Modeling, Simulation and Implementation of a Bird-Inspired Morphing Wing Aircraft

Abstract: We present a design of a bird-inspired morphing wing aircraft, including bionic research, modeling, simulation and flight experiments. Inspired by birds and activated by a planar linkage, our proposed aircraft has three key states: gliding, descending and high-maneuverability. We build the aerodynamic model of the aircraft and analyze its mechanisms to find out a group of optimized parameters. Furthermore, we validate our design by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation based on Lattice-Boltzmann technology and determine three phases of the planar linkage for the three states. Lastly, we manufacture a prototype and conduct flight experiments to test the performance of the aircraft.