HERWINGT Demo Series continues – Episode 3 is out!

After a three-day intensive laboratory testing campaign, the team from the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology at Politecnico di Milano, led by Alessandro De Gaspari, successfully tested their wing integrated with high-bandwidth morphing ailerons. This milestone was achieved with the outstanding support of Emilio Di Lorenzo and Davide Mastrodicasa from Siemens Digital Industries Software.

We are pleased to present Episode 3 of our Demo Series, offering an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at this important milestone within the HERWINGT project. You can also explore the first two episodes of the series here.

From Manufacturing to Motion: Advancing HERWINGT

A progress review meeting for the HERWINGT Project was held at Eurotech Srl, focusing on the manufacturing activities of the compliant morphing flap demonstrator developed under the Clean Aviation framework. CIRA, in their role as demo leader for the Morphing Trailing Edge Flap demonstrator (D1-13), emphasized the importance of closely monitoring the transition from design to industrial production, ensuring coherence between technical development, manufacturing progress, and forthcoming validation phases. The visit also provided a valuable opportunity for technical exchange with key stakeholders from CIRA, Dr Maria Chiara Noviello and Pietro Catalano, and Eurotech, reinforcing the link between research and industrial implementation. The demonstrator’s advancement reflects strong multidisciplinary collaboration and shared engineering commitment.

Final integration and functional assessment activities are currently underway at Eurotech Srl for the HERWINGT Project’s compliant morphing flap demonstrator. The activity stands as a strong example of effective teamwork and engineering integration between CIRA and Eurotech in advancing adaptive aerostructures.

You can watch the relevant video here.

HERWINGT Newsletter, Issue 6 is out!

The sixth issue of the HERWINGT Newsletter highlights progress toward ambitious sustainability targets, including significant reductions in fuel consumption, emissions, and structural weight through advanced aerodynamics, lightweight design, and hybrid-electric integration. Key updates include outcomes from the Annual Review, developments in the UERA use case targeting entry into service by 2035, and exploratory activities under Use Case B focusing on next-generation distributed propulsion concepts beyond 2040. The newsletter also showcases ongoing experimental validations, such as morphing wing technologies tested by Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with Siemens, demonstrating strong multidisciplinary cooperation and reinforcing HERWINGT’s contribution to enabling ultra-efficient, low-emission regional aviation

Read the HERWINGT Newsletter, Issue 6!

HERWINGT at the International Forum on Aeroelasticity and Structural Dynamics (IFASD 2026) 

During the International Forum on Aeroelasticity and Structural Dynamics (IFASD 2026), held in Göttingen, Germany, from June 16–19, the HERWINGT consortium will have a strong presence, contributing through the following participations:

• Ilias Tsatsas (TUD) has prepared a scientific paper entitled "The effect of wingbox elastic deformation on the morphing shapes of the translation induced camber concept", focusing on the maturation of the Translation Induced Camber (TRIC) application on the morphing strut by simulating and quantifying the effect of the elastic strutbox on the morphing trailing edge shapes.

•     The team from the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology at Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with Hellenic Aerospace Industry, will present two papers: “Active Wing for Future Regional Aircraft: Morphing Structures and Aeroelastic Control” and “Experimental testing of a high-bandwidth morphing aileron”

  The first paper presents the experimental validation strategy developed to achieve TRL5 maturity, including a full-scale morphing aileron demonstrator and a dynamically scaled aeroservo-elastic wind tunnel model. The overall results demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating advanced structural concepts, adaptive aerodynamics, and active control within a unified aeroelastic design framework for future sustainable regional aircraft. The second paper focuses on the experimental validation of an innovative compliant morphing aileron developed for a hybrid-electric regional aircraft. The device was designed as an alternative to conventional hinged ailerons, enabling smooth aerodynamic shape variations with reduced actuation loads and high-bandwidth capabilities. A ground experimental campaign was performed under static and dynamic conditions, including static shape reconstruction, actuation load characterization, and dynamic response assessment. Results demonstrated accurate reproduction of the target aerodynamic shapes and good agreement with numerical simulation. The compliant architecture enabled continuous trailing-edge deformation while preserving smoothness of the external surface. Static tests revealed nonlinear friction effects within the actuation chain, highlighting their relevance for mechanical design and control development. Dynamic investigations confirmed the expected response over the investigated frequency range, supporting the suitability of the concept for high-bandwidth control applications. Overall, the results validate the proposed morphing aileron concept and confirm its potential advantages over conventional hinged control surfaces. Future activities will focus on aerodynamic wind-tunnel characterization to investigate the aerodynamic performances of the morphing aileron and further increase the technology readiness level of the proposed system.

Stay tuned for more by becoming a member of our online community through the HERWINGT LinkedIn page!

The project is supported by the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking and its members.​

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking. Neither the European Union nor Clean Aviation JU can be held responsible for them.