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Topic · Global and Planetary Change

Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies

Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies is a research topic within Global and Planetary Change. Science Explorer counts 13k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the intersection of aviation and global climate change, focusing on the impact of aviation emissions, alternative fuels, aircraft design for reduced environmental impact, and technologies such as hydrogen and electric propulsion. It also delves into the effects of contrails, renewable jet fuel production, and the implications for air quality.

  • Aviation
  • Climate Change
  • Alternative Fuels
  • Emissions
  • Aircraft Design
  • Renewable Jet Fuel
  • Contrails
  • Hydrogen Technology
  • Electric Propulsion
  • Air Quality
Research works
13k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+52%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
29% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies

Which countries lead Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (810 and 691 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 810 works
  2. 2 United States 691 works
  3. 3 Germany 298 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 226 works
  5. 5 India 173 works
  6. 6 Türkiye 165 works
  7. 7 Italy 143 works
  8. 8 France 110 works
  9. 9 Canada 86 works
  10. 10 Russia 64 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 29.3%United States: 25.0%Germany: 10.8%United Kingdom: 8.2%6 others listed: 26.8%29%largest
China810 · 29.3%United States691 · 25.0%Germany298 · 10.8%United Kingdom226 · 8.2%6 others listed742 · 26.8%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres publishes the most Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies research, followed by Beihang University and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 99 works
  2. 2 Beihang UniversityChina 70 works
  3. 3 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina 70 works
  4. 4 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 64 works
  5. 5 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationUnited States 48 works
  6. 6 Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 48 works
  7. 7 Georgia Institute of TechnologyUnited States 47 works
  8. 8 Cranfield UniversityUnited Kingdom 43 works
  9. 9 Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (China)China 42 works
  10. 10 Technische Universität BraunschweigGermany 32 works

Who are the leading researchers in Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies include Lídia Morawska, John H. Seinfeld and Jose Luis Jimenez.

  1. 1 Lídia Morawska Australia 244k citations
  2. 2 John H. Seinfeld United States 140k citations
  3. 3 Jose Luis Jimenez United States 120k citations
  4. 4 Bruce Thompson United States 120k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies?

The most cited paper in Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies is "The contribution of global aviation to anthropogenic climate forcing for 2000 to 2018" (David Stephen Lee et al., 2020), with 1,684 citations. Next come "More Electric Aircraft: Review, Challenges, and Opportunities for Commercial Transport Aircraft" (1,256) and "A Model for the Spectral Albedo of Snow. II: Snow Containing Atmospheric Aerosols" (1,250).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The contribution of global aviation to anthropogenic climate forcing for 2000 to 2018 David Stephen Lee et al. · Atmospheric Environment Open access 3 Sep 2020 1,684
2 More Electric Aircraft: Review, Challenges, and Opportunities for Commercial Transport Aircraft Bulent Sarlioglu, Casey T. Morris · IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification Jun 2015 1,256
3 A Model for the Spectral Albedo of Snow. II: Snow Containing Atmospheric Aerosols Stephen G. Warren, Warren J. Wiscombe · Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences Dec 1980 1,250
4 Aviation and global climate change in the 21st century David Stephen Lee, David W. Fahey, Piers M. de F. Forster et al. · Atmospheric Environment Open access 20 Apr 2009 1,112
5 Wing Design by Numerical Optimization Raymond M. Hicks, Preston A. Henne · Journal of Aircraft Jul 1978 1,099
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies research done?

The largest centres of Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Cologne (Germany), Xi'an (China) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Cranfield, Braunschweig and Cologne.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 213 works
  2. 2 CologneGermany 97 works
  3. 3 Xi'anChina 94 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 93 works
  5. 5 ShanghaiChina 86 works
  6. 6 LondonUnited Kingdom 53 works
  7. 7 AtlantaUnited States 48 works
  8. 8 DelftNetherlands 48 works
  9. 9 CranfieldUnited Kingdom 44 works
  10. 10 ToulouseFrance 41 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. CranfieldGB · 44.1 works94×
  2. BraunschweigDE · 33.0 works25×
  3. CologneDE · 97.0 works24×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies than the world average.

See Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies on the map

Where is the best place to study Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies?

Among universities, judged by research, Imperial College London, Delft University of Technology and Beihang University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 13.93%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Imperial College Lon…University of MichiganDelft University of …Beihang University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Imperial College LondonUnited Kingdom 75.226.3%4.7×15 +67.9%
2Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 74.316.3%22.1×48 +37.7%
3Beihang UniversityChina 68.414.5%19.9×70 +80.9%
4University of MichiganUnited States 67.118.4%5.2×26 +33.0%
5Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina 64.110.7%24.8×70 +84.3%
6Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 59.78.2%17.5×64 +63.9%
7Technische Universität BraunschweigGermany 57.410.7%47.6×32 +192.4%
8Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 56.812.2%7.6×17 +14.3%
9Politecnico di MilanoItaly 56.615.7%7.3×17 +123.8%
10Georgia Institute of TechnologyUnited States 56.26.3%23.5×47 +16.6%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies, country by country

Is Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 52% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.013% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies0.017% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies10.4% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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