The Adaptive Aspect Ratio morphing wing: Design concept and low fidelity skin optimization

This work introduces a new aircraft wing span morphing concept. Known as the Adaptive Aspect Ratio wing, this concept couples a compliant skin to a mechanism based internal structure to create a morphing wing capable of significant changes in span and aspect ratio. The technologies of the concept are first introduced and discussed. The compliant skin is established to be the dominant component in the design of this concept, requiring balancing of in-plane and out-of-plane stiffnesses. An initial skin design optimization exercise is performed using analytical models, providing insight into the interplay between the various parameters of the skin design.