Future Air Transport Challenges and Solutions

Dear Colleagues,

International research and development activities in recent years have actively shaped the future of aviation and air transport for the coming decades. The key drivers motivating these R&D efforts, include not only traditional motives, such as the always increasing push for automation translating into autonomy, but also new ones, such as the always increasing consideration of environmental and societal factors, pushing, for instance, for the adoption of reduced-emission air transport forms, accelerating the transition toward more suitable low-emission aviation.

Air transport is one of the most important domains of transport, with a very special role within the broader transport ecosystem: it is the only form of transport devoted to the exploitation of the third dimension, airspace, with work in recent years also broaching the use of urban airspace. With this role comes the responsibility to ensure the efficient use of airspace and minimize the environmental footprint of operations, both in traditional and low-altitude airspace.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide researchers in the aviation and air transport domains with the possibility of sharing the ideas and results emerging from their latest research and development activities, in this way fostering cross-fertilization and supporting the further development of such outcomes towards high-impact technological advancements. In the framework of Future Transport, therefore, this Special Issue is very important, being specifically devoted to one of the most relevant transport domains, which deserves particular attention due to the number of significant evolutions that are moving it towards profound transformation in the medium to long term, in line with future technological, environmental, and societal needs.

The ambition of this Special Issue is to collect original research articles and review papers that cover myriad aspects of the future of the air transport and aviation domain, being inherently multidisciplinary in nature, as air transport comprises very complex system-of-systems. Based on this, the possible suggested research areas include (but not limited to) the following:

• Integration of new aviation entrants, including autonomous aircraft and drones;
• Integration and synergies between Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM);
• Higher Airspace Operations (HAO) and integration of spacecrafts;
• Next-generation propulsion systems, including hybrid-electric, full-electric, fuel cells, and liquid hydrogen;
• Advanced automation and autonomy in aircraft systems;
• Applications, opportunities, and limitations of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in aviation;
• Automation and autonomy in Air Traffic Control (ATC);
• Decision-support systems for both onboard and ground operations;
• Single-Pilot Operation (SPO);
• Small Air Transport (SAT) and Door-to-Door (D2D) mobility solutions.

 I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Vittorio Di Vito
Guest Editor

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