Aerodynamic Wing Design for Transport Aircraft – Today

Increasing fuel costs and environmental burden in particular with respect to the CO2 emissions require a substantial improvement of efficiency of transport aircraft. In the past a multiplicity of improvements in aircraft development has been carried out. In a historical overview the most important ones are briefly described. Different aerodynamic technologies related to the clean wing are discussed in detail: swept wing, transonic adaptation, laminar technology, forward sweep, elasticity. Today some of these technologies are fully exploited; others are well known but not yet applied. The paper describes the current status of these technologies and identifies further potential.