Abstract: Distributed electric propulsion (DEP) aircraft have become an important direction for next-generation aircraft owing to their potential for low-speed lift augmentation, reduced energy consumption, and noise control. This paper focuses on a class of DEP configurations in which multiple propellers are arranged along the wing leading edge or in the spanwise direction, and the propeller slipstream is directly coupled with the aerodynamic loads on the wing and control surfaces. The research progress on aerodynamic modeling, aerodynamic interference, aeroelastic response, and stability of such configurations is reviewed. Compared with conventional aircraft, the unsteady slipstream, thrust loads acting as follower forces, rotational inertia, and gyroscopic effects introduced by multiple propulsion units alter the wing load distribution, structural response, and stability boundaries, among which whirl flutter is an important issue related to flight safety. Overall, the aeroelastic characteristics of such configurations are mainly governed by the wing aspect ratio and structural flexibility, the mass and rotational inertia of the propulsion units, the mounting stiffness and location, the rotational speed, the thrust condition, and the slipstream effects. Lightweight high-aspect-ratio or highly flexible wing configurations are more likely to exhibit slipstream-structure coupling and geometric nonlinearity, whereas configurations equipped with propulsion units of larger mass or rotational inertia are more prone to whirl flutter, mounting-mode effects, and gyroscopic coupling. On this basis, this paper classifies propeller aerodynamic modeling methods by model fidelity, reviews propeller-wing aerodynamic interference mechanisms, summarizes research findings on aeroelastic response, stability analysis, and whirl flutter, identifies the dominant trends and mechanisms for different configurations, and proposes future research directions for engineering applications.

Key words: Distributed electric propulsion, high aspect ratio, Aeroelasticity, Propeller slipstream, Aerodynamic Interaction, Whirl flutter