
length. Their pneumatic spar could achieve various wingspan con-
gurations. To avoid misalignment between the sliding tubes, the
three telescopic elements were linked by ceramic linear bearings.
Their full scale telescopic spar could be smoothly deployed and re-
tracted using input pressures of 340480 kPa. The wing could un-
dergo a 114% change in the aspect ratio, while supporting
aerodynamic loads. Experimentally, they showed that the drag to
lift ratio of the telescopic wing was about 25% lower than its rigid
xed wing counterpart when fully extended. The structural and
Span Change Chord Length Change
Sweep Change
Fig. 2. In-plane shape morphing can be achieved by span change (top left), chord
length change (top right), and sweep change (bottom).
1285
aerodynamic evaluations of a two segmented telescopic wing were
carried out by Supekar. Although he made a crude prototype, no
successful actuation of the mechanism was reported due to the
fabrication problems [4].
A second approach to change the wing span uses scissors-like
mechanism for the wing-box. Joo et al. studied the optimal location
of a distributed network of actuators within a scissor wing-box
mechanism [5]. Their recongurable wing-box was made of four-
bar mechanisms with rigid links. An experiment was conducted
Wing
on a single cell linkage by using a pneumatic actuator which was
Twisting
connected to two neighbouring links. An optimization analysis
was performed to select the optimal location of actuator place-
ments. Springs were used in their design to account for a stretch-
able skin, but a parametric study of the compliance was not
done. Bharti et al. also explored scissors-mechanism to alter the
aircraft span and sweep [6]. A subscale prototype scissors-mecha-
nism was made that could achieve 55% span change by using a DC
motor actuated spooling screw.
da Costa Aleixo designed a wing section capable of independent
changes of span and chord by the use of extendable ribs and spars
[7]. Lead and screw mechanism and servo motors, were proposed
to create the linear displacements. Their design suffered from
weight penalty due to the several servo motors, transmission com-
ponents and accessory equipment.
2.2. Chord length change
The chord length of the wing in conventional aircraft is resized
by means of leading/trailing edge aps, which are usually moved
by lead and screw actuation systems. Many of these devices are
patented and operational. Very few researchers exploited the resiz-
ing of the chord length without using such aps or slats. An exam-
ple is the work of Reed et al. who used an interpenetrating rib
mechanism to change the chord length by means of miniature
DC motors and lead screws [8]. They used partial rib structures that
could slide through a central slotted box and alter the chord wise
position of the leading and trailing edges. The ribs were designed
to support the camber bending due to the aerodynamic loads.
Rotation of the output motor shaft located at the fuselage was
transmitted to the lead screws (attached to the moving ribs) with
a lateral rotating rod. The smooth operation of the lead and screw
mechanism under transverse aerodynamic loads is questionable. In
addition, maintaining the chord-wise bending stiffness of the wing
remained a challenge. The added weight and complexity of the de-
sign are other downsides of this work.
The application of smart materials, on the other hand, to
achieve chord change is one of the least studied methods of wing
morphing. One attempt is the work of researchers at Cornerstone
research group who experimented with dynamic modulus foam
(DMF) to alter the chord length of wing [9]. The DMF foam is a
lightweight form of shape memory polymer (SMP) with similar
behaviour. The foam is highly stretchable at temperature above
the glass transition temperature (Tg), and is stiff below its Tg.
Although their prototype wing section was extended along the
chord upon heating, it could not return to the original shape upon
cooling, demonstrating the small recovery stress of shape memory
foams. Further examination of smart materials to alter the wing
chord length is an attractive research topic considering the impor-
tance of the chord length on the aerodynamic behaviour of the
wing, especially the induced drag.
2.3. Sweep angle variation
Pivoting of the wing so far has been the method of choice for the
sweep change, or even for the shape morphing, implemented in
many successful and operational aircraft such as: Bell-X-5, F-111,
1286 A.Y.N. Soa et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 12841292
Table 1
Concepts for wing planform alternation.
Author Morphed geometry Actuator
Neal et al. [2] Span, sweep, twist Pneumatic
Blondeau et al. [3] Span Pneumatic
Supekar [4] Span UIa
Joo et al. [5] Span, sweep, chord Linear
Bharti et al. [6] Span, sweep DC motor
da Costa Aleixo [7] Span, chord Servo
Perkins et al. [9] Chord SMP
Reed et al. [8] Chord UI
Mattioni et al. [11] Sweep UI
Yu et al. [12] Planform shear SMP
Flanagan et al. [10] Sweep and area Electric
a
Unidentied.
