Adaptive morphing trailing edge technology offers the potential to decrease the fuel burn of transonic transport aircraft by allowing wings to dynamically adjust to changing flight conditions. Current aircraft use flap and aileron droop to adjust the wing during flight. However, this approach offers only a limited number of degrees of freedom, and the gaps in the wing created when using these devices introduce unnecessary drag. Morphing trailing edge technology offers more degrees of freedom, with a seamless interface between the wing and control surfaces. In this paper we seek to quantify the extent to which this technology can improve the fuel burn of transonic commercial transport sized aircraft. Starting from the undefonned Common Research Model (uCRM) geometry, we perform fixed-planform aerostructural optimizations of a standard wing, a wing retrofitted with a morphing trailing edge, and a clean sheet wing designed with the morphing trailing edge. The wing retrofitted with the morphing trailing edge improved the fuel burn as effectively as the full wing redesign without morphing. Additional fuel burn reductions were observed for the clean sheet design. The morphing trailing edge decreased the fuel burn by performing load alleviation at the maneuver condition, weakening the trade-off between cruise performance and maneuver structural constraints, resulting in lighter wingboxes and more aerodynamically efficient cruise configurations.
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