Over a century ago, the aviators who followed the Wright Brothers into the air suddenly turned away from building rickety wood-and-wire flying machines that physically warped the shape of their canvas wings – the design that had taken the Wrights into the sky.

    Instead, airplane builders like the Wrights’ arch-rival Glenn Curtiss used hinged flaps as ailerons (a movable surface on the wing which helps the aircraft turn), partly in an attempt to evade the Wrights’ patent – but also because continually flexing a wooden wing could lead to structural failure.

Need for shape shifting flight surfaces and morphing

     Researchers in Europe and the US are beginning to harness today’s tougher, stretchier materials to revisit the idea of the shape-shifting flight surfaces. This movement is being driven by fuel efficiency demands as the world starts to confront climate....