Wing warping

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.

If the rear edge of the right wing tip is twisted upward and the left downward the bird becomes an animated windmill and instantly begins to turn, a line from its head to its tail being the axis."

After Wilbur demonstrated the method, Orville noted, "From this it was apparent that the wings of a machine of the Chanute double-deck type, with the fore-and-aft trussing removed, could be warped in like manner, so that in flying the wings on the right and left sides could be warped so as to present their surfaces to the air at different angles of incidence and thus secure unequal lifts on the two sides.

Ailerons had begun to replace wing warping as the most common means of achieving lateral control as early as 1911, especially in biplane designs.

Research into this field is mainly conducted by NASA such as with the Mission Adaptive Wing (MAW) trialed from 1985 on the General Dynamics–Boeing AFTI/F-111A Aardvark.

The absence of discrete curvature changes and of gaps has the potential of reducing the shape drag associated to the wing, thus increasing their aerodynamic efficiency.