NASA Shows Off Planes of the Future

NASA is looking into advanced aircraft that could enter service in the 2030-2035 timeframe. The designs the space agency has looked at range from the familiar to the very far out..

Supersonic Concept Plane Would Shush Sonic Booms

A new design concept for a futuristic faster-than-sound aircraft could break through legal barriers to supersonic flights over land by shushing the sonic booms created by such vehicles.

The concept aircraft, envisioned by aerospace company Lockheed Martin, would revolutionize supersonic cruising by relying upon a so-called "inverted-V" engine-under wing configuration, where the engines sit atop the wings rather than beneath, NASA officials said in a statement.

A Lockheed illustration of the supersonic concept released by NASA is just one of several designs presented in April to the space agency's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate following a call for studies on advanced aircraft that could take to the skies sometime around 2030 or 2035.

NASA also has high hopes for air-breathing scramjet technology that could efficiently propel vehicles at hypersonic speeds and potentially help boost future space planes into Earth orbit. [Air Force's plans for hypersonic weapons.]

The United States and other nations previously banned overland supersonic flights because of their classic sonic boom and rattle effect that can ruin anyone's morning cup of coffee.
That prevented the now-defunct Concorde airliner from going supersonic except over water during transatlantic trips. Since then, NASA has performed several studies with supersonic flights aimed at shushing supersonic booms.

Such considerations also matter for ongoing hypersonic tests. DARPA tested its HTV-2 hypersonic glider prototype off the southern coast of California in late April, but lost contact with the vehicle early on during the flight.

The U.S. Air Force used the same Pacific corridor when it achieved the longest hypersonic flight in May with its X-51A Waverider. But the X-51A has yet to break the hypersonic speed record of NASA's X-43A project, which achieved Mach 9.6 in November 2004.


Bigger Is Better



The Hybrid Wing Body H-Series future aircraft design concept comes from the research team led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This design is suitable for intercontinental flights and larger passenger loads similar to a Boeing 777. It features embedded engines using variable area nozzles with thrust vectoring, noise shielding thanks to the fuselage and other technologies, and advanced onboard vehicle health monitoring systems. This aircraft is designed to fly at Mach 0.83 carrying 354 passengers 7,600 nautical miles.


The Subsonic Ultra Green

The Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research, or SUGAR, Volt future aircraft design comes from the research team led by The Boeing Company. The Volt is a twin-engine concept with a hybrid propulsion system that combines gas turbine and battery technology, a tube-shaped body and a truss-braced wing mounted to the top of the aircraft. This aircraft is designed to fly at Mach 0.79 carrying 154 passengers 3,500 nautical miles.

Small But Mighty

This future aircraft design concept comes from a research team led by GE Aviation. Much lighter and more aerodynamic than current aircraft with the same capacity, the 20-passenger aircraft would reduce fuel consumption and noise and enable business jet-like travel between more than 1,300 airports. It features ultra-quiet turboprop engines, virtual reality windows and is designed to fly at Mach 0.55 for 800 nautical miles.

Business Not Quite as Usual

Deceptively conventional-looking, the The Silent Efficient Low Emissions Commercial Transport, or SELECT, future aircraft design features lightweight ceramic composite materials, nanotech, and shape memory alloys. In addition to being energy efficient and environmentally friendly, the SELECT improves the capacity of the future air transportation system because it can be used at smaller airports and make them more effective. It is designed to fly at Mach 0.75 carrying 120 passengers 1,600 nautical miles.

The Double Bubble



The "double bubble" D8 Series concept is based on a modified tube and wing with a very wide fuselage to provide extra lift. Its low sweep wing reduces drag and weight; the embedded engines sit aft of the wings. The D8 series aircraft would be used for domestic flights and is designed to fly at Mach 0.74 carrying 180 passengers 3,000 nautical miles in a coach cabin roomier than that of a Boeing 737-800.

The Boeing Needle

The "Icon-II" future aircraft design concept for supersonic flight over land comes from the team led by The Boeing Company. A design that achieves fuel burn reduction and airport noise goals, it also achieves large reductions in sonic boom noise levels that will meet the target level required to make supersonic flight over land possible.

Source: NASA/MIT/Aurora Flight Sciences /The Boeing Company/GE Aviation/Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation
(4 July2010)