Laser-based morphing could lead to self-optimizing airplane wings
A plane wing that changes shape in flight to better handle the airflow crossing it could be on the horizon thanks to a materials science advance from researchers in Stockholm. The trick involves the melting and hole-punching power of lasers.Researchers out of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, experimented with paraffin. Working with a 2D version of the material, they were able to use lasers to poke tiny holes through the wax and then melt it very gradually to direct the liquid paraffin where they…