The problem of event-triggered fuzzy adaptive finite-time tracking for flexible hypersonic flight vehicles is considered in this work. A new switching event-triggered mechanism is devised to mitigate the unnecessary resources waste in the process of system communication and sampled data computation. Compared with the traditional event-triggered mechanism, an exponential term with regard to tracking error is introduced into the proposed switching event-triggered function, which significantly reduces the frequencies of data transmission. To evade singularity issue typical of traditional recursive finite-time design methods, we introduce a new piecewise switching controller whose continuity and differentiability are ensured everywhere via an appropriate design. Stability of the proposed design is proved using asymmetric barrier Lyapunov functions, which are devised to tackle the fact that the operating regions of the flight state variables are asymmetric in actual engineering. Finally, comparative simulations are designed to illustrate the effectiveness and superiority of the presented methodology.INDEX TERMS Switching event-triggered mechanism, singularity-free design, hypersonic flight vehicle, finite-time stability.