F-14, and B-1. All of the aerodynamic loads on the wing in those de-
signs are supported by a pivoting mechanism. Such a pivot is com-
plex to build and install. It is heavy and needs elaborate
maintenance. Neal et al. provided a sweeping mechanism for their
shape morphing UAV that was actuated by means of two electrome-
chanical, lead-screw actuators to handle the sweep change [2]. The
sweeping motion was the output of a 3-bar linkage where the actu-
ator formed one of the links. Their prototype achieved 40 of sweep.
The scissors mechanisms of Joo et al. [5] or Bharti [6] also result in
sweep change. The mechanism by Bharti achieved 22 sweep in
the absence of skin material. NextGen Aeronautics developed a
UAV that consisted of a wing that could undergo sweep changes from
15 to 35 in 510 s during ight [10]. They used electric motor to de-
form an endoskeleton wing box structure that was stiffened by
means of ribbons and was covered with an elastomeric skin.
In an alternate approach, Mattioni et al. investigated a variable
sweep wing concept based on bi-stable composite spars [11]. The
wing-box in their design consisted of two spars with an intercon-
nected trussrib structure. Each spar was made of part of a cylin-
drical shell. Applying a certain amount of bending moment on
the spar, due to the increased drag from speeding or from an actu-
ator output, caused the spar to snap to a second stable position.
The snapping point therefore acts as a hinge. Although the design
could eliminate the need for hinges and mechanisms, it may suffer
from fatigue at the snapping point. Furthermore, the compliance of
the wing skin can interfere with the snapping motion. Only two
stable shapes could be achieved by this method. Therefore, main-
taining intermediate congurations requires imposed constraint
from additional actuators.
In a rare effort to use smart materials to achieve sweep change,
Yu et al., used shape memory polymer (SMP) for the shear defor-
mation of a scissors mechanism [12]. The twisting deformation of
a rectangular composite plate made of SMP and carbon bre upon
heating could rotate a hinge in the mechanism. The scissors mech-
anism was deformed as a result of the hinge rotation.
3. Out-of-plane transformation of the wing
Another way of changing the aerodynamic behaviour of the
wing is by recasting the wing out of its original plane. Three types
of such rearrangements are demonstrated in Fig. 2. Smart materials
usage for the shape morphing of wing has been extensively ex-
plored through this approach.
3.1. Airfoil camber changing
Changing the airfoil camber is the most investigated approach
of shape morphing (Table 2). The airfoil camber can be uniformly
changed along the span in a similar manner to the rotation of the
ailerons. Alternatively, gradual changes of the airfoil camber along
Skin Prototype? Wind tunnel test? Flight test?
Rigid segmented Y Y N
Rigid segmented Y Y N
Rigid segmented Y N N
UI Y N N
UI Y N N
Stretchable Y Y N
Stretchable Y N N
Stretchable Y N N
UI Y N N
UI Y N N
Stretchable Y Y Y
the span can create controllable twisting of the wing. The neces-
sary camber change is pursued either by the reconguration of
the underlying structure (e.g. ribs) or the morphing of the wing
skin. Here the following classication is used for the airfoil camber
change methods: (a) using internal mechanisms, (b) piezoelectric
actuation, and (c) shape memory alloy actuation.
3.1.1. Camber change by using internal mechanisms
Breaking the rib structure to nger-like sequential hinged seg-
ments is probably the most trivial concept for changing the wing
camber with many patents registered. The work by Monner et al.
is a good representative of this segmented rib concept [13]. In their
design the ribs consisted of separate plate-like elements which are
connected by revolute joints that can be driven from one single
point. Flexible skin covered the airfoil in their design. The top
and bottom skins could slide with respect to each other at the trail-
ing edge to allow larger displacement of the trailing edge. Poon-
song also designed, fabricated and tested a variable camber wing
with hinged segmented ribs attached to a single leading edge spar
[14]. The entire wing in this design was covered with a latex skin.
Extra lateral strips of stretchable latex were used to strengthen the
skin at the hinges. Additional non-stretchable clothes were used to
cover the rest of the wing between the hinges for reinforcement.
