NASA Unveils Blueprint for Environmentally Friendly Commercial Planes!

Single-wing passenger aircraft are gigantic commercial aircraft, responsible for almost half of the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions.

But a radical new wing design developed by NASA and Boeing promises to make it smaller, cleaner and more efficient, cutting emissions by 30 percent.

NASA’s collaboration to build, test and launch a full-fledged demonstrator, which will bear the US Air Force test name X-66A, will require $425 million from the space agency, in addition to a $725 million investment from Boeing and its industry partners. .

At the heart of the new aircraft design is a longer and thinner strut wing design, a truss-braced transonic wing that makes better use of its glide potential and requires less fuel to propel itself forward.

And the US Air Force has just awarded its project the status of Outstanding Experimental X Aircraft, which means that NASA’s new X66-A will join the ranks of other revolutionary X aircraft, such as the North American X-15 test vehicle, which still holds the world speed record. flight. maximum altitude (67 miles) and maximum speed (Mach 6.7). NASA and Boeing’s modest goal for the X66-A is to catalyze the “decarbonization of space” to save the planet.

“The X-66A will help shape the future of aviation, a new era of cleaner and quieter aircraft, and create new opportunities for both society and American industry,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

And when combined with other advanced partnership plans, new aerospace materials and electronic systems development, the reinforced wings promise to reduce fuel consumption by 30 percent.

But it is quite comparable to today’s best-in-class aircraft. Boeing estimated in 2019 that a truss-linked transonic wing would cut emissions and fuel costs by 60% compared to aircraft built in 2005, many of which are still in use.

NASA officials said the X66-A is the first X-plane built with the specific purpose of helping the United States achieve its goal of a carbon-neutral aviation industry, as outlined in the White House Aviation Climate Action Plan.

According to Bob Pierce, Associate Administrator of NASA’s Office of Aeronautical Research, “To achieve our goal of achieving zero emissions for aviation by 2050, we need transformative aircraft concepts like the ones we fly the X-66A.”

NASA and Boeing began seeking an X rating for the aircraft shortly after the agency announced its sustainable aviation project award in January.

But their joint research into the feasibility of this new, more efficient transonic truss-braced wing design has been going on both at Boeing and in the wind tunnels and test rooms of NASA’s Ames Research Center for more than a decade.

The X-66A is due to fly in 2028, and Boeing hopes to launch the entire fleet with the new design by the mid-to-late 2030s.

Source: Daily Mail