To me, the most remarkable thing about the modern commercial aircraft industry is how similar the end results are. Only the keen planespotter can tell apart a A350 from a B787, from the outside or the inside, and the Chinese (COMAC) and Russians (Sukhoi) are not even trying to disrupt, just copy. Where are all the delta wings and other exotic designs used regularly in military aircraft?!
IMHO there are two things with the potential to revolutionize passenger aviation brewing right now. One is the possible return of supersonic flight, with Boom racking up some 150 orders already, although they still have a long way to go until first passenger flight in 2029 (not holding my breath). The other is switching from aviation fuel to electric engines, which is inevitable, although the sheer weight of batteries is a much bigger problem for flight than for cars and it's likely going to take a decade plus until they're competitive for longer distances.
This is just a signal that the field is mature and the design is near local optimum.
tbh I don't see that much exotic designs in military aircraft either. Something like Rafale, Eurofighter, Gripen, J-10 etc are all notably similar in design (pure delta with canards). Similarly, the new gen fighters also are quite similar to each other visually. X-32 was maybe the only outlier on top of my head, and it never left the prototype stage.
You can sense the first tremors of a shakeup in cars though: the interior of a Tesla Model 3 is very far from conventional, and there's a lot more room for play now on the exterior as well since you no longer need to devote the first third to the internal combination engine.
Front and rear lights seem to have diverged in design recently. They don’t look similar at all when illuminated. It gives some sort of character to the otherwise sameness. To me, half of them look like Angry Birds. Presumably replacing them costs a limb.
Cars look the same because of regulations (crash test, passenger safety and fuel economy) and common supplier in a global supply chain, unlike missiles where aerodynamics really dictates design.
The big thing about electric I think is you can run fans off a common electrical bus powered by the engines. If you add a battery you have the advantages of faster throttle response and the ability to fly with your engines out or throttled back.
If you hit wind shear while landing you can increase power immediately not in a few seconds. You can take off and land under partial power to reduce noise. If you lose your engines you can probably fly 200 miles just off the battery and glide slope. If you lose an engine on take off you don't have loss of thrust or thrust imbalance. Rarely you could dump all your fuel and land off battery power.
Imagine a battery fire in flight - it would be devastating. However, since any sort of fire in current aircraft is still a very serious event, I'm not sure that would be a retrogression
IMHO there are two things with the potential to revolutionize passenger aviation brewing right now. One is the possible return of supersonic flight, with Boom racking up some 150 orders already, although they still have a long way to go until first passenger flight in 2029 (not holding my breath). The other is switching from aviation fuel to electric engines, which is inevitable, although the sheer weight of batteries is a much bigger problem for flight than for cars and it's likely going to take a decade plus until they're competitive for longer distances.