Abstract: Flow control is one of important areas of research in fluid technology,and in the 21st century, the most important breakthrough in aerodynamicsmay be in the area of flow control. The synthetic jet, a zero mass flux jetbased on vortex dynamics, has been a remarkable and promising activeflow control technology in the recent decade. First, the synthetic jetactuators and the main types of actuators are introduced briefly in thispaper. The developments of actuators are summarized: thehigh-frequency, high-power, robust synthetic jet actuators and themini-actuators. Secondly, the operation principle of a synthetic jetactuator, the formation of a synthetic jet, the unique characteristics ofthe synthetic jet flow-field and the characteristics of the synthetic jettechnology are summarized. Lastly, the main and potential applications ofthe synthetic jet for flow control, such as flow separation control,aerodynamic control, jet vectoring control, mixing augmentation, heater and masstransfer enhancement, flow-induced noise suppression, micro-fluidic flowcontrol, flight control, particle scattering and synthetic jetgyroscope, areintroduced, and the main controlling mechanisms for these applications arealso discussed.