The idea behind the morphAIR project from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is a wing structure that can change shape during flight, making an aircraft both easier to control and more efficient.
A team from DLR equipped the PROTEUS, an uncrewed experimental aircraft, with both a conventional and a shape-changing, or morphing, set of wings made entirely of fiber-reinforced composites. A Hyperelastic Trailing Edge Morphing system (HyTEM) enables the wing to deform seamlessly and without steps.
“The morphing wing can change its shape during flight, allowing it to adapt optimally to different flight conditions,” said project leader Martin Radestock from the DLR Institute of Lightweight Systems.
Radestock further explained, “The HyTEM concept replaces conventional flaps and ailerons with an intelligent system comprising several small actuators distributed across the wingspan. These can precisely adjust the wing profiles at ten points without creating gaps between sections. The continuous shape reduces profile drag. In addition, lift, induced drag and aircraft control can all be influenced in a targeted manner – a major advantage for aerodynamics and flight mechanics.”
A key element of the project is an AI-assisted flight control system that continuously adapts its internal models to match real flight behavior, enabling it to detect deviations, respond to disturbances, and maintain stability—even in simulated damage scenarios. Unlike conventional systems, it coordinates multiple distributed actuators to fully exploit the morphing wing’s aerodynamic potential while improving fault tolerance. This is supported by a pressure-reconstruction method that uses minimal data to sense the current flow field, allowing the system to identify and respond to local changes in real time. The DLR team integrated the reference wings and the new composite morphing wings into the aircraft for testing of airworthiness and system integration. Data collected during scaled flight tests showed the aerodynamic and structural design, with a maximum speed of 300 kilometers per hour and a wing loading of 70 kilograms per square meter, is also relevant for light aircraft. Scalability will be tested in 2026.
