The design of modern aircraft is nearly 70 years old. Now is the time for engineers to develop new, more environmentally friendly designs!
The design of modern aircraft took shape in the 1950s: A metal tube with swept-back wings with jet engines hanging from the bottom. That design has made it easy for you to move thousands of trees back and forth, but today there are new studies, studies that will yield something very new, maybe something that will take you on a journey. calendar around the late 2030s.
Non-traditional aircraft designs such as the Blended-wing Body (BWB), also known as the One-Wing, have been in use for many years in the military. The monocoque wing design, as the name suggests, combines the wing and cabin into one. Scientists at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) say that now, concerns about climate change and the growing need for new materials are also driving non-traditional designs. There is a chance to get closer to reality.
Nearly every design option to increase aerodynamic efficiency has been applied to modern aircraft, and new aircraft designs must be even better to meet environmental and economic standards, because yet forced aircraft manufacturers to gather at the design table.
Currently, aircraft design is mainly based on graphic simulations or small-scale prototypes, but NASA has changed this by launching a competition among US units, asking for designs. Design and build life-size prototypes. The rules of this contest require “contestants” to aim for a narrow-body aircraft model equivalent in size to a Boeing 737 or Airbus A320, capable of accommodating 150 passengers. NASA sets a deadline for these prototypes to fly by 2027 and be ready for commercial production from the next decade.
NASA will not comment on the competition plans until the September 2027 deadline, but the agency has talked about the unusual designs that researchers and aircraft manufacturers have come up with. can do; which refers to aircraft designed like flying wings, capable of accommodating 10 people sitting in a row – meanwhile, narrow-body aircraft such as the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 only have 6 people per row, other models do not. have thin, long, foldable wings, and some designs also install rearward-facing propellers at the rear of the aircraft.
10 years ago, NASA also organized a similar competition, targeting the effectiveness of the design rather than the commercial value it could bring. Now, they are aiming for efficient aircraft models that could change the entire aviation industry’s emissions levels. “We’ve had 20 years of working on innovative designs,” said Brent Cobleig, NASA’s Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities Project Manager. But I haven’t seen anything like that at the airport since the last time I flew.”
Aircraft designs can be divided into three main design groups. These designs are said by the contest participants to be expected to appear prominently in the competition. These designs bear fancy names such as Transonic Truss-braced Wing, Blending-wing Body, and Twin Body. from: Double Bubble). These fine words also show how their design has been different from today’s traditional aircraft designs.
NASA is only using $1 billion of its $26 billion fiscal year 2023 budget for aeronautics, comparable to previous years’ levels, but officials say NASA is still influencing every department. Parts of today’s airplanes. NASA also plans to reduce the space sector’s budget to serve the construction and testing of the winning design that NASA will announce next January. This century’s aircraft developed by Airbus and Boeing alone require at least $10 billion, so any other aircraft model will require new investment capital.
Professor R. John Hansman, head of the International Center for Air Transportation of the Massachusetts Institute of Science, USA, said these new designs are expected to help increase efficiency. improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions, mainly due to reduced aerodynamic drag.
Single-wing and twin-fuselage aircraft designs have a rounded body, and use that body to increase lift instead of relying solely on the wings like traditional aircraft models.
With the Subsonic Reinforced Wing, the aircraft will still have a conventional tubular cabin but will be designed for maximum aerodynamic efficiency and can increase cabin pressure, helping passengers Guests can breathe easier. The aircraft will have thinner and longer wings to reduce drag in flight, but will have to be more elaborately designed and need additional wing support, reducing pressure at the connection point to the fuselage.
While the two giants of the aviation industry, Boeing and Airbus, are always developing unusual designs, the aviation industry in general will choose the less expensive method – improving on the conventional design. Aircraft manufacturers often don’t want to be the vanguard because the cost of investing in a completely new design is too great.
Frequent travelers of the aviation industry support the goal of reducing their carbon footprint, but there will always be questions about economics. Mr. John Plueger, CEO of Air Lease (one of the largest aircraft leasing units in the world) shared: “Is the world willing to pay for it?”
Mr. Rich Wahls at the US Sustainable Flight Partnership (the organizer of the aircraft design competition) said: “If we don’t do it, there won’t be any change at all. […] We We must quickly apply these designs to existing aircraft to create positive climate change.”
Participating teams must show that their design can be mass produced in a minimum quantity of 60 units/month. This competition also goes hand in hand with the aviation industry’s efforts to use new energy, including types of energy such as hydrogen or electricity, and new materials such as composites and new production methods.
Rich Wahls continued: “I believe there will be a lot of change in the next 20 years.”
While China, Japan, South Korea and many European countries such as France, Germany, and the UK are also aiming for breakthroughs in aircraft design, NASA believes that they are also trying to make the US a pioneer country. head.
The new model aircraft in NASA’s competition will face a difficulty: Will customers dare to step on the unusually shaped aircraft?
In fact, customer acceptance is also one of the criteria of the contest.