22.11.2017
Bold concepts of aircraft of the future do not appear so often: due to the prohibitive high cost, finding an investor for such projects is not so easy. On the other hand, the rapid development of technology and the emergence of new materials are making reality what seemed fantastic just yesterday. It is quite possible that we will see these aircraft quite soon.
Box Wing Jet
It would seem that the time of biplanes is irrevocably gone, but no: evolution has entered a new stage. The Box Wing Jet concept can be called a biplane of the 21st century - according to the calculations of Lockheed Martin engineers, who retained the familiar outlines of the fuselage of a passenger airliner, but equipped it with wings of a unique configuration. This shape will increase the lift-to-drag ratio by 16 percent, making it possible to fly longer distances and make steeper takeoffs and landings on a single fill-up. The developers also include improved engines among the fundamentally important innovations of the project: instead of conventional ones, it is proposed to install two-channel ones with blades enlarged by 40 percent - their efficiency at subsonic speeds is 22 percent higher. All this, along with the use of ultra-light materials, will greatly reduce the fuel requirements of the aircraft of the future - the Box Wing will be 50 percent more economical than the average modern airliner. It is expected that the new product will take to the skies in 2025.
PHOTO: NASA/Lockheed Martin Corporation
Business Jet Skyline
It is not yet known how soon this supersonic concept will be translated into material, but its design deserves all the praise now. The design, we note, is as beautiful as it is functional. The aerodynamic designs of supersonics are very complex, because when flying at subsonic and supersonic speeds, completely different qualities are required from the car. The problem was solved by variable wing sweep, like on military aircraft, or the front horizontal tail (FH), like on the Tu-144. The Skyline project uses both solutions. It is proposed to make the planes of the aerodynamic surfaces from composite materials that change shape under the influence of electrical voltage (electromorphic adaptive wing) - the surfaces are thin, without cracks and external growths in the form of traditional fairings of the wing mechanization drives. The upper part of the pilot's cabin and passenger compartment of the Skyline is a continuous glazing, so the anti-aircraft guns here will not be retracted into the roof, as on the Tu-144, but into the aerodynamic bulges on the sides of the fuselage. Exactly the same panoramic glazing is installed in the lower part of the pilot’s cabin, which will provide the crew with excellent visibility during takeoff and landing (currently a deflecting nose cone is used for this). The Business Jet Skyline is designed for private use on trans- and intercontinental routes, with a maximum flight time of four hours. 
SUGAR Volt
The exterior of the SUGAR Volt concept does not look revolutionary at first glance, although the unusually long, glider-like wings still immediately catch your eye. By the way, they are foldable to fit the plane into the standards of most airports. The Boeing Corporation considers the main advantages of its project to be its cost-effectiveness and environmental friendliness - the abbreviation SUGAR stands for Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research. The device is a hybrid passenger aircraft that, along with fuel, uses electricity for operation. It only needs traditional gas turbine engines to take off. The subsequent flight will be carried out through the use of electric motors and batteries. In this mode, the level of emissions into the atmosphere is significantly reduced, and the efficiency of air travel, on the contrary, increases - according to the developers, SUGAR Volt will be 55 percent more efficient than current aircraft. It should make its first flight in 2035. 
Supersonic Green Machine
The era of passenger supersonics, hopefully, will not end with the departure of the Tu-144 and Concorde. A few years ago, Lockheed Martin unveiled the Supersonic Green Machine concept, which eliminated the shortcomings of its predecessors. For example, the strangely shaped tail connecting the wings of the plane is not a design quirk, but an original engineering solution designed to combat the so-called “sonic booms” that caused Concorde to be banned from flying over land. Variable cycle engines will be able to change their operating mode: during takeoff and landing they will function like conventional jet engines to reduce noise and save fuel; and an innovative combustion chamber will reduce air pollution from nitrogen oxide by 75 percent. The Supersonic Green Machine will fly at a speed of Mach 1.6. It is assumed that the production of such devices can be established by 2030–2035. 
Skylon orbital aircraft
The reusable spacecraft, 83.1 m long with a wingspan of 26.8 m, with a take-off weight of 325 tons, will be able to deliver up to 17 tons of cargo or 24 passengers into an equatorial orbit at an altitude of 160 km. The developer company, Reaction Engines Limited, expects that it will go into space without the use of upper stages, external accelerators and jettisonable fuel tanks - the task will be performed by SABER air-breathing/rocket engines, which should operate in two modes: Skylon will take off as usual an aircraft using outside air as an oxidizer, then, having reached a hypersonic speed of Mach 5+ and an altitude of 26 km, the engines will switch to internal tanks with liquid oxygen, and the maximum “rocket” speed will be Mach 27.8; The landing will take place again in “airplane” mode. It has not yet been possible to create a high-speed heat exchanger capable of instantly cooling incoming air, releasing liquid oxygen from it. But the work, as well as the search for funding, is actively underway.
