Designing the Fuel-Efficient Aircraft of the Future

Flying has gotten considerably cheaper, safer, faster, and even greener over the last 60 years. Today’s aircraft use roughly 80 percent less fuel per passenger-mile than the first jets of the 1950s, a testimony to the tremendous impact of engineering on the field. Joaquim Martins, an aerospace engineer from the University of Michigan, uses the Stampede supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center to help design wings that reduce fuel use.