Test flights for a groundbreaking new plane design are imminent as California-based JetZero announced that the plane called “Pathfinder” has been granted an FAA Airworthiness certificate.
The “blended wing body” looks similar to the “flying wing” design used by military aircraft such as the iconic B-2 bomber, but the blended wing has more volume in the middle section.
Both Boeing and Airbus are tinkering with the idea, and JetZero’s new milestone brings it a little closer to its ambitious goal of putting into service a blended-wing aircraft as soon as 2030.
“We feel very strongly about a path to zero emissions in big jets, and the blended wing airframe can deliver 50 percent lower fuel burn and emissions,” Tom O’Leary, co-founder and CEO of JetZero, told CNN recently. “That is a staggering leap forward in comparison to what the industry is used to.”
The new plane uses a design concept dating back to the 1920s
The blended wing concept is far from new, and the earliest attempts at building airplanes with this design date back to the late 1920s in Germany, CNN says. American aircraft designer and industrialist Jack Northrop created a jet-powered flying wing design in 1947, which inspired the B-2 in the 1990s.
“We’re beginning conversations with all of the airlines and finding out what their appetite is for aircraft in the middle market,” O’Leary told Reuters.
“There’s been universal interest and appeal because they’re all interested in fuel efficiency and emissions reductions.”
Two people familiar with the process said the Air Force, anxious to take advantage of higher volume and lower costs, had insisted bidders included a civil design when bidding.
As a sort of hybrid between a flying wing and a traditional “tube and wing,” the blended wing allows the entire aircraft to generate lift, minimizing drag.
NASA says that this shape “helps to increase fuel economy and creates larger payload (cargo or passenger) areas in the center body portion of the aircraft.”
The agency has tested it through one of its experimental planes, the X-48. Over about 120 test flights between 2007 and 2012, two unmanned, remote-controlled X-48s demonstrated the viability of the concept.
“An aircraft of this type would have a wingspan slightly greater than a Boeing 747 and could operate from existing airport terminals,” the agency says, adding that the plane would also “weigh less, generate less noise and emissions, and cost less to operate than an equally advanced conventional transport aircraft.”
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