Structural design and verification of an innovative whole adaptive variable camber wing

A whole adaptive variable camber wing (AVCW) equipped with an innovative double rib sheet (DRS) structure is experimentally and numerically studied in this work. The DRS structure adopts the surface contact mode for the force transmission of changeable camber wing instead of the conventional rigid hinge joint contact. The whole AVCW design allows to adjust the shape of wing in a real-time at various flight conditions, which is of great interest for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications. The flight-test experiments demonstrate that the total AVCW carrying the developed adaptive control system (ACS) can enhance UAV flight efficiency by 14.1% comparing to a traditional fixed-wing of Talon UAV. In addition, it indicates that employing the whole AVCW structure can sustain a larger flight load, without increasing the weight of entire wing structure except for the actuator device and adhesives, which is promising for future engineering applications.