The SSU seeks to improve the overall performance of next generation aircraft through the development of innovative structural concepts. Aircraft structural components are here designed to exhibit unusual smart abilities: they can sense a change in temperature, pressure, or strain, diagnose a problem and initiate an appropriate action to optimize a given set of physical parameters while continuing to perform their intended load-bearing functions. The shape change, or morphing, is one of the most sophisticated actions a smart structure can perform and it represents the key-theme of SSU researches. Adaptive structures design is carried out by following well-consolidated approaches integrating competences belonging to different disciplines and assuring the compliance of the conceived architectures and of the embedded systems with the applicable airworthiness requirements. Born in 2006 from an idea of Prof. Leonardo Lecce, the SSU has progressively gained a solid international reputation.