The Green Transition in Commercial Aviation

This paper provides a comprehensive review of novel aviation technologies, analyzing the advancements and challenges associated with the transition to sustainable air transport. The study explores three key pillars: unconventional aerodynamic configurations, novel propulsion systems, and advanced materials. Unconventional airframe architectures, such as box-wing, blended-wing-body, and truss-braced wings, demonstrate potential for improved aerostructural efficiency and reduced fuel consumption compared to traditional tube-and-wing designs. Aeropropulsive innovations, as distributed propulsion, boundary layer ingestion and advanced turbofan configurations are also promising in this regard. Significant progress in propulsion technologies, including hybrid-electric, hydrogen, and extensive use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), plays a pivotal role in reducing air transport greenhouse gas emissions. However, energy storage limitations and infrastructure constraints remain critical challenges, and hence, in the near future, SAF could represent the most feasible solution. The introduction of advanced lightweight materials could further enhance aircraft overall performance. The results presented and discussed in this paper show that there is no a unique solution to the problem of the sustainability of air transport, but a combination of all the novel technologies is necessary to achieve the ambitious environmental goals for the air transport of the future.