The company’s senior executive said Boeing is studying whether an innovative aircraft it is developing with NASA can find a place in its product line in the next decade. the company’s top executives said.
The company’s senior executive said Boeing is studying whether an innovative aircraft it is developing with NASA can find a place in its product line in the next decade. the company’s top executives said.
By the end of this decade, the WE The plane maker plans to fly a full-scale prototype of the single-aisle jet, whose dimensions could make it the eventual successor to the 737 Max. Boeing airplanes and NASA have been working on an idea for nearly 15 years to reduce drag — and burn fuel — with thin, extra-long wings that are stabilized by diagonal struts attached to the bottom of the fuselage.
The design, combined with improvements in engine technology, could cut fuel consumption and emissions by about 30% compared to Boeing’s 737 Max and Airbus SE’s A320neo family – the The current packhorse of airlines around the globe.
Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s chief executive, said Wednesday during an earnings conference call.
“The show we’re embarking on here is how do you commercialize it?” Calhoun talks about its futuristic design. So the intention is really there to be able to do that.
Boeing is currently testing digital tools that it will use to design and manufacture jets in a number of defense programs, he added.
Calhoun was shocked Wall Street last year by announcing the aviation giant would not produce all-new jets this decade in an attempt to capture Airbus’ lead in the narrow-body jet market. Last week, NASA awarded Boeing $425 million to help create a greener generation of jets that are ready to enter the commercial market by the 2030s. The aircraft manufacturer and its partners will provides an additional $725 million.
Long-wing jets don’t yet have catchy nicknames like the Max or the Dreamliner. It is called Sustainable Flight Demonstrator, after NASA project, and is also known as the “cross-brake wing” in Boeing. And while it’s unclear whether the concept will work for wide-body jets built to fly halfway around the world, “it will certainly one day have a role in the world of aircraft.” narrow body,” said Calhoun.
The American plane maker hasn’t built a full-scale jet model to test a groundbreaking design since executives bet the company in the early 1950s on so-called “Dash 80”, short for Boeing 376-80. The prototype was sold to airline executives for jet travel, and the technology was later used on the 707, the company’s first commercial jet.
