• Current aircraft rely on rigid wings and control surfaces, leading to suboptimal aerodynamics and increased fuel consumption.
• There’s a need for adaptable monolithic wings, but efficient actuation mechanisms are crucial for achieving this.
• Smart materials like MFCs and SMAs have been explored for actuation, but they have limitations such as poor actuation authority and slow response time.
• Electro Active Polymers (EAPs) are still in early development and not practical for aerospace applications yet, leaving a gap in suitable actuator options for morphing wings

• The invention discloses a compliant aerofoil device configured to change its profile in flight using shape memory alloy (SMA) and piezoelectric composite elements in response to control inputs.

Device:

• The device is formed of a rigid leading edge part (110) including a D-spar and a compliant trailing edge part(120), connected by an elastically deformable membrane(130).
• The Trailing edge part (120) includes a flexible shell(122) and a rigid tail tip portion (124).
• The invention discloses a method of controlling an aerodynamic or hydrodynamic structure by providing at least one tensile element along with one or more bending elements.