Sustainable Aviation
Sustainable aviation is a multi-disciplinary field that seeks solutions to improve the environmental and societal impacts of air transportation. It aims to reduce aviation’s contribution to climate change through new practices and radical innovation. This specialization covers highly efficient aircraft designs, novel propulsion systems, green aircraft technologies, and energy-optimized flight operations to reduce aircraft energy consumption, noise, and emissions. Research applications include appropriate fidelity and system-level analysis of advanced concept aircraft, electrified and hydrogen-powered aircraft, sustainable aviation fuels, renewable and alternative energy sources, improved air traffic management, emissions, and noise.
At Michigan, research and education in this specialization draw from the expertise of other research areas such as aerodynamics, propulsion, systems design, computation, autonomous systems, controls, structures, and materials. This brings a holistic approach that accounts for the life-cycle impact of greenhouse gas emissions in the design, operation, and sustainment of new aircraft concepts. Michigan’s sustainable aviation research programs involve collaboration with the aerospace industry and government.
SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FACULTY
Clarence L. (Kelly) Johnson Professor
James E. Knott Professor
Professor of Practice
Assistant Professor
Professor
Professor
Associate Professor
Associate Professor
Visiting Assistant Professor
Professor
SUSTAINABLE AVIATION RESEARCH GROUPS
Active Aeroelasticity and Structures Research Laboratory (A2SRL)
Research areas: Multiphysics, multifidelity modeling, analysis, simulation (MS&A) of aero-servo-elastic systems; Multifunctional structural design and integration
Integrated Design of Environmentally-friendly Aerospace Systems (IDEAS) Lab
Research areas: Aerospace systems design, integration and optimization with a special focus on electrified aircraft concepts and sustainable aviation
Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Laboratory
Research areas: Aircraft design, Multidisciplinary design optimization, computational fluid dynamics
Computational Aerosciences Laboratory
Research areas: Analysis & Design of Electrified aircraft (E-VTOL) specfically; Fuel Cell modeling and control
Computational Fluid Dynamics Group
Research areas: Computational fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, reduced models for aircraft analysis and design
OUR FACILITIES
Use our excellent facilities to do your research. Work with faculty who lead in their fields.
