Evidence that new, more efficient shapes are being treated realistically comes most recently from NASA's updated subsonic transport metrics for future sustainable airliners.
U.S. startups Natilus and JetZero sense the time is right for a chance to break into the big jet air transport business with radical blended wing body concepts.
EasyJet has partnered with blended wing body (BWB) aircraft developer JetZero, joining Alaska Airlines as part of a planned 12-airline customer focus group.
Alaska Airlines has become the first commercial operator to declare serious interest in the BWB under development by JetZero, signing options for an undisclosed number of aircraft from the startup.
Plans to replace the three main fleets of mobility aircraft remain decades away, following the production run of the Next Generation Aerial Refueling System.
Blended wing body developer JetZero has received an FAA airworthiness certificate for its 12.5% scaled demo, clearing the uncrewed twin-engine aircraft.
An airline operator pre-working group will guide plans for the commercial blended wing body as subscale flight tests pave way for a multirole demonstrator.
JetZero says it is poised to begin flight tests of a subscale version of its full-scale blended wing body multirole demonstrator in the next few weeks.
We may be witnessing the slow demise of what was once the world’s greatest aerospace company, with few identifiable roadblocks to an act of self-immolation.
