Reducing drag improves the performance of transport aircraft, resulting in decreased fuel consumption and less pollutant emission to atmosphere.

The most efficient solution is to maintain a laminar flow over as large a fraction as possible of the surfaces exposed to air. Objective: fuel consumption gains of 15 to 20 percent.

One way of achieving this is by suction of the air on the leading edge of the different components (wings, tail fins, etc.). This technology is now being evaluated by computation, wind tunnel testing and in flight.