Sustainable Aviation Technology and Operations : Research and Innovation Perspectives

Sustainable Aviation Technology and Operations provides an updated and timely outlook of recent research advances in aeronautics and air transport, with emphasis on the overall environmental objectives and current achievements.

The book discusses some of the most promising advances in sustainable aircraft and air traffic management technologies including: aircraft systems, aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, materials, biofuels, autonomous systems, air traffic flow management and dynamic airspace management. The physical processes associated with production and environmental impacts of various aircraft emissions, including air pollutants, noise and contrails, are presented to support the development of computational models for aircraft design, mission planning and trajectory optimisation. Relevant advances in systems engineering and lifecycle management processes are also covered, identifying the existing gaps in both academic research and industry best practices towards developing viable solutions. A set of research case studies concludes and complements the book, addressing aircraft design, systems design and mission optimisation for a more efficient and environmentally sustainable air transport.

Key features:

• Addresses recent advances in aviation sustainability including multidisciplinary design approaches and multi-objective operational optimisation methods.
• Contains important research and industrially relevant contributions from world-class experts.
• Includes a number of research case studies, addressing aircraft design, propulsion, avionics, alternative aviation fuels and air traffic management solutions.

Sustainable Aviation Technology and Operations is an excellent book for aerospace engineers, aviation scientists, researchers and graduate students involved in the field.

Roberto Sabatini is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics with three decades of experience in aerospace and defence systems research and education, having served in various industry, government and academic organizations in Europe, North America, Australia, and the Middle-East. Currently, he serves as Professor at Khalifa University of Science and Technology (UAE) and Honorary Professor at RMIT University (Australia). His research addresses key contemporary challenges in avionics, spaceflight and robotics/autonomous systems design, test and certification, focusing on the central role played by cyber-physical systems and AI in the digital transformation and sustainable development of the aerospace sector. Throughout his career, Prof. Sabatini led several industry and government funded research projects and he authored or co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed international publications and several books. Since 2019, he has been listed by the Stanford University’s ranking among the top 2% most cited scientists globally in the field of aerospace and aeronautics. Prof. Sabatini is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN), the Institution of Engineers Australia (IEAust), and the International Engineering and Technology Institute (IETI), as well as a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He was conferred prestigious national and international awards including: Distinguished Leadership Award – Aviation/Aerospace Australia (2021); Best-in-field National Scientist in Aviation and Aerospace Engineering – The Australian Annual Research Report (2021); Scientist of the Year – Australian Defence Industry Awards (2019); Professorial Scholarship Award – Northrop Grumman Corporation (2017); Science Award – Sustainable Aviation Research Society (2016); Arch T. Colwell Merit Award – Society of Automotive Engineering (2015); and Scientific Achievement Award – NATO Research & Technology Organization (2008). In 2020, Prof. Sabatini was nominated Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Aerospace & Electronic Systems Society (AESS) and, since 2021, he serves as Chair of the IEEE AESS Avionics Systems Panel (ASP). In 2022, he was elected to the Board of Governors of the IEEE AESS, where his contributions have focused on industry relations, publications, and technical operations. Currently, Prof. Sabatini serves in various editorial roles, including: Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Press Series on Aeronautics and Astronautics Systems; Editor for Progress in Aerospace Sciences; and Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Robotica, the Journal of Navigation, and Aerospace Science and Technology.

Alessandro Gardi is an Assistant Professor in Aerospace Engineering at Khalifa University of Science and technology (Abu Dhabi, UAE), with ten years of experience in aerospace systems research and education. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and a Ph.D. in the same field from RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia). His work focusses on Avionics, Air Traffic Management and Sustainable Aviation Technology for conventional and autonomous aerospace vehicles. In this domain, he specialises in multi-objective trajectory optimization with emphasis on optimal control methods and AI/metaheuristics for air and space platforms. Dr Gardi has also worked on advancing systems and software engineering methodologies for the design of aerospace and defence systems, exploiting Internet of Things (IoT) technology, AI/machine learning, health monitoring and data integrity/cyber-resilience functionalities to operate autonomously for extended periods of time even in degraded conditions. To date, Dr Gardi has been a senior investigator in more than 10 research projects funded by industry and government, and has produced more than 150 refereed publications. In addition to his primary affiliation at Khalifa University, Dr Gardi is an Associate of RMIT University (Australia) and serves as Associate Editor for Drone Systems and Applications, Automation, Robotics and the ASTM Journal of Test and Evaluation.