NASA issues award for greener, more fuel-efficient airliner of future

NASA has issued an award to The Boeing Company for the agency's Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project, which seeks to inform a potential new generation of green single-aisle airliners, it said in an announcement on Wednesday.

Under a Funded Space Act Agreement, Boeing and NASA will work together to build, test, and fly a full-scale demonstrator aircraft and validate technologies aimed at lowering emissions, reports NASA.

Over the course of seven years, NASA will invest $425 million, while Boeing and its partners will contribute remainder of the agreement funding, expected to be about $725 million.

As part of the agreement, the US-based space agency will also provide technical expertise and facilities.

"Since the beginning, NASA has been with you when you fly. NASA has dared to go farther, faster, higher. And in doing so, NASA has made aviation more sustainable and dependable. It is in our DNA," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

"It is our goal that NASA's partnership with Boeing, to produce and test a full-scale demonstrator, will help lead to future commercial airliners that are more fuel efficient, with benefits to the environment, the commercial aviation industry, and to passengers worldwide. If we are successful, we may see these technologies in planes that the public takes to the skies in the 2030s," he added.

According to NASA, airlines heavily rely on single-aisle aircraft, contributing to nearly half of worldwide aviation emissions. The agency plans to complete testing for the project by the late 2020s, so that technologies and designs demonstrated by the project can help the industry produce the next generation of single-aisle aircraft that could enter into service in the 2030s.

Through the project, Boeing and its industry team will partner with NASA to develop and flight-test a full-scale Transonic Truss-Braced Wing demonstrator aircraft.

The Transonic Truss-Braced Wing concept involves an aircraft with longer and thin wings stabilised by diagonal struts. This design results in an aircraft that is much more fuel efficient than a traditional airliner as the shape would create less drag and as a result burn less fuel.

The project is an activity under NASA's Integrated Aviation Systems Program and a major element of the Sustainable Flight National Partnership, focusing on the development of new sustainable aviation technologies.