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While many companies have played around with the blended wing configuration for aeroplanes since the early sixty’s, JetZero has now released its design for a new kind of aeroplane, and it’s set to burn 50% less fuel and be quieter than any other plane.

Since Elon Musk set the electric car market on fire with Tesla’s ‘next generation thinking’, aeroplane designers have been scratching away at their designs to try and put our old jumbo jets with their heavy carbon signatures to bed.

But it’s not so easy to ‘break away from the pack’ when your design needs to travel miles high.

A blended wing jet, or “flying wing,” as some call the design, is different from other aircraft because it has no definite fuselage, instead blending the wing and fuselage into one construction.

 The Flying V, designed by a team of aerospace engineers and students at TU Delft, and the Airbus Maveric, are the two most famous blended-wing designs. Both firms expect their concepts to be in the air by 2035.

The blended wing is a naturally stable design requiring no tail surfaces, which eliminates ‘aerodynamic complexity’. A shorter, wider fuselage is blended together mimicking the wing to provide lift. This reduces the surface needed, creating a lighter aircraft with less drag.

US-based startup JetZero has now emerged with a ‘proven’ design, the Jetliner, and the US military (of course) has ordered one for testing.

With all that US funding, they will now be able to produce a conceptual design for a commercial jetliner that can also serve as a military tanker, and it’s set to take to the skies in 2027.

“Traditional tube-and-wing designs have reached the end of the road on efficiency gains, and our new airframe meets both the climate challenge and the demands of an underserved mid-market segment.”

JetZero says their aircraft will be more efficient than a similar-sized commercial jet—with half the fuel burn—but will emit four times less noise, thanks to the engines being on top of the jet. The aircraft will also be ready for zero-emissions fuels like hydrogen fuel cells once that technology comes online.

Despite the chaos that seems to engulf most of the world at the moment, we have to take note of some of these incredible changes to everyday aspects of our lives. We are in the midst of technological breakthroughs that make sci-fi movies look like owner’s manuals for tomorrow.

Imagine seeing one of these birds floating over Parow as it comes in for a landing at Cape Town International Airport. The future is here people.

[source:robbreport&jetzero]