List of aircraft improvements

A number of aircraft parts allow the improvement of an aircraft regarding its aerodynamic drag, lift, noise reduction, environmental friendliness, ... These improvements are vital in order to adhering to the new requirements for commercial aviation. Also, some aircraft types such as the Personal air vehicle also require these new technologies to adhere to even stricter requirements. Some of these ideas allow the modification of existing aircraft, while other ideas involve the design of completely new aircrafts.
Airframe enhancements
*Blended wing body designs date from the early postwar era. Research on updated designs is under way at Boeing and Cranfield University
*In addition to blended wing body designs, Flying wing-designs also offer similar benefits and have had interesting new technologies as counter acting airbrakes (folding open both above and under the wing) .
*Lifting body designs are similar to flying wing designs with the difference that is a wing without a conventional fuselage. Some airplanes such as Smartfish are equipped with this design, hereby no longer needing flaps, slats or spoilers.
*Airplanes can also be foreseen with lighter-than-air gases such as helium or hydrogen. These gases may be placed in extra wings, such as with the Bauhaus luftfahrt boxed wing aircraft.
*The AeroVironment SkyTote fixed wing, VTOL aircraft is another type of radical rethinking on aircraft construction. It focuses on building an aircraft that has moderately good VTOL properties as well as the flight advantages of a regular fixed wing aircraft.
*The Peebles Fanwing is a new approach to lift, and is benefiting from investment by the UK and Italian Governments.
*Another radical new aircraft design that is being relooked for the environmental advantage it can bring are flettner airplanes
*L/P Driver is a Lift and Propulsion System being developed by Velarus , providing utility and transport designs with near ground operation similar to helicopters while capable of jet speeds at altitude, including the possibility of supersonic design.
*Solar hot air balloons and solar hot air airships are new types of balloons and airships.
New engine technologies
*The Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan which will allow the Fan and LP Turbine to each operate at optimum speed providing increased fuel efficiency and reduced noise.
*Electric airplanes are being developed and tested under projects as the E-flight initiative. Range is still limited with these airplanes though.
*Solar and human powered propulsion-aircraft are being worked on for long duration flight. Aircraft like the Solar Impulse, Helios, Pathfinder and others prove that zero emission fixed wing aircraft are possible, yet translating the concept to larger aircraft is very hard
*Alternative fuels for aircraft have received limited attention. Hydrogen is perhaps the most obvious alternative to existing kerosene/gasoline-type fuels, but the technical and infrastructural challenges inherent in developing a commercially usable hydrogen-powered aircraft are huge. The Russian manufacturer Tupolev built a prototype hydrogen-powered version of the Tu-154 airliner, named the Tu-155, which made its first flight in 1989. In addition, Boeing too has been experimenting with hydrogen (primarily to power auxiliary systems), yet has plans to build a hydrogen-powered jet . Also Boeing's Research & Technology Europe (BR&TE) has made a civilian aircraft made from a 2-seat Dimona motor glider running on a fuel cell. (called Theator Airplane)". Lange Aviation also made a hydrogen-powered airplane with its Antares DLR-H2 airplane.
*For jet engines, Reaction Engines A2 has been proposed to use the thermodynamic properties of liquid hydrogen to achieve very high speed, long distance (antipodal) flight by burning it in a precooled jet engine.
* The SAX-40 is a new aircraft design, developed under the Silent Aircraft Initiative which has been able to reduce noise.
Aerodynamics technologies
* Boundary layer suction has long been a subject of research. The technique works, but has traditionally consumed so much power that it was not worth doing. The necessary internal ducting is another problem. Work continues at TU Delft.
* Aircraft may be foreseen with special fuselages which make advantage of the wing-in-ground effect. The aircraft includes airships, helicopters and airplanes.

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