The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has presented Boeing with an award for its Sustainable Flight Demonstration Project, which aims to create a new generation of environmentally friendly single-aisle airliners. Through the funding of the Space Act agreement, Boeing will work with NASA to build, inspect and fly a full-scale demonstrator aircraft to demonstrate technologies to reduce emissions.
NASA will invest $425 million over seven years, while the company and its partners will provide the rest, estimated at about $725 million. Additionally, the agency will provide technical expertise and facilities as part of the agreement.
“Our goal is for NASA to work with Boeing to produce and test a full-scale demonstrator that will help make future commercial airliners more fuel efficient, which is good for the environment, the commercial aviation industry and passengers around the world. If we When successful, we could see these technologies on airplanes that the public flies in the 2030s,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
we are working with @Boeing Developing technology for the next generation of single-aisle aircraft. We will collaborate to develop a comprehensive demonstrator by 2030 to help the U.S. aviation industry achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. @NASAAero: https://t.co/dFikvL0YPa pic.twitter.com/TMXIupCyEh
— National Aeronautics and Space Administration (@NASA) January 18, 2023
NASA says most aviation emissions come from single-aisle planes, which are the backbone of many airline fleets and are heavily used.
By the late 2020s, NASA intends to complete testing of the project so that the technologies and designs it demonstrates can help the industry make decisions about a next-generation single-aisle aircraft that could enter service in the 2030s.
Boeing and its industry team are working with NASA on the Sustainable Flight Demonstration Project to create and test a full-scale transonic lattice-supported wing aircraft. The concept involves an aircraft with wings that are longer and thinner than usual, held in place by diagonal struts. The design is more fuel-efficient than regular airliners, as its shape reduces drag and therefore uses less fuel.
