Pound for pound – or, rather, gram for gram – a short-haul flight is one of the ways to travel. Long-haul flights are barely better; domestic ones are worse by far. Which, for anybody hoping to live on a planet Earth that’s still habitable in the near future, is .
That’s one reason why NASA launched the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project – an admittedly ambitious attempt to help the aviation industry reach emissions by 2050. By last year, the project was already seeing some of the first fruits of its labor: a concept from Boeing for a new design of single-aisle aircraft that could result in up to 30 percent lower fuel consumption and lower than the best equivalents currently available.
Dubbed the X-66A, the key to the new plane’s efficiency is its extra-long, thin wings, which are stabilized by a pair of diagonal struts. This design generates lift while decreasing induced drag – a combination which the amount of fuel needed for a given journey. It also has an eye on the future: the setup “could eventually accommodate advanced propulsion systems that are limited by a lack of underwing space in today’s low-wing airplane configurations,” Boeing suggests in a .
The model received its designation as a direct result of the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project – it’s a label given to aircraft specifically designed for research and experiments. It’s the result of more than a decade of research and collaboration between the two organizations into what Boeing calls its “Transonic Truss-Braced Wing” model – and now, for the first time, a full-scale demonstration of the is being delivered.
“We’re incredibly proud of this designation, because it means that the X-66A will be the next in a long line of experimental aircraft used to validate breakthrough designs that have transformed aviation,” said Todd Citron, Boeing chief technology officer, in . “With the learnings gained from design, construction, and flight-testing, we’ll have an opportunity to shape the future of flight and contribute to the decarbonization of aerospace.”
Should the design prove successful in real-world testing, it could be just the kind of revolution the aerospace industry needs. Single-aisle aircraft are smaller than wide-body planes, and mostly used for short-haul or domestic flights; due to their heavy usage, they account for nearly half of emissions worldwide.
Thanks to this collaboration, however – and an award from NASA of $425 million over seven years, to join with Boeing and partners’ $725 million stake – this new, greener design of aircraft might be in the skies .
“To reach our goal of net zero aviation emissions by 2050, we need transformative aircraft concepts like the ones we’re flying on the X-66A,” said Bob Pearce, associate administrator for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. “With this experimental aircraft, we’re aiming high to demonstrate the kinds of energy-saving, emissions-reducing technologies the aviation industry needs.”