Technology Integration for Active Poly-Morphing Winglets Development

Abstract

This article presents the preparation of a working physical mock-up wingtip device with morphing functionality. The objective of the mechanical demonstrator is to achieve a technology readiness level to establish confidence that one would proceed to an in-service R&D initiative. To establish the feasibility of scalable technology integration for product development, a tier schedule is employed to demonstrate material compliance, mechanism kinematics and perform bandwidth experimentation. Potential composite materials for design of flexible skins (i.e., Hexweb®, Kevlar® 49 and HexPly®) were assessed using a spectrum of experimental verification procedures. These results are embodied to benchmark qualitatively and quantitatively the mechanical performance of the potential materials to use in a preliminary optimized morphing schedule.