PARSIFAL Project: a breakthrough innovation in air transport

PARSIFAL is a Horizon 2020 project, started on May 2017, with the aim to design an innovative aircraft, based on the "PrandtlPlane" (PrP) conguration, for the civil aviation of the future. The PrP conguration allows us to reduce the fuel consumption and the external noise, especially during low speed ight. The high aerodynamic performances are used to limit the span to 36m, compliant with ICAO Aerodrome Reference Code C standard, and to extend the payload capacity to 250-350 passengers without signicant penalties of aerodynamic efficiency. The paper presents the overall characteristics of this innovative aircraft and how the PrP conguration could allow to improve the civil air transport of the future, as far as aircraft manufacturers, airports, airlines and passengers are concerned; in particular, some aspects of the architectural solutions and the aerodynamic design and optimization are underlined in subsonic and transonic regimes. Some details are given here on the fuselage design and the lifting system.