Mechanical-Based Design for Airfoil Structural Morphing

Conventionally, airfoils are designed to work optimally in specific regimes of flight. However, using one fixed wing across different regimes of speed such as those above the speed of sound (supersonic) and those below (subsonic) causes inefficient flight. Supersonic airfoils do not generate enough lift to be used effectively at subsonic speeds and subsonic airfoils generate more drag than lift at supersonic speeds. The ideal airfoil maximizes lift while minimizing drag; thus, a morphing airfoil was designed to enable a more efficient transition from subsonic to supersonic flight. A prototype was constructed to demonstrate a possible mechanism that could change airfoil geometry mid-flight. The design was tested using computer software, Ansys and COMSOL, in addition to calculations of aerodynamic equations, which ultimately revealed the effectiveness of the morphing airfoil in multiple flight regimes.