The original idea, dropped in the 1960s, could be making a comeback. Articulating airfoils, or folding wings, are nothing new to aviation. They’ve been used for decades as an efficiency tool to help store multiple airplanes in a small space. But NASA thinks a new airfoil known as the Spanwise Adaptive Wing (SAW) could fold an aircraft’s wings in flight, creating huge efficiencies but without the use of traditional heavy mechanical actuators. (www.flyingmag.com) 更多...
NASA is developing and validating a system that will allow part of an aircraft’s wing to fold in flight, to test the feasibility of increasing efficiency through wing adaptation.
NASA to test spanwise folding wings in flight
NASA is developing and validating a system that will allow part of an aircraft’s wing to fold in flight, to test the feasibility of increasing efficiency through wing adaptation.
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-to-test-in-flight-folding-spanwise-adaptive-wing-to-enhance-aircraft-efficiency