The camber line was varied by the successive rotation of the rib
segments by means of pneumatic actuators. The twisting stiffness
of the design is low because only one spar is used. Also there is rel-
atively large weight penalty due to the rotating mechanism and
pneumatic actuation system. The camber change in their prototype
was 8%. The reduction of drag achieved by their prototype was less
than expected because of the stiffness of the wing skin.
Kota has been active in the eld of compliant mechanism [15].
Saggere and Kota designed a wing section with internal compliant
system [16]. The airfoil camber in their design was altered by the
reshaping of leading and trailing edge by means of actuators. The
actuators displacement was amplied by an internal compliant
mechanism. They could predict the actuator location to achieve
arbitrary airfoil shape within the actuators limits. Campanile and
Sachau investigated another compliant structure called belt-rib
[17]. The belt-rib frame was consisted of a closed shell (belt) rein-
forced by in-plane stiffeners (spokes). The spokes were connected
to the belt by means of exible hinges which provided rotational
freedom at the joints. An internal actuator system consisted of
Bowden cables and a spindle mechanism could deform a prototype
carrying a 335 kg distributed load.
Adopting a different approach, Diaconu et al., have considered
the use of bi-stable plates to provide the necessary deformations
to alter the camber [18]. A square bi-stable composite plate was in-
serted into the airfoil section along the chord. The leading edge
side of the bi-stable composite plate was clamped to the airfoil
at its spar connection. On the other side, the trailing edge of the
 A.Y.N. Soa et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 12841292 1287

Table 2
Concepts for out-of-plane transformation of the wing.

Author Morphed geometry Actuator Skin Prototype? Wind tunnel test? Flight test?
Monner et al. [13] Camber Linear actuator Flexible Y N N
Lim et al. [21] Camber PZT Flexible Y N N
Poonsong [14] Camber Pneumatic Stretchable Y Y N
Diaconu et al. [18] Camber Flexible N N N
Saggere and Kota [16] and Kota [15] Camber UI Flexible Y N N
Campanile and Sachau [17] Camber UI Flexible Y N N
Wang et al. [19] Camber PZT Flexible Y N N
Heinze and Karpel [22] Camber PZT Rigid Y Y N
Vos et al. [20] Camber PZT Stretchable Y Y Y
Wang et al. [19] Camber SMA Flexible Y N N
Soa et al. [24] Camber SMA Flexible Y N N
Berton [28] Camber SMA UI Y N N
Yang et al. [29] Camber SMA Flexible Y Y N
Liu et al. [30] Camber SMA UI Y N N

plate is hinged to the airfoil surface in order to allow relative
movement of the skin during actuation. The top skin is allowed
to slide over the bottom skin during actuation. By actuating the
bi-stable plate, the airfoil section is morphed between two differ-
ent stable shapes. The transition between the two stable congura-
tions in the presence of applied load was not discussed in their
paper.
3.1.2. Piezoelectric actuation for camber change
Wang et al. report that PZT actuation was considered for the
Smart Wing 2 program by DARPA for high-rate actuation of hinge-
less control surfaces [19]. The concept relied on the bending mo-
ment distribution by means of piezoelectric stacks. The stacks
were mounted locally between two reacting vertebrae which
provided the necessary arm to convert the linear extension of the
stack into local moments. While this concept initially seemed
promising, it was quickly found to be inappropriate because the
targeted deection was unachievable with the small induced strain
of the best known PZT stacks. Although using mechanical ampli-
ers with multiple levers were exploited to address the limited
stroke of the PZT actuators, such concepts were later discarded be-
cause of the space limitation and the high exural stresses at the
mechanical amplication linkage. They also considered using u-
idic ampliers, but eventually the PZT-based designs were not pur-
sued in the Smart Wing 2 project. In another effort, Vos et al.
investigated the use of PZT to deform the center plate of a proto-
type wing [20]. Their approach was different from the Smart Wing
program in that they used stretchable skin to enhance the defor-
mations. The PZT actuators in their design were used to deform a
post-buckled plate (PBP). The PBP actuator consisted of two con-
ventional piezoelectric sheets bonded to either side of a structur-
ally stiff center plate. Asymmetrical electrical potential was
applied to the two piezoelectric sheets to expand one and contract
the other to cause the center plate to bend. They achieved trailing-
edge deections of 3.1. Wind tunnel and ight tests showed that
the post-buckled pre-compressed morphing wing increased the
roll control authority of a UAV (with 1.4 m span), and also reduced
power consumption.
