Home / Automotive / MIT Aircraft Design Uses 70% Less Fuel

MIT Aircraft Design Uses 70% Less Fuel

Original Source: http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com
Author: Thomas Miner
Original Publication Date: May 20, 2010

May 20, 2010 – In what could set the stage for a fundamental shift in commercial aviation, an MIT-led team has designed two new green airplanes as part of a NASA sponsored competition which are estimated to use 70 percent less fuel than current planes while also reducing noise and emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx).

The objective of the NASA competition was to develop concepts for commercial planes which were quieter, burned 70% less fuel and emitted 75% less nitrous oxide than today’s standard commercial aircraft. The agency was also looking for prototypes which could take off from significantly shorter runways, planning for a doubling of air traffic over the next 20 years.

The MIT team met NASA’s challenge by developing two designs: the 180-passenger D “double bubble” series to replace the Boeing 737 class aircraft, currently used for domestic flights, and the 350 passenger H “hybrid wing body” series to replace the 777 class aircraft now used for international flights.

The Team’s D class aircraft features a reconfigured tube-and-wing structure, with the fuselage of the plane divided into two partial cylinders and placed side by side. The engines were also moved to the rear of the plane from their usual wing-mount locations, allowing them to take in slower moving air and increase efficiency.

The MIT team expects to hear from NASA within the next several months about whether it has been selected for the second phase of the program, which will provide additional funds to one or two of the subsonic teams in 2011 to research and develop the technologies identified during the first phase.

For more information, visit the MIT release here.

 Retweet This Post