Airlines
are testing all sorts of ways to make planes less of a drag on the environment.
Virgin Atlantic recently used recycled waste to power a commercial flight, while Boeing
and JetBlue have backed an effort to create hybrid electric planes. The Netherland’s KLM Royal Dutch
Airlines is taking a different approach.
It
just partnered with a university to develop the “Flying-V,” a radical new
airplane design that puts passenger seats inside the plane’s wings — and
it could decrease the amount of fuel needed for flights by a
substantial 20 percent.
On
Monday, KLM announced plans to collaborate with Delft University of
Technology on the school’s in-development Flying-V airplane design. And it
doesn’t just put passengers in the plane’s wings — the fuel tanks and
cargo hold will also find a new home there.
Based
on the researchers’ calculations, the new design should allow the Flying-V to
transport approximately the same number of passengers as an Airbus A350 using
20 percent less fuel.
“We’ve
been flying these tube and wing airplanes for decades now, but it seems like
the configuration is reaching a plateau in terms of energy efficiency,” TU Delft
project leader Roelof Vos told CNN. “The new configuration that we propose
realizes some synergy between the fuselage and the wing. The fuselage actively
contributes to the lift of the airplane, and creates less aerodynamic drag.”
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