Lim et al. used lightweight PZT composite actuators called LIP-
CA to deform the trailing edge of an airfoil section [21]. The LIPCA
actuators in their design were embedded between three glass/
epoxy and graphite/epoxy layers in a non-symmetric stacking se-
quence. Two models were made. In the rst, only the top layer
was active, while for the second design both top and bottom layers
were active. They achieved 5 of trailing edge deformation at 300 V
input at load-free condition. The effect of out-of-plane aerody-
namic forces on the trailing edge should have been investigated
for any shape morphing application. Heinze and Karpel also ex-
plored the application of a Lead Zirconate Titanate bimorph PZT
plate to rotate a tab for aeroelastic positioning of a trailing edge
ap. The tab occupied the rear 25% of a free-oating trailing edge
ap [22]. The actuator mechanism was xed to a frame inside
the ap. Voltage excitation of the bimorph actuator resulted in
the vertical displacement of the actuator tip, located halfway be-
tween the ap hinge and the tab axis, leading to the rotation of
the tab. Flap deection of 4.6 was obtained by a 2.5 tab rotation.
The research demonstrated the feasibility of piezoelectric materi-
als for aeroelastic shape control of control surfaces.
3.1.3. Shape memory alloy actuation for camber change
Shape memory alloy was also a candidate actuating material for
the DARPA Smart Wing program. Two SMA linear actuators were
connected to tip of a exible trailing edge in their concept. The
other ends were connected to the top and bottom of the trailing
edge spar in an antagonistic way [19]. The contraction of the actu-
ators could bend the trailing edge respectively. Wang reports that
the gained deformations were not satisfactory because the ability
of the actuator to displace the trailing edge tip was reduced as a re-
sult of wasting of the shape memory recovery force due to the
undesired in-plane compression of the center sheet.
To address the above issue, Soa et al. developed a series of
SMA-actuated exural structures which could be used to deform
wing sections [2325]. Their actuated structures were based on a
concept called antagonistic exural unit cell (AFC) in which a pair
of one-way SMA actuators were placed at either side of a highly
exible unit core structure (with large in-plane stiffness). The con-
traction of one SMA actuator upon heating, results in the extension
of the opposing SMA actuator mechanically. The contraction by
heating of the now-extended actuator, later in the cycle, reverses
the actuation. High authority shape morphing beams can be made
by the linear replication of the AFCs. Such actuated beams [26,27]
can be used in the making of recongurable wing boxes for shape
morphing wing structures. Fig. 4 shows a wing section prototype
capable of undergoing camber changes [27]. Although the slow
cooling rate of the SMA actuation is not appropriate for the ight
control applications, the achievable aerodynamic changes are still
suitable for in-ight mission adaptation of the wing. The AFC based
actuated structures are attractive for wing morphing applications
because: (1) the distributed SMA actuators carry aerodynamic load
and therefore reduce the weight penalty, and (2) the new wing
shapes after the cooling of each SMA actuator are retained without
requiring power, which can eventually result in saving fuel and
increasing the aircraft endurance.
Berton also used SMA wire in an antagonistic manner to rotate a
ap, but the wires were connected in a linear set up (different from
the AFC concept) [28]. One end of the two wires in their prototype
1288 A.Y.N. Soa et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 12841292
was connected together with a simple joint and the other ends
were xed inside the wing-box. Contraction of one wire due to
the heating displaced the joint between the two wires. This dis-
placement was then transmitted to the trailing edge by means of
a linkage. The ap could rotate 45 for the overall length of SMA
wires of 1200 mm. A major disadvantage of the system is the rela-
tive complexity of the transmission mechanism which was con-
sisted of several linkages.
