Abstract: Against the strategic backdrop of low-altitude economy development and the “dual carbon” goals, distributed propulsion technology has emerged as an important development direction for advanced aircraft, owing to its potential to significantly enhance overall aerodynamic performance through the integration of multiple propulsors with the wing or fuselage. However, the complex aerodynamic interaction between propulsors and wings, characterized by strong coupling, high dimensionality, and multi-objective, multidisciplinary features, poses substantial challenges for aerodynamic design and optimization. This paper reviews the fundamental concepts and development history of distributed propulsion technology, with a particular focus on recent advances in aerodynamic design and optimization. In terms of aerodynamic design, the coupled flow mechanisms between the propulsors and the wing, together with the resulting aerodynamic performance benefits, are summarized based on wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulations. In optimization studies, relevant research progress is reviewed at both the component-level optimization and overall conceptual design levels. Finally, future development trends of distributed propulsion technology are discussed, with the aim of providing useful insights for subsequent research.

Key words: distributed propulsion aircraft, aerodynamic–propulsion coupling effects, aerodynamic design, multidisciplinary optimization, aircraft conceptual design