Aircraft drag reduction—a review

Abstract

The paper summarizes the state of the art in aeronautical drag reduction across the speed range for the 'conventional' drag components of viscous drag, drag due to lift and wave drag. It also describes several emerging drag-reduction approaches that are either active or reactive/interactive and the drag reduction potentially available from synergistic combinations of advanced configuration aerodynamics, viscous drag-reduction approaches, revolutionary structural concepts and propulsion integration.