Are Wings Getting Better?

Everything is getting better.

That looks promising.

If you see Boeing or Airbus ever utilize this, then maybe it's real.

I didn't see anywhere in the article (and non technical) about fatigue issues that I'm sure are not trivial. If this were ever to fail during a flight it would cause non symmetric lift issue, that you can not do anything about, but watch the aircraft spin into the ground. With real trailing wing mechanisms, they are inspectable and maintainable. And if you do see fatigue issues, what do you do, replace the whole wing?

Nice idea, but try to certify it for long life airframes. Even drones can kill people by accident.

if anything fails in flight you have a disaster! open your mind. it says they are utilizing existing materials and actuators so this isn't new tech as much as existing in a new application

You've answered your own question.

Until, and if, it is ever certified by the FAA, we won't be seeing it on any airframes.

And I can't believe that you really mean this statement, either, "If this were ever to fail during a flight it would cause non symmetric lift issue, that you can not do anything about".

You certainly know that it is not an absolute fact. It might take some flying, but losing an aileron is not an automatic crash. That's like saying if you lose an engine on a twin, you're going to crash.

This is FLAPS not ailerons. You can fly without ailerons by using rudder. And vise versa as long as the whole rudder is not gone (and that depends on the aircraft). But flaps and spoilers are the 2 surfaces that never can be non symmetrically deployed. I'm not talking spoilerons that serve both as lift spoiler or aileron. The ailerons do not have enough aero dynamic forces to over come this failure (of flaps or spoiler symmetry). Unless they design it just for this sort of failure. But then that introduces new problems.

The article does not provide enough information. It really looks like they are just getting rid of any boundary flow issues by having a smooth surface along the whole wing. If this surface does tear from bending fatigue, what happens? Added drag, or is the whole trailing edge lost. So I may be wrong that it will end in catastrophic failure.

you're right so lets all live in caves and never go out in the sunshine

Split flaps may cause you to pucker big time, and make extraordinary control corrections to survive, but it does not mean it has to be the end of your flight.

Never say never.

I wonder what the benefits might be in non-flying apps like wind turbines, underwater props and control surfaces etc?

I believe the Wright Brothers warped their wings for aileron control.