Aircraft technology is advancing in terms of innovation. For instance, two recent innovations are supersonic aircraft and advanced fighter jets. These aircraft technologies require high performance and reliability. They need more focused optimization and reliability design analyses of structures and systems.

It is therefore imperative to develop new and efficient approaches to structural health management (SHM) and prognostics and health management (PHM). Improving SHM and PHM will enable us to perform suitable optimization and reliability design analyses of advanced aircraft. Aircraft structures include fuselage cover, wing structure, undercarriage, aero-engine structures or components (e.g., aero-engine fans, compressors, combustors, turbines, blades, casings, and other components), and other related components in an aircraft system.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together original research and review articles discussing recent advances in SHM and PHM methods. Submissions should consider structural/system optimization and reliability design for advanced aircraft. We hope that this Special Issue provides a platform for discussion in terms of improving the performance, reliability, safety, airworthiness, and maintainability of aircraft and aero-engines. Submissions should also mention applications of structural dynamics, nonlinear vibrations, time series modelling techniques, strategies of aerospace systems, mathematical modelling methods, computer simulation technologies, reliability-based design optimization techniques, multidisciplinary optimization approaches, and other related algorithms.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• PHM technology for aircraft flight conditions
• Evaluation model of SHM and PHM in aero-engines
• Detection, modelling, and prediction methods in evaluating crack, failure/fault, fatigue, and a lifetime of systems and components
• Optimization design methods for multicomponent systems and a single component of aircraft
• Optimization strategies, algorithms, multidisciplinary simulation approaches and the surrogate modelling technique for the optimization and reliability design of structures and systems
• Advanced probabilistic analysis and design methods for aircraft structures (e.g., influential analysis, sensitivity analysis parameters and reliability-based design optimization methods)
• Application of emerging technologies and algorithms in aircraft system analysis (e.g., big data analytics, cloud computing, intelligent algorithm, etc.)
• Maintenance, reliability, safety, airworthiness modelling and optimization based on new theories, methods, and technologies
• SHM techniques for aero-engines and structures
• Application of PHM techniques and other methods examining aero-engine whole-body vibrations