Meanwhile, the morphing wing pair has a flexible trailing edge section, which is enabled by a Hyperelastic Trailing Edge Morphing system (HyTEM). It allows the wing to deform seamlessly and without steps. <\/p>\n
It moreover makes it possible for the wings to respond dynamically to turbulence, airflow and changing conditions. Radestock stated that HyTEM replaces flaps with several small actuators distributed across the wingspan. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese can precisely adjust the wing profiles at ten points without creating gaps between sections,\u201d Radestock said, adding that the continuous shape cuts profile drag. \u201cIn addition, lift, induced drag and aircraft control can all be influenced in a targeted manner, a major advantage for aerodynamics and flight mechanics<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n Apart from being efficient, the system also improves safety by spreading control across the wings. Simply put, rather than separate moving parts, the entire wing acts as a single adaptive surface.<\/p>\n Paired with an AI-assisted flight control<\/a> system, the morphing setup can handle complex wing movements and adapt continuously during flight. It is designed to make full use of the unique movement capabilities of the morphing wing. <\/p>\n AI vs. aerodynamics<\/p>\n The system detects when the aircraft<\/a> behaves differently than expected mid-flight and continuously updates its model. During development, researchers simulated failure scenarios. This allowed the system to learn how to maintain stable flight even when parts of the wing were compromised.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike conventional flight control systems, this adaptive approach can optimally coordinate the many distributed actuators, making the most of the aerodynamic potential of the morphing structure while also improving fault tolerance,\u201d the DLR team revealed. <\/p>\n The team also developed a method to reconstruct surface pressure distribution using only a small number of sensors. It provided a near-instant image of the aerodynamic state. <\/p>\n The system was able to detect local disturbances, interpret them, and adjust the wing shape accordingly. Sensing, decision-making, as well as physical response were tightly integrated in real time.<\/p>\n Trials confirmed that both conventional and morphing wings could be integrated and flown on the same platform. \u201cThe trials primarily served to demonstrate basic airworthiness and system integration, forming an important foundation for further measurement campaigns and investigations,\u201d DLR said in a press release<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German engineers have tested aircraft wings that physically change shape during flight, even during disturbances, to match changing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6728,6729,6730,6731,5,6732,6733,6734,6735,6736,6737,6738],"class_list":["post-6946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-aviation","tag-dlr","tag-fiber-composites","tag-german-aerospace-center","tag-germany","tag-hytem","tag-morphair","tag-morphing-materials","tag-proteus-aircraft","tag-shape-shifting-wings","tag-uav","tag-uncrewed-aerial-systems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z2.jpeg\" "\\"Germany")
Graphic representation of the PROTEUS experimental aircraft in flight with its active morphAIR wings.
Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z3_1f1e0c.jpeg\" "\\"Germany")
The experimental aircraft PROTEUS during takeoff.
Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)<\/a><\/p>\n