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Text: Victoria Struts
This fall, NASA announced three design awards for the aircraft of the future, which will take to the skies in 2025. Awards went to companies such as Boeing, Northrup Grumman and Lockheed Martin. These planes will be less noisy, much more fuel efficient and less polluting.
Other technical requirements for the aircraft's designs included a flight speed of 85% of the speed of sound, the ability to fly more than 7,000 miles, and the ability to carry 22 to 45 tons of cargo. In addition to the three projects of the winners, we will consider several other aircraft that were nominated earlier. Some of them may already be seen on runways in the near future. Here is actually the first project from Boeing, called Icon-II. The aircraft is designed for supersonic flights and meets all NASA requirements, and even exceeds them, providing record low noise levels and fuel consumption
It's a design from Lockheed Martin called the Green Supersonic Machine, designed to fly at supersonic speeds. Thanks to the special arrangement of the engines, it was possible to achieve all NASA requirements 
Boeing wing aircraft, another National Space Agency Award nominee 
The X-45A UCAV was demonstrated at an exhibition in Missouri along with remote flight control systems 
Solar Eagle (solar eagle) from Boeing is powered exclusively by solar energy, it is an ultra-long stealth aircraft 
Another future project from Boeing, The Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research - abbreviation SUGAR (sugar). Developed in April 2010, it has extremely low emissions because it uses solar energy and gas 
And here is a project from Lockheed Martin called Fall. It doesn't look as futuristic as the rest of the cars on our list, but it has revolutionary future technology inside. 
This huge aircraft was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is capable of carrying 354 passengers over a distance of 7,600 nautical miles (almost 14,000 kilometers). Such aircraft are planned to be used in the future to transport presidents and other important persons. 
This is a concept by artist Northrup Grumman, presented in the fall of 2010 
These are the kind of planes that will ply the skies of our planet in the near future. We, in turn, are trying to pay more attention to the technologies of the future, so we will continue to tell you about projects such as the City of the Future, Flying Gardens of the Future and Energy Supply of the Future. Stay tuned to LifeGlobe for updates
According to scientists, in a few decades, technological progress will make voice control of any equipment possible, the internal combustion engine will give way to electric propulsion, and the main source of energy will be solar energy. Aviation will not be left out - the aircraft will mainly be drones, which are currently rapidly developing in the military sphere, but prototypes of unmanned civil aircraft are already in development.
Control from a special point
Already now, practically in civil aviation there is every reason to switch to an unmanned mode. Integrated on-board computer systems allow you to automatically pilot the aircraft from takeoff to landing; navigation systems provide route calculations using ground beacons and satellites.
All that remains is to equip the aircraft with a computer with a predetermined flight program and provide for the installation of collision warning sensors, which will correct the course of the aircraft as other aircraft approach. With double or triple duplication, it will be completely safe, especially since there will be a pilot, but not on board the plane.
It is expected that all airfields will have dedicated flight control centers equipped with appropriate ground control and communications facilities, in which each flight is controlled by a pilot. Air traffic controllers also provide assistance to the controller.
Thus, the pilot conducts several times more flights and does not need to go through control at each airport.
Ecology, low noise and efficiency
Futurologists believe that the aircraft of the future will undergo dramatic changes; such an aircraft in 50-60 years will have a fuselage similar to a space rocket with a ring-shaped tail unit. Such a structural formation, according to experts, significantly dampens the sonic boom when switching to supersonic speed and makes flight in this mode more comfortable.
Supersonic aircraft of the future will look like a rocket.
In half a century, supersonic passenger airliners will fly at speeds more than twice the Mach number, and such a flight to resorts near warm seas will take no more time than a trip from the outskirts of a metropolis to the center. The engines of such an aircraft will consume energy stored in solar panels located in the upper part of the aircraft and the surfaces of the wing consoles. This will be the most environmentally friendly transport of the future.
But this is the distant future, and in the next 20-30 years this is what Boeing offers us.
The project they are developing is called Sugar Volt and is a concept of a “green” aircraft with a hybrid power plant. The main power supply for the engines will be from batteries charged at airports from regular electrical networks. Aviation fuel will be consumed only during takeoff and climb, and in rare cases during long flights.
The design of the airliner includes a long wing, which folds after landing so that the airliner can easily fit into regular airports. Such a wing will help reduce the take-off distance and relieve the structure in flight, which will increase the energy efficiency of the aircraft.
Sugar Volt aircraft with folding long wing and hybrid engines
It is known that hybrid engines are much less noisy and more environmentally friendly than turbojet power plants. The Sugar Volt passenger airliner will be less polluting - nitrous oxide emissions will be reduced by 80% and carbon dioxide emissions by 60%. By using the thrust of electric engines, jet fuel consumption will be reduced by 70%, the efficiency of this aircraft, compared to modern aircraft, will be higher by 55%.
