Overall Aircraft Design for New Airframe Technologies, New Energy Systems and New Operations

Dear Colleagues,

In order to achieve aviation carbon emission goals, traditional airframe technologies, energy systems, and operation strategies (ATEO) are no longer sufficient to meet the evolving demands of future aircraft. Radically novel ATEOs present great potential for reducing aviation carbon emissions but also pose numerous challenges. In the context of a growing focus on electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for urban air mobility, a resurgence of interest in civil high-speed flight, and the increasing consensus on achieving net-zero aviation carbon emissions by 2050, this Special Issue aims to collect the latest research work in aircraft design related to ATEO, such as laminar flow control, variable camber, boundary layer ingestion for airframe technologies, lithium batteries, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), methane, and hydrogen for energy storage systems, as well as fuel cells and electric motors for energy conversion systems, and operation strategies like formation flight (cooperative trajectories), intermediate-stop refueling, continuous climb/descent.

This Special Issue welcomes potential topics, including but not limited to:

1. EVTOL aircraft design and optimization;
2. Civil high-speed aircraft design and optimization;
3. Aircraft design case studies on new configurations;
4. Aircraft technology integration (e.g., laminar flow control, boundary layer ingestion, advanced composite materials);
5. Evaluation of new energy systems for aircraft (e.g., hybrid electric propulsion, hydrogen with fuel cells);
6. Assessment of operational strategies for aircraft (e.g., formation flight, trajectory optimization);
7. Aviation emission reduction strategies, including case studies and reviews;
8. Multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization, incorporating disciplinary methods and/or optimization strategies;
9. Digital and model-based design approaches for new configurations;
10. New aircraft design methods, tools, and frameworks (e.g., machine-learning-based approaches).

Dr. Yaolong Liu
Dr. Mingqiang Luo
Dr. Andrea Da-Ronch
Guest Editors

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• overall aircraft design
• aircraft technology integration
• EVTOL
• MDAO (Multidisciplinary Design Analysis and Optimization)
• MBSE (Model-Based Systems Engineering)
• hybrid electric propulsion
• laminar flow control
• formation flight
• trajectory optimization