Planespotters studying California skies may soon be puzzled by what at first glance appears to be a mini military stealth bomber.
The aircraft in question, however, is not the Pentagon’s latest piece of kit, nor is it a spaceship. It is a “blended-wing” jet, and its creators hope it is the future of commercial aviation.
JetZero, a California-based aerospace company, has been given permission by US regulators to test a 1:8 scale version of its new plane.
Called the Pathfinder, the aircraft is a departure from the “tube and wing” design of traditional passenger jets and instead uses a blended wing model, similar to the B-2 stealth bomber.
Its streamlined design, with the wings and fuselage combined, should make flying more fuel-efficient and therefore kinder to the environment.
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As a big contributor to climate change, commercial aviation has been searching for ways to cut emissions.
“Everybody is looking for a solution to climate [change],” Tom O’Leary, co-founder and chief executive of JetZero, told The Times, adding that the company’s plane could cut fuel consumption by up to 50 per cent. “That’s just a massive jump in performance and efficiency.”
The design of the blended-wing plane allows for a much wider fuselage, which would transform how the roughly 200-plus passengers onboard fly. While window seats would be at a premium, O’Leary said the fuel savings would allow airlines to give passengers more room.
He said the Pathfinder, which has a 23ft wingspan, would take to the skies “this quarter” while the full-sized plane should be in the air by 2027. The company has ambitions of putting an aircraft into service by 2030.
Those goals seem too ambitious to some experts. Bailey Miles, an aviation analyst at the consultancy AviationValues, said that while the blended-wing aircraft “holds immense promise”, the regulatory hurdles facing JetZero, as well as the engineering challenges, make the 2030 target “inconceivable”.
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O’Leary, however, is bullish. He worked at Tesla for two years from 2006, when Elon Musk’s electric vehicle manufacturer was far from the global presence it is today, and sees a similar trajectory for his new company.
JetZero, O’Leary said, can have a similarly transformative impact on commercial aviation to what Tesla had on electric cars.
He is already in touch with big airlines around the world about the blended-wing’s future in passenger travel. “They’re loving the idea of it and the possibilities of it, which is great to see,” O’Leary said. He referenced a quote by Bill Lear, the aviation pioneer and business jet manufacturer, who said, “if it looks good, it will fly good,” a motto JetZero hopes will ring true for its own plane.
Renderings show a sleek, futuristic aircraft that would surely turn heads when gliding into an airport terminal.
“It feels so good to show this aircraft to people,” O’Leary said, adding that the universal response to the plane is one of admiration at its striking looks. He believes the blended-wing jet can reintroduce some charisma to commercial aviation.
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“Why should air travel be mundane?” O’Leary asked. “Sometimes people feel like it’s not as good as it used to be, it’s not as exciting, it’s not as comfortable.”
That could soon change, however, if JetZero takes off, and O’Leary hopes to usher in a cleaner future for flying. He said: “That’s a future we want to see and we couldn’t be more proud to be helping airlines explore those possibilities.”
