NASA Aeronautics is partnering with industry, academia and other agencies through the Sustainable Flight National Partnership to accomplish the aviation community’s aggressive climate change agenda. The iconic centerpiece of this partnership will be a full-scale technology demonstrator X-plane that will be used to test new green technologies and solve the challenges of integrating those technologies to prove their benefits in flight.
These images are of one possible design for the demonstrator – a revolutionary transonic truss-braced wing configuration that will achieve much higher levels of aerodynamic efficiency than possible with today’s aircraft. A key feature is its ultra-high efficiency long, slender wing.
NASA plans to solicit industry in early 2022 for preliminary designs of aircraft configurations that could be tested, with the potential for first flight of the demonstrator no earlier than late 2026.
