“…There are also two distinct flow regimes, hover and forward flight, and good performance in one is unlikely to be carried over to the other. Aerodynamic optimisation has been applied previously to rotors in hover but mainly with both low fidelity aerodynamics and only gross geometric changes, see for example (13) , with only a few notable results using compressible CFD, namely those of ONERA (14,15) , Nadarajah et al (16) , Choi et al (17) , Nielsen et al (18) , Imiela (19,20) , and recent work of Johnson and Barakos (21,22) . The research presented here is aimed at the development of a modularised, generic optimisation tool, that is flow-solver and mesh type independent, and applicable to any aerodynamic problem; rotor blades in hover in this case.…”