  In the age of globalization, commercial aviation plays a central role in
maintaining our international connectivity by providing fast air transport
services for passengers and freight. However, the upper limit of the aircraft
flight envelope, i.e., its operational limit in the high-speed regime, is
usually fixed by the occurrence of an aerodynamic phenomenon called transonic
airfoil buffet. It refers to shock wave oscillations occurring on the aircraft
wings, which induce unsteady aerodynamic loads acting on the wing structure.
Since these loads can cause severe structural damage endangering flight safety,
the aviation industry is highly interested in suppressing transonic airfoil
buffet to extend the flight envelope to higher aircraft speeds. In this
contribution, we demonstrate experimentally that the application of porous
trailing edges substantially attenuates the buffet phenomenon. Since porous
trailing edges have the additional benefit of reducing acoustic aircraft
emissions, our findings could pave the way for faster air transport with
reduced noise emissions.
