A comprehensive review of state-of-art FishBAC – fishbone active camber morphing wing surfaces–: a promising morphing method

Purpose The current research conducts a comprehensive review on FishBAC (fishbone active camber morphing wing surfaces) for researchers and scientists and sheds light on challenges and opportunities of FishBAC development. Design/methodology/approach This is a review article and this study reviews previous research on FishBAC. Findings The current FishBAC applications could be upgraded into more efficient designs in materials, design and mechanisms with more perspectives involved. Then, this promising branch of morphing surface design could be integrated with rotor blades, unmanned aerial vehicle wings, general aviation aircraft surfaces and so on. Research limitations/implications This is a review article. Practical implications The contributions of the study are summarized as follows: to provide an overview of FishBAC research; to compare various approaches and trends in FishBAC designs; to address the research gap in the roadmap for FishBAC design; and to discuss the challenges and opportunities of FishBAC development. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first review on a promising morphing method and an alternative for conventional flaps and ailerons.