Commercial airplane designers have been able to significantly improve fuel efficiency in recent years with lighter materials and more aerodynamic shapes. The problem is that the efficiency of ...

Creating micro-scale air vehicles that mimic the flapping of winged insects or birds has become popular, but they typically require a complex combination of pitching and plunging motions to oscillate ...

New research using high-speed digital imaging shows that, at least for some insects, wings that flex and deform, something like what happens to a heavy beach towel when you snap it to get rid of the ...

Longer, thinner wings are on the horizon as NASA and Boeing continue to research what the future of aviation could look like with new revolutionary designs for wings that could make them more ...

Francis Rogallo, an aeronautical engineer who was considered the father of modern hang gliding and other recreational sports for inventing a flexible wing in 1948 that revolutionized nonpowered flight ...

To avoid some of the design challenges involved in creating micro-scale air vehicles that mimic the flapping of winged insects or birds, researchers propose using flexible wings that are driven by a ...