ADVANCED TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT AERODYNAMICS IN COOPERATION WITH AIRBUS-INDUSTRIE

The aim of this article is to present some investigations dealing with new technologies for transport aircraft applications which have been conducted at ONERA during the last decade in close cooperation with Ai rbus Industrie. The work described is devoted to the important task of drag reduction. After a short analysis of the drag breakdown as obser ved on a typical configuration different approaches for reducing wave drag, induced drag and skin friction drag will be discussed. As it wil l be shown, the approach used starts from basic investigations and may lead to flight tests when their interest is demonstrated. This was al ready the case for the final evaluation of riblets which enable the tu rbulent skin friction drag to be reduced and at present the flight tes ting of the A320 HLF fin is under preperation to evaluate the hybrid l aminar flow concept. The mutual interest for such a cooperation in the present economic context is underlined.