Advanced aircraft concepts are most often academic exercises, vision vehicles to inspire the imagination and guide research or technology collectors to enable engineers to analyze the integrated benefits of multiple advances. Such concepts are a form of language with which designers can convey the essence of their ideas concisely. They have taken on prominence as industry wrestles with the reality that turbine engines will not continue to deliver improvements in fuel efficiency indefinitely-not without changes to aircraft beyond what we have seen so far. All of the major aircraft manufacturers are studying advanced airliner configurations, some more unconventional than others. They are abetted by research agencies and academic institutions that are trying to identify which technologies will be important 20-30 years from now. The ideas range from longer wings and laminar flow to embedded engines and electric propulsion.
展开▼