In a compliant approach for SMA actuation, Yang et al. attached
the SMA wires to the bottom skin of a wing [29]. Contraction by
heating of the SMA actuators could deform the wing. The wing
could restore its initial shape upon cooling of the SMA. The main
disadvantage of the compliant SMA actuation is that the new shape
is retained until the temperature of the SMA wire is maintained
above its Martensite start transformation temperature, Ms . The
compliant SMA actuation method is not therefore suitable for long
term applications. Liu et al. also used a SMA wire to deform a com-
pliant wing section, in which the top skin was xed to the spar
while the bottom skin could slide into the spar to accommodate
the rotation of the trailing edge [30]. In their design one end of
the SMA wire was xed in the wing-box, and the other end was at-
tached to a point next to the trailing edge. The trailing edge could
therefore be rotated by the contraction of the SMA wire. The reli-
ance of their concept on the compliance of the top skin to return
the trailing edge to the original shape is questionable.
3.2. Lateral wing bending
It was shown by NASA researchers that a hyper-elliptically
swept planform wing with a cambered span, with a separate hy-
per-elliptical span wise prole, has aerodynamic advantage over
at wings [31]. Such a wing, referred to as Hyper-Elliptical Cam-
bered Span (HECS), inspired researchers to explore shape morp-
hing wings capable of undergoing span camber (Fig. 3, Table 3).
Wiggins et al. studied the feasibility of a single-degree-of-freedom
mechanism to morph a at wing to a non-planar shape [32]. Their
scissor-like mechanism used a repeating quaternary-binary link
Twisting: airfoil Chord-wise bending:
profile remains curvature of the mean camber
unchanged line is changed
Span-wise bending
Fig. 3. Out-of-plane wing morphing is possible through wing twisting (top left),
chord-wise bending due to the deformations of mean camber line (top right), and
lateral wing bending (bottom).
conguration to transfer the motion of one linkage to the next.
The mechanism is synthesized such that with only one input to
the rst linkage, in the form of an actuators displacement, the rest
of the segments could adapt to the desired positions. Manzo and
Garcia also investigated the shape morphing of HECS wing by using
SMA tendons and DC actuators (separate designs) through a nger-
like approach [33]. They constructed a wing that could mimic an
HECS prole by dividing the wing to ve segments along span.
The main problem associated with their design was that the SMA
had to be kept heated in order to carry aerodynamic loads. There
is no detail about reversibility of their actuator, that whether it
could return to the original shape.
Dihedral angle change and change in gull conguration of the
wing is also considered by researchers for shape morphing of air-
craft. In gull designs, the wing is divided into two hinged segments
that rotate with respect to each other and at the wing root. The
most innovative is perhaps Lockheed Martins folding wing con-
cept [34]. The design uses electrical actuators to fold the wing.
An elastomeric skin covers the entire wing to provide smooth
shape changes. They have successfully ight tested the morphing
UAV aircraft.
3.3. Wing twisting
An example of gradual changing of the airfoil camber to create
wing twisting was demonstrated during the DARPA Smart Wing 2
program [35]. In their design the wing was sectioned to 10 seg-
ments. Each segment could undergo out-of-plane shape changes
by means of an eccentuator. The eccentuator concept developed
in 1970s [36], is a bent beam that converts a rotary input motion
at one end of the beam into a vertical and lateral translation at
the other end. The vertical motion can then be delivered to the
structure (here trailing edge segment) to ex it. The lateral motion,
however, is undesirable, because it adds a sliding joint to the sys-
tem. Each segment in the nal design was connected to a eccentu-
ator with a 5.5:1 ratio gearbox that is driven by an ultrasonic
motor. The adjacent segments were also connected at the tip by
pins to enforce equal displacement at the segments boundaries.
The segments were covered by a continuous silicone skin on the
top and bottom surfaces to achieve continuous lateral shape
change. The wing twisting concepts are summarized in Table 3.
In an alternate approach, Majji studied a wing consisted of an
elastic wing box structure (ABS plastic material) which was cov-
ered with an elastomeric skin [37]. The wing box is rigidly coupled
to four concentric tubes, which are independently attached to the
wing at four locations along the span. The outer tubes pass through
the inner ones and are connected to servomotors at the wing root.
The wing could be twisted by the arbitrary rotation of the tubes. It
was shown that the angle of attack envelope of a twisted wing was
increased. Stanford et al. also controlled the roll of a mini UAV by
twisting its exible wing [38]. In their design torque rods ran lat-
erally toward the end of each wing and were allowed to freely
twist within metal sleeves glued to the wing at the leading edge.
Both left and right rods were connected to a single servomotor
which was housed on the bottom surface of the wing. The connec-
tive linkage was constructed to create equal and opposite deforma-
tions at the left and right side of the wing. Their numerical analysis
showed that although the wing morphing could roll the mini UAV,
it led to considerable drag penalty.
