Wing warping

Wing warping was an early system for lateral (roll) control of an aeroplane. The technique, used and patented by the Wright brothers, consisted of a system of pulleys and cables to twist the trailing edges of the wings in opposite directions. In many respects, this approach is similar to that used to trim the performance of a paper aeroplane by curling the paper at the back of its wings.

In practice, since most wing warping designs involved flexing of structural members they were difficult to control and liable to cause structural failure. Ailerons had begun to replace wing warping as the most common means of achieving lateral control as early as 1911, especially in biplane designs. Monoplane wings of the period were much more flexible, and proved more amenable to wing warping - but even for monoplane designs, ailerons became the norm after 1915.

It should be noted that lateral (roll) control in early aircraft was problematic at best. An overly flexible, involuntarily twisting wing can cause involuntary rolling, but even worse, it can convert attempts at correction, either from wing warping or ailerons, into a counteracting "tab" effect. Once this was fully understood wing structures were made progressively more rigid, precluding wing warping altogether - and aircraft became far more controllable in the lateral plane.

Wing warping was a common feature of early aeroplanes, including:

• The Wright Flyer (1903)
• The Blériot XI (1909) following modifications introduced by Raymond Saulnier
• The Rumpler Taube (1910), the first mass produced military plane in Germany
• The Morane-Saulnier Type N (1915), a WW1 French scout plane
• The Fokker Eindecker (1915), one of the first German fighter planes
• The Antoinette V (1908), a wing-warping variant of the Antoinette IV
• The Antoinette VI (1909), an aileron-equipped variant of the Antoinette V. Its designer was not satisfied with its handling and later converted it back to wing-warping operation

Several of the reproduction planes built for the film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines used the wing warping control systems of the original aircraft.

Wing morphing is a modern extension of wing warping in which the aerodynamic shape of the wing is modified under computer control. The technique, it is hoped, will give improved control at flying speeds near the speed of sound where traditional control surfaces are less effective. Wing warping and wing morphing are also currently used to get extra control over an aircraft during difficult times such as in a storm. Research into this field is mainly conducted by NASA. CERN in Europe is also trying some of its finds on miniaturised models of several aircraft to better their aerodynamics, response, and control in flight or near the speed of sound. Airbus is also rumoured to be trying some of this technology on its test planes.

See also

• Aileron
• Elevon - a combination elevator/aileron used on Bleriot's earliest designs and more recently on flying wing and delta wing aircraft.

External links

• NASA - interactive diagram of wing warping used on the Wright Flyer
• Centennial of flight - illustration of Wilbur Wright invention of wing warping using a cardboard box
• Aerospaceweb - Origins of Control Surfaces
• PBS - What's Wing Warping?