The pursuit of more efficient transport has led engineers to develop a wide variety of aircraft configurations with the aim of reducing fuel consumption and emissions. However, these innovative designs introduce significant aeroelastic couplings that can potentially lead to structural failure. Consequently, aeroelastic analysis and optimization have become an integral part of modern aircraft design. In addition, aeroelastic testing of scaled models is a critical phase in aircraft development, requiring the accurate prediction of aeroelastic behavior during scaled model construction to reduce costs and mitigate the risks associated with full-scale flight testing. Achieving a high degree of similarity between the stiffness, mass distribution and flow field characteristics of scaled models and their full-scale counterparts is of paramount importance. However, achieving similarity is not always straightforward due to the variety of configurations of modern lightweight aircraft, as identical geometry cannot always be directly scaled down. This configuration diversity has a direct impact on the aeroelastic response, necessitating the use of computational aeroelasticity tools and optimization algorithms. This paper presents the development of an aeroelastic scaling framework using multidisciplinary optimization. Specifically, a parametric Finite Element Model (FEM) of the wing is created, incorporating the parameterization of both thickness and geometry, primarily using shell elements. Aerodynamic loads are calculated using the Doublet Lattice Method (DLM) employing twist and camber correction factors, and aeroelastic coupling is established using infinite plate splines. The aeroelastic model is then integrated within an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm to achieve static and dynamic similarity between the scaled model and the reference wing. A notable contribution of this work is the incorporation of internal geometry parameterization into the framework, increasing its versatility and effectiveness.

The Metropolis II project aimed to study the impact of centralised separation management for urban aerial mobility. Three concepts were developed in this study: a fully centralised, strategically separated concept, a hybrid concept featuring cen- tralised strategic separation and distributed tactical separation, and a fully distributed tactical concept. A comparative simu- lation study was performed, using traffic scenarios based on predicted demand in an urban airspace in the city of Vienna. Simulations were performed with varying traffic densities and situations. Results show that the purely strategic and purely tactical strategies perform comparably in terms of safety, and that further improvements can be achieved with a combination of those strategies.