A Review of Aerodynamic Drag and its Mitigation in Fixed-Wing Aircraft: Strategies and Trade-offs

Abstract

The global push for sustainable aviation has made reducing aerodynamic drag a critical engineering challenge, directly impacting fuel efficiency and environmental footprint. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of the primary sources of drag on fixed-wing aircraft—parasitic, induced, and wave drag—and explores the key strategies used to mitigate them. We discuss foundational approaches like winglets and supercritical airfoils, as well as emerging technologies such as active laminar flow control. A central theme of our analysis is that drag reduction is an exercise in managing fundamental engineering compromises; improvements in one flight regime often come with penalties in another. We argue that the future of aerodynamic efficiency lies not in isolated technological fixes, but in the integrated design of adaptive systems that can dynamically optimize performance across the entire flight envelope.