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by actinium226 979 days ago
To be fair, the Wright Flyer used twisting wings. Ailerons took over, but it's not like twisting wings are some low TRL thing.
2 comments

The Wright brothers were incredible engineers, and a twisting wing made sense for their design. For high efficiency, a stiff wing is a must. Nowadays active stability systems make more designs practical. But the mission goals here favor low weight and reliability.
Also the Wright bros’ litigiousness over their IP was a main driver of the effective extinction of wing warping and the rise of ailerons rather than strictly engineering concerns. I imagine with newer materials wing warping could be pretty effective.