Abstract: Traditional fixed-wing configurations are hard to meet the increasing performance demands of aircraft due to their aerodynamic shape limitations. Consequently, the study of morphing wings with the ability to shape change has garnered widespread attention and has become a prominent focus within the international aerospace field, serving as a critical technology for aircraft to achieve large airspace and wide speed range. The development trend of morphing wings includes multi-dimensional, large deformation, high stiffness, lightweight design, etc. In recent years, researchers have designed various forms of morphing wings, such as variable chord length, variable-sweep, variable span, variable twist, spanwise bending, chordwise bending, and variable thickness. It is classified on the research status of morphing wings based on in-plane and out-plane wing deformations, providing a comprehensive overview of the current research status. Furthermore, the development trends in aircraft morphing wings are analyzed, including the design of multidimensional deformation mechanisms, structure design of continuous smooth deformation skin with large load capacity, highly efficient actuators and distributed driving systems, integrated design and optimization of wing mechanism-skin-actuation systems, and the design and validation of morphing wings considering complex environments, which provide valuable insights and references for further research in this field.

Key words: aircraft morphing wing, deformation mechanism, morphing skin, new actuator, multidimensional deformation