Revealed at AUVSI (Flight International, 10-16 August), the Lockheed Martin morphing UAV offers an exciting glimpse of the sort of air-vehicle innovations that can be attempted at the smaller scale.
With a first flight due within weeks, the 2.75m-span UAV technological demonstration is designed to prove the morphing concept by changing shape in mid-air. Key technologies include a seamless skin material made from a combined carbon composite and shaped-memory polymer (rather than an alloy), developed by Ohio-based Cornerstone Research. Another is "smart material actuators" made from thermoplastics that move as they heatup and expand, thereby requiring few moving parts.
Advanced flight-control software and unusual triangular trailing-edge elevons complete the technology suite, which could eventually be matched up with a yaw-controlling thrust-vectoring system on a tailless, full-scale variant.
Source: Flight International