The antagonistic wing prototype by Soa et al. [24] and Elzey
et al. [26] could also undergo twisting by asymmetric actuation
of its two SMA actuated vertebrate beams. Fig. 5 shows such twist-
ing deformation for a prototype wing section. In a different ap-
proach, Jacob et al. reported the use of SMA wires for wing
warping of an inatable wing [39]. They attached the SMA wire
to the bottom surface of the wing. The trailing edge could deect
 A.Y.N. Soa et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 12841292 1289

Table 3
Concepts for lateral wing bending and the twisting of the wing.

Author Morphed aspect? Actuator? Skin Prototype? Wind tunnel test? Flight test?
Wiggins et al. [32] Spanwise bending UI UI Y N N
Manzo [33] Spanwise bending SMA and DC Stretchable Y Y N
Skillen and Crossley [34] Dihedral and gull Electrical Rigid segments covered with elastomer Y Y Y
Majji [37] Twist Servo Stretchable Y Y N
Bartley et al. [35] Twist Ultrasonic Stretchable Y Y Y
Stanford et al. [38] Twist Servo Flexible Y Y Y
Soa et al. [24] Twist SMA Flexible Y N N
Jacob et al. [39] Twist SMA Flexible Y N N
Chen et al. [40] Twist Electrical Flexible Y Y N
Nam et al. [41] Twist SMA Flexible N N N
Cooper [42] Twist Electric pneumatic Flexible Y Y N
Barrett [43] Twist PZT Flexible Y N N
Cadogan et al. [45] Twist PZT Flexible Y Y Y

Fig. 4. Chord-wise bending achieved by the heating of SMA strips in an antagonistic

design. (a) Un-morphed and (b) morphed [27].

downward upon heating of the SMA actuator while the leading

edge remained in the same location, resulting in 3 rotation of
the wing tip. No information was given on the reversibility of the
actuation system or the actuation performance under loading.
They used servo motors in a later design and could control the
wing twist for ight control of the aircraft.
Adaptive aeroelastic methods constitute another wing morp-
hing approach where target shapes are met upon the application
of aerodynamic loads on a variable stiffness wing structure. Chen
et al. designed a variable stiffness spar mechanism (VSS) consisted
of a segmented spar with articulated joints at the connections with
wing ribs [40]. The bending stiffness of their cylindrical spar is dif-
ferent about its orthogonal axis at each cross section of the spar.
Therefore the bending stiffness of the wing can be altered by rotat-
ing the spar about its own longitudinal axis, and resulting in the
twisting of the wing under load. Later Nam et al. proposed that
using SMA spars could eliminate the need for articulated joints
[41]. Their active property tuning (APT) concepts is based on the
difference in the mechanical properties of the SMA bres at hot
and cool states. They conducted numerical analysis for a wing
model based on the F-16 wing structure, and concluded that the
adaptive aeroelastic control is feasible by means of APT. Cooper
also investigated two methods to change the wing stiffness [42].
The rst concept was based on the rotation of the spars along their
longitudinal axis (similar to VSS), and the second design exploited
the translation of an intermediate spar along the chord of the wing
to change the wing stiffness.
Fig. 5. Twisting of a wing section achieved by antagonistic SMA actuation. (a) The
left rib is exed downward and right rib upward. (b) The left rib is actuated upward
and the right one down-ward [26].
Piezoelectric actuators, on the other hand, have been employed
to manipulate the wing twist through a number of different ways.
Barret studied the use of piezoelectric bimorph plates for twisting
of the wing [43]. In their design, an integrated exible skin was free
to rotate about the spar. One end of the piezo-bender was xed to
the spar while the other end was attached to the skin structure.
Deformation of the actuator resulted in the rotation of the skin
structure about the spar. Later, Barret and Law fabricated and
tested another wing with piezo-benders which were placed at
the center of the wing [44]. Wind tunnel tests showed that the
wing tip of their prototype could twist 1.5 with respect to the
root comparable to a 8.4 of aileron rotations to create similar
rolling of an aircraft. Cadogan and Smith also used PZT actuators
to change the twist angle of an inatable wing, via two different
1290 A.Y.N. Soa et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 12841292
concepts [45]. The rst was bump attening in which the piezo-
bender was needed to overcome the internal pressure of the wing
and generate an out-of-plane force equal to the ination pressure
multiplied by the actuated area. In the second approach the
piezo-benders were directly used to deform the trailing edge of
the inatable wing up to 3.
