NASA Unveils Radically New Airplane Wing

April 17, 2019

NASA built and tested a radically new kind of airplane wing assembled from hundreds of tiny identical pieces. It could provide a significant boost in aircraft production, flight, and maintenance efficiency. The flexible wing uses carbon fiber composite units arranged in a lattice pattern.

Instead of requiring separate movable surfaces such as ailerons to control the roll and pitch of the plane, the new system makes it possible to deform the whole wing, or parts of it, using computers integrated into the wing.

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