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This paper aims to compare three closed non-planar wing configurations with a reference conventional wing-plus-horizontal tail aircraft, considering structural aspects, weights and aerodynamic characteristics, as well as operational issues, such as cruise performance.

A vortex lattice code is used and coupled with an in-house code for structural beam calculation subroutine to evaluate the configurations as a function of the four main parameters identified in the study.

The study concludes that the non-planar wing configurations have better performances than a conventional aircraft. Moreover, the joined-wing configuration seems to be better than the others, including the box-wing configuration, achieving an increase of 17 per cent in the range for maximum payload compared to the reference aircraft and a 3 per cent reduction of maximum take-off weight.

In the study, characteristic tools for a conceptual design are used, and, thus, absolute results should be considered with caution. Nonetheless, as all the cases are studied in the same way, there is a good precision in comparative or relative results.

The work shows that the non-planar wing configurations can be used as an alternative to the conventional aircraft to meet the objectives for the future of the aviation industry.

Non-planar wing configurations are able to reduce fuel consumption. Their use could lead to reductions in pollutant emissions and the impact on the environment of commercial aviation.

This study considers aerodynamic and structural aspects at the same time, as well as several non-planar wing configurations, making possible to obtain a more realistic comparison between them.