The idea of design for adaptability is presented to cope with the uncertainties in aircraft conceptual design, such as custom requirements, competitive market and technical maturity. The meaning of ad aptability in aircraft conceptual design is that when beginning to design the first version of aircraft, the possibility of the advanced technology applications should be considered for its successor to meet future requirements and competitive mark et. The conceptual designs of a short-haul civil jet and its successors are dem onstrated using the idea of design for adaptability. The configuration for first version of the short-haul civil jet is featured with rear-fuselage-mounted engi nes, and its purpose is to pre-set the room for advanced propulsion and wing tec hnology applications for the successors, i.e. the second and the third versions. The fir st version N1 adopts the current mature technology (geared turbofan engine and supercritical wing). The second version N2-A and N2-B adopt open rotor engines and less swept wing with natural laminar flow technology, respectively. The thi rd version N3 adopts open rotor engine and natural laminar flow wing simultaneo usly. The successors (N2-A, N2-B and N3) can be derived from the first version N 1 smoothly, and a family of short-haul civil jets has an excellent inheritance. Compared with the fuel consumption of the version N1, that of the version N2-A a nd N2-B can be reduced by 17% and 7%, respectively, and that of version N3 can b e reduced by 26%. The family of short-haul civil jets presents good sustainability.