NASA Issues Award for Greener, More Fuel-Efficient Airliner of Future

NASA is teaming with Boeing on the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project

NASA and Boeing have teamed up to deliver the airliner of the future, in a move aviation experts say is a “significant global development”.

NASA announced on Wednesday that it will work with Boeing on the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project, which seeks to build, test and fly an emissions-reducing single-aisle aircraft this decade.

Single-aisle aircraft are typically used across the aviation industry. Many Australians would be familiar with models like the 737 and the A320.

What makes this experimental aircraft unique is its Transonic Truss- Braced Wing concept.

Elongated, thin wings stabilised by diagonal struts connect the wings to the plane at two points. This design feature creates less drag and reduces weight, which results in less fuel being burnt.

“NASA is working toward an ambitious goal of developing game-changing technologies to reduce aviation energy use and emissions over the coming decades toward an aviation community goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050,” said Bob Pearce, NASA associate administrator for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

“The Transonic Truss-Braced Wing is the kind of transformative concept and investment we will need to meet those challenges and, critically, the technologies demonstrated in this project have a clear and viable path to informing the next generation of single-aisle aircraft, benefiting everyone that uses the air transportation system.”

According to NASA, single-aisle aircraft account for nearly half of aviation emissions worldwide. NASA’s goal is that the technology flown on the demonstrator aircraft, when combined with other advancements in propulsion systems, materials, and systems architecture, would result in fuel consumption and emissions reductions of up to 30% relative to today’s most efficient single-aisle aircraft, depending on the mission.

The project is an activity under NASA’s Integrated Aviation Systems Program and a key element of the Sustainable Flight National Partnership, which focuses on developing new sustainable aviation technologies.