What will be the aircraft of the future?

NASA's major aeronautical engineer asked the world to solve the most difficult problem of civil aviation: how to make air travel cleaner, quieter and cheaper. Prototypes, they have provided, can set a new standard for the next two decades for passenger air travel. Thus, we consider the most interesting projects.

BOX WING JET, LOCKHEED MARTIN

The expected term of the first flight: 2025

Modern passenger aircraft consume a lot of fuel, for example, Boeing 747 takes up to 10 liters of fuel per kilometer of flight, and with a constant upward trend in fuel prices, respectively, increases the price of airline tickets. According to science news, Lockheed Martin engineers have developed the concept of Box Wing, for the attainment of new ways to reduce the fuel requirements of future aircraft, without affecting the basic shape of the aircraft. Through the use of lightweight materials and design features of the wings of the ratio of lift to drag ratio of 16 per cent above that allow the aircraft to fly long distances and consume less fuel.

In developing the concept of Box Wing designers abandoned the conventional turbofan engines in favor of dual-turbofan, high-bypass ratio. Due to an increase of 40 per cent of the engine blades, in Box Wing increased by 22 percent efficiency at subsonic speeds. Add to this the cost-effective configuration of the wings and the plane will be 50 percent more efficient than the average modern airliner. Additional lift will also allow pilots to make steeper landings and takeoffs.

SUPERSONIC GREEN MACHINE, LOCKHEED MARTIN

The expected term of the first flight: 2030

The first era of commercial supersonic aircraft ended November 26, 2003, with the last flight of Concorde - a noisy, inefficient aircraft and a large polluter. But the dream of supersonic flight remained, and in 2010, Lockheed Martin engineers presented a Supersonic Green Machine. In this project, the efficiency increased by a motor-cycle AC, which replaces the conventional turbofan, if necessary, which could be used during takeoff and landing. The combustion chamber that is built into the engine, reduce nitrogen oxide pollution by 75 percent. The inverted V-shaped tail of the aircraft is almost completely eliminates the sound boom, because of which the land Concorde flights were banned.

SUGAR VOLT, BOEING

The expected term of the first flight: 2035

The best way to save jet fuel is that it does not use it. And this is possible with the use of alternative energy sources such as batteries and motors in a hybrid propulsion system Boeing SUGAR Volt. According mirnt.ru, the plane will take off with jet engines, and for the subsequent maintenance of the aircraft in the air, the pilot can use the electric motors. Boeing engineers also rethink and modified design of the wings, making them much more than modern counterparts. The wings can be folded to fit a plane to the standards of most airports. Taken together, improvements in the SUGAR Volt make it to 55 percent more efficient means of modern aircraft. Also, it will be disposed of into the environment by 60 per cent less carbon dioxide and 80 percent less nitrous oxide. And thanks to hybrid technology, it will be able to use the runways of smaller size, the Boeing 737 to be 1500 meters, and for the SUGAR Volt will have to be 1200 meters.