Saturday November 8, 2003NASA researchers are working towards
the goal of a plane that can bend its wings to achieve superior
flight control in the way that as a bird does. These morphing
aircraft of the future will integrate embedded "smart" materials
and actuators that act like muscles in a birds wing, responding
automatically to varying flight conditions and enabling new
benchmarks to be set in aerodynamic efficiency and control. A
special research jet known as the Active Aeroelastic Wing (AAW)
F/A-18 is currently exploring the aerodynamic benefits offered
by this technology in its early phases. Based at NASA's Dryden
Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base in California,
the AAW has wings that deflect when special leading and trailing
edge control surfaces are activated. The result is an aircraft
that provides roll, or bank, comparable to a standard stiff-wing
F/A-18 with less need for coordinated tail surface inputs in
completing a turning manoeuvre.Aviation pioneers the Wright
brothers also und