4. Airfoil prole adjustment
Several researchers have explored the ways to alter the aerody-
namic properties of the wing by the reshaping of the airfoil prole
(without signicant change of its camber), Table 4. To do so the
upper and/or lower camber of the airfoil is changed without major
changes of the mean camber line, Fig. 6.
Variable length trusses were examined by Austin et al. to re-
shape the airfoil [46]. They attached linear displacement actuators
inside the wing section in a diagonal manner. The airfoil shape
could therefore be modied by the expansion or contraction of
the actuators. They constructed a model of an adaptive rib with
14 mechanical ball-screw actuators to demonstrate their shape-
control concept. A theoretical model was developed, and validated,
which could be implemented to determine the optimal airfoil
shape for various ight conditions. Joo and Sanders outlined an ap-
proach to change the airfoil shape by connecting internal mecha-
nisms to a compliant skin material [47]. Their method could be
used to nd appropriate compliant structures capable of achieving
target prole shapes. To do so, they synthesized a mechanism that
could be recongured to meet a set of target prole shapes while
keeping the actuator loads under a certain limit. The patent data-
base and aircraft design archives contain many similar airfoil
adjustment concepts which require conventional actuators. Such
mechanical systems in general result in signicant weight penalty
and are therefore not considered in this paper any further.
The suitability of SMA actuation for morphing of aircraft wing
has been rst demonstrated by the designs that changed the airfoil
prole. A prominent sample is the design by Strelec et al. [48]. They
attached SMA wire actuators to points at the inside of an airfoil. By
the actuation of the SMA wires, the airfoil could be reshaped. They
developed an optimization method to determine the proper place-
ment of the SMA wire actuators within the wing. The results from
the structural, thermal, and aerodynamic analysis could be put into
their global optimization method to nd the best conguration for
the SMA wires placement. A prototype of a recongurable wing
was fabricated by them to assess the predicted structural and aero-
dynamic responses for optimality. Wind tunnel tests indicated that
an increase in the lift is feasible for a given ow velocity and angle
of attack by activating the SMA wire actuators. In an alternate ap-
proach Dong et al. placed SMA springs between the wing skin and
its supporting wing-box [49]. The wing-box in their design con-
sisted of rigid steel ribs and spars. The covering skin was allowed
to slide over a cushion at the leading edge spar. The resizing of
the SMA spring length upon heating and cooling could alter the
wing thickness. In another concept developed by Georges et al.,
SMA linear actuators were connected to a exible skin through a
cam based transmission system [50]. Contraction of the SMA wire
Table 4
Concepts for airfoil prole adjustment.
Author Morphed geometry Actuator?
Austin et al. [46] Airfoil Conventional
Joo and Sanders [47] Airfoil Conventional
Strelec et al. [48] Airfoil SMA
Georges et al. [50] Airfoil SMA
Dong et al. [49] Airfoil SMA
Pinkerton et al. [51] Airfoil PZT
Airfoil Reconfigured Airfoil
Mean Camber Line
Fig. 6. Airfoil prole can be varied without major change in the mean camber line.
upon heating could rotate the cam and transfer the displacement
of the SMA wire to a exible skin by means of a crank. The exible
structure of the morphing wing could create the biasing force
which is necessary for the reversible actuation of the compliant
SMA system. Although they did not fabricate a prototype of an
actuated wing, they examined the performance properties of
SMA actuators.
Pinkerton et al. [51] used an out-of-plane piezoelectric actuator,
called thin layer composite-unimorph ferroelectric driver and sen-
sor (THUNDER) [52], to reshape the airfoil. One end of the actuator
at the trailing edge side was xed to the airfoil to permit relatively
free expansion and contraction under an applied voltage. Out-of-
plane deformations of up to 2.5 mm was achieved for a subscale
125 mm long airfoil at 400 V. After testing for two weeks in the
wind tunnel, the overall displacement performance of the THUN-
DER wafer began to degrade, noticeably.
