With billions being spent in pursuit of fuel savings, closer integration of engines and aircraft may hold the greatest untapped potential for improvement. But extracting synergies from the intermingling of propulsion and airframe design is demanding changes in the way the stove-piped aerospace industry operates.

One of the few promising airlines in Eastern Europe until its near-collapse last year, Air Baltic is slowly returning to financial stability and rebuilding its strategy—and now it faces new competition from Estonian Air.

Aerospace researchers generally agree that step changes in efficiency for future commercial aircraft designs will only be achieved through unprecedented levels of integration between propulsion and airframe.

NASA, Boeing consider technologies that might be in airliners in 2045.

Designers are shaping quiet nozzles and aircraft with soft sonic booms.

During the past year, two large powered-lift models have been tested in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) at NASA Ames Research Center in California, evaluating the low-speed benefits of blowing air over high-lift flaps for short takeoff and landing (STOL).

Aircraft all look the same these days because the traditional tube-and-wing shape works well, both technically and operationally. To convince manufacturers to change direction would take a compelling demonstration of the benefits of a different approach.

How is the new hangar at Berlin Brandenburg coming together?