Flying wings are one of the most promising concepts regarding the ever-increasing air traffic demand. Furthermore, they help improving economic efficiency and are environmentally friendly, both in terms of emissions and noise. In the first place, the paper deals about the initial design of a medium size C-type flying wing, of the 300-seat class, showing that the aircraft is operationally efficient, and can beat conventional airplanes of similar capacity. It specifically exhibits some considerable gains in field and cruise performances. Second, the paper addresses the potential of some emerging technologies, such as laminar flow control, vectored thrust, and active stability, which provide additional improvements and allow the simplification of the original configuration to a U-type arrangement. A preliminary assessment of emergency evacuation is included.

Aeronautics and astronautics are two closely related disciplines, sometimes found under the joint term aerospace, that have progressed at a formidable pace during the 20th century. Their impact on society is overwhelming. For example, the aeroplane, the core of aeronautics, has been identified as one of the three major inventions of that century. On its turn, satellites have paved the way for modern globalization. Major drivers leading this progress have changed from the classical motto ‘higher, further, faster’ to the current ‘more affordable, cleaner, quieter’, but safety has always been kept the undisputed number one. The underlying key factors for progress have been and still are excellence and co-operation. Both aeronautics and astronautics are multidisciplinary in nature and, accordingly, this review summarizes relevant advances and trends in pertinent fields: aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, and so on. All these fields are still very healthy and the 21st century will witness again a new era of astonishing aerospace developments.

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Aircraft have greatly changed over the last decades, mainly due to astonishing developments in key technological areas. The present note attempts to correlate the evolution of jet airliners with improvements in aerodynamics and propulsion. A simple model is elaborated from the range equation, taking the main magnitudes of the payload—range diagram as input data. Results show the robustness and potential of such procedures.

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