Special Topical Issue on Morphing Aircraft

摘要

The definitions of a morphing aircraft are many and varied. The NATO RTO Technical Team on Morphing Vehicles suggested 'real-time adaptation to enable multi-point optimized performance' (McGowan et al., 2009). Weisshaar (2006) suggested 'a set of technologies that increase a vehicle's performance by manipulating certain characteristics to better match the vehicle state to the environment and task at hand.' Based on these definitions, established technologies such as flaps or retractable landing gear would be considered morphing technologies. However, morphing is often considered to require radical shape change(s) based on structural compliance. Geometrical wing parameters that can be affected by morphing include the planform (span, sweep, and chord), twist, dihedral, and camber. The magnitude of the deformation varies from large-scale planform changes for performance enhancement to small-scale changes for flight control.