The agreement calls for NASA and Boeing to build, test and fly a full-scale demonstrator aircraft.
Washington:
US space agency NASA is teaming up with Boeing to develop the next generation of low-carbon commercial aircraft.
NASA, whose scope also includes aeronautics research, will invest $425 million over seven years in the “Sustainable Flight Demonstrator” (SFD) project, while Boeing and its partners will spend an estimated $725 million.
The goal, said NASA chief Bill Nelson, is to produce future commercial aircraft that are “more fuel efficient for the environment, the commercial aviation industry and passengers around the world.”
“If we’re successful, we could see these technologies in the planes the public takes to the skies in the 2030s,” Nelson said in a statement Wednesday.
The agreement calls for NASA and Boeing to build, test and fly a full-scale single-aisle demonstrator aircraft.
“The technologies demonstrated and tested as part of the SFD program will inform future designs and breakthroughs could lead to increased aerodynamics and fuel efficiency,” Boeing said.
Boeing chief engineer Greg Hyslop said it “has the potential to make a major contribution toward a sustainable future.”
NASA said engineers will seek to design an aircraft with up to a 30 percent reduction in fuel consumption and emissions relative to today’s most efficient single-aisle aircraft.
The agency plans to complete SFD testing by the end of 2020 so that the technologies and design can be applied to the next generation of single-aisle aircraft.
NASA said single-aisle aircraft are most common in airline fleets and account for about half of aviation emissions worldwide.
Boeing and NASA plan to flight-test an innovative wing known as a transonic truss-braced wing that creates less drag and results in less fuel burn.
The extra-long, tapered wings are mounted atop the fuselage and stabilized by diagonal struts.
NASA and Boeing said the development of the next-generation aircraft could help meet the White House and industry objective of net-zero carbon emissions from aviation by 2050.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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