Review of hybrid laminar flow control systems

The aeronautic community always strived for fuel efficient aircraft and presently, the need for ecofriendly aircraft is even more, especially with the tremendous growth of air traffic and growing environmental concerns. Some of the important drivers for such interests include high fuel prices, less emissions requirements, need for more environment friendly aircraft to lessen the global warming effects. Hybrid laminar flow control (HLFC) technology is promising and offers possibility to achieve these goals. This technology was researched for decades for its application in transport aircraft, and it has achieved a new level of maturity towards integration and safety and maintenance aspects. This paper aims to give an overview of HLFC systems research and associated flight tests in the past years both in the US and in Europe. The review makes it possible to distinguish between the successful approaches and the less successful or outdated approaches in HLFC research. Furthermore, the technology status shall try to produce first estimations regarding the mass, power consumption and performance of HLFC systems as well as estimations regarding maintenance requirements and possible subsystem definitions.