5. Developments in wing morphing by authors
The shape morphing UAV project at the Mechanics and Aero-
space Design Laboratory (MADL) at the University of Toronto was
launched in April 2008 with the support of DSO National Laborato-
ries in Singapore [53]. The objective of the 3-year project is to con-
ceptualize, design, fabricate and test novel shape morphing wing
for small aircraft capable of large planform and out-of-plane trans-
formations by means of smart materials. The research group mem-
bers have been active in the eld of piezo electric actuators and
functionally graded smart structures [5458], biologically inspired
SMA-actuated structures and shape morphing structures [23
27,5961].
Several concepts have been developed and evaluated. Antago-
nistic SMA-actuated exural structures have been identied to be
the enabling technology for the wing morphing of small aircraft
in this project. Piezoelectric actuators, on the other hand, are being
considered for shape morphing of mini UAVs. The SMA-actuated
exural structures can carry aerodynamic loads and undergo large
shape changes. An example of a light weight truss beam is shown
in Fig. 7. The actuated beam in the gure moves a load that exceeds
six times of the weight of the beam to a distance comparable with
the half of the beam span. Such beams constitute the spar and ribs
of the wing design currently being investigated.
Figs. 8 and 9 illustrate two designs currently under develop-
ment. The rst design slides the wing back to curved shapes. The
Skin Prototype? Wind tunnel test? Flight test?
Flexible Y N N
Flexible Y N N
Flexible Y N N
Flexible N N N
Flexible Y N N
Flexible Y Y N
 A.Y.N. Soa et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 12841292
Fig. 7. A light weight SMA actuated truss beam lifts a load about six times of the
beams weight to a distance of half of the beam span.
Skin removed to see the
Undeformed Wing Sliding of the
morphed wing flexing parallelogram
structure
X pared to supersonic aircraft, the small or low speed planes require
Y more dramatic wing variations for a noticeable and practical
Fig. 8. A sliding wing morphing concept.
second exes the wing laterally. Carbonepoxy prototypes of actu-
ated underlying wing box that also included actuated structures
were built to examine the SMA actuation performance in meeting
the target shapes. The prototypes show excellent and smooth
movement under applied representative loads. At the same time
three-dimensional and parametric aerodynamic analysis was con-
Fig. 9. A lateral reforming of wing concept.
1291
ducted to evaluate the effect of recongured wing shape on the lift
and drag coefcients. The enhancement in the power consumption
of a typical UAV is estimated by using the aerodynamic perfor-
mance of the wing. The numerical results show considerable ben-
ets of the wing morphing concepts. Making of solid wind tunnel
test models are currently underway to determine the optimal
geometry of a wing and targeted shapes. The next stage of the re-
search is to fabricate a full scale and completed shape morphing
wing by combining the outcomes of the completed actuated wing
box prototype and the upcoming wind tunnel testing of the solid
prototype.
6. Conclusions
The eld of shape morphing aircraft has attracted the attention
of hundreds of research groups during the past century. Although
many interesting concepts have been synthesized, only a handful
of such recongurable planes have been ever produced (all of them
supersonic and consisted of pivoting wings). In the range of low
speed, small aircraft no commercial product exists to our knowl-
edge. Although several conceptual designs of small or low speed
aircraft has made it to the wind tunnel testing stage, only very lim-
ited number of such shape morphing prototypes have ever been
fabricated or ight tested.
The explosive growth of satellite services during the past few
years has made the UAVs the technology of choice for many rou-
tine applications such as border patrol, environmental monitoring,
meteorology, military operations and search and rescue. In addi-
tion, the recent advances in smart materials research including
the developments in the actuation technology, constitutive law
and modeling, optimization and control, and failure prediction, de-
mands more purposeful steps in the progress of variable geometry
small aircraft.
In general, any successful wing morphing scenario must over-
come the weight penalty due to the added actuation systems. Com-
change in their aerodynamic properties. This points us to the crux
of the development of low speed/small shape morphing planes
which is the large weight penalty over gross weight ratio. To ad-
dress the above challenge, any successful conceptual design for
shape morphing of low speed/small aircraft should:
 Undergo large geometry changes.
 Use smart materials for actuation.
 Use the smart material actuators for supporting part of the aero-
dynamic loads.
 Have integrated and distributed actuators to avoid transmission
mechanisms.
 Use advanced light-weight composites for the xed structure
and the skin.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the DSO National Laboratories
in Singapore for the funding and support.
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