In nature, birds can intelligently adapt their wing shapes to their environment. This paper aims to replicate this capability by designing an online data-driven aerodynamic performance optimization framework for an unconventional morphing aircraft. Compared to state-of-the-art methods, the proposed framework efficiently finds global optima with reduced computational load when addressing time-varying, nonlinear, and non-convex problems. It also demonstrates enhanced adaptability to unforeseen scenarios. In the event of a sudden actuator fault, the algorithm can automatically detect the fault, adapt the onboard data-driven model, and continue performing optimization and trimming tasks using the remaining healthy actuators. Additionally, the paper addresses the optimal number of actuators within a morphing surface, considering the tradeoff between optimization performance and the weight penalty. High-fidelity simulations demonstrate that through active morphing, the proposed framework achieves drag reductions of 1.9–4.9 % during cruise and up to 12.6 % at higher operational lift coefficients (due to heavier weight and lower speed), resulting in an overall drag reduction of 2.98 % over a typical flight cycle, which corresponds to fuel savings of approximately 150 kg/h. This research represents a significant advancement in sustainable aviation, contributing to reduced fuel consumption, lower emissions, and improved fault tolerance for next-generation aircraft.

Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) appears as one of the leading solutions for sustainable aviation, with rear-fuselage tanks being one of the preferred options for fuel integration in conventional tube & wing designs. Studies have already identified some limitations of these concepts concerning the larger horizontal tailplane required. However, no studies so far considered the industry approach of sharing a single tailplane in an aircraft family for this type of aircraft.

The thesis draws some first guidelines for the design of LH2 aircraft families with rear tanks, with a special focus on the performance penalties due to tailplane commonality and its comparison to conventional designs. For this purpose, a methodology has been developed that systematically sizes the tailplane of an aircraft considering potential family members already in the preliminary design stage. The results revealed that lower performance penalty due to tailplane commonality can be expected for an LH2 family compared to kerosene powered designs.