Interior, virtual reality and interactive panels
The passenger cabin of the aircraft of the future will undergo big changes - the seats themselves will change, they will either become more comfortable to accommodate a person's body shape, or the second option - these will be cocoon seats, isolated from each other with an individual climate control system, allowing you to ideally relax during the flight .
Presumably, this is what cocoon chairs will look like on an airplane of the future.
Each seat will be equipped with interactive panels with direct access to the Internet; using a tablet available for a separate seat, the passenger can order goods at the duty-free airport of landing, get acquainted with entertainment programs, store operations and transport schedules in the arrival city.
Designers of future airliners claim that everyone on the plane will be given virtual reality helmets, which will help passengers forget about the feeling of fear before flying and will help them be transported to another world using a built-in program. People can find themselves traveling around different countries, riding a bungee or across the sea on a speedboat, watching their favorite TV series or movie with the effect of complete presence.
Conclusion
It is obvious that the desired future is just around the corner and flights on supersonic airliners will become something commonplace and familiar, and once on such a plane, people will no longer want to board a ship or train. Such aircraft will become a reality in the next century.
For more than a year now (he took off on March 9, 2015) he has been “finishing” his trip around the world, one might think that the development of passenger aviation has stopped or is even going in the opposite direction. Of course, Solar Impulse 2 is not the future of aviation, but modern aircraft are slower than supersonic ones Concords flying 30 years ago. New aircraft models generally differ from old ones only in greater fuel efficiency. Airbus is not even going to develop a new aircraft for the 2020s. However, everything is not so hopeless. The most promising projects in aeronautics are described below, demonstrating that the development of aviation is still ongoing.
Electric airplanes
Airbus-E-FanAirbus is testing a small but all-electric aircraft, the Airbus-E-Fan. The latest achievement of the aircraft is the flight across the English Channel. So far, this model cannot be used for any long flights, even by one person.
But many aircraft manufacturers have no doubt that electric aviation is the future. To begin with, it is planned, as in cars, to make a hybrid engine. Airbus intends to test a “more electric aircraft” as part of the DISPURSAL project in 2022. The contribution of the electric fan motor to the total thrust should be 23%.
NASA in 2016 announced the start of development of the X-57 Maxwell aircraft equipped with 14 electric engines. It will be a small four-seater aircraft. According to engineers, the introduction of electric motors will significantly reduce operating costs. The agency does not say when the aircraft will be created.
German startup Lilium Aviation has received funding to create an electric private jet that can take off and land without an airport. The plane will need only 225 meters to take off and land. The company has already created a prototype and plans to introduce a full-size version at the end of 2018.
Supersonic aircraft
Aerion AS2
The Aerion AS2 is the first supersonic aircraft from Airbus in a very long time. This is a private jet designed for 12 passengers. $4 billion will be invested in its development, and release is planned for 2023.
In early March, NASA announced the development of an almost silent supersonic aircraft, QueSST. The main reason for banning supersonic passenger aircraft (besides fuel economy) was the excessive noise when going supersonic. NASA has developed methods to get rid of the noise and expects to build a prototype around 2020.
Aviation startup Boom, backed by Virgin Galactic, is working on a supersonic plane. The startup plans to use the new aircraft to fly over the Atlantic 2.5 times faster than conventional aircraft. The $2 billion investment should allow the company to build a prototype by the end of 2017.
According to its creators, the Skylon aircraft will be able to reach any point in 4 hours at a speed 5 times faster than the speed of sound. To create it, British engineers are testing a new type of engine. They announced the first tests for 2019. However, this project, despite an investment of 60 million euros from the British government, is the most long-term and difficult to implement of all
New passenger aircraft
The largest aircraft manufacturers believe that aeronautics is already a miracle and, although a new aircraft appears every 5-10 years, there is no need for any breakthrough improvements. More details in the table.Airplane table
| Boeing 737 MAX
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The Boeing 737 MAX has already received 2,500 orders and could become the market leader. Its claimed superiority over the existing leader, the Airbus A320neo, is that it consumes 4% less fuel. The first deliveries to customers will begin in 2017. | ||||||||
| MS-21
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The new Russian MS-21 aircraft will have a completely Russian engine. Putin stated that it would be in no way inferior to its foreign counterparts. Rogozin told reporters that mass production will begin in 2020. | ||||||||
| Mitsubishi Regional Jet
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Japan will build the first modern passenger jet airliner in its history. It is small and does not pretend to be anything. Planned start of operation in 2018. | ||||||||
| Comac C919
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But the first Chinese passenger airliner in a long time, Comac C919, is going to break the duopoly of Boeing and Airbus in the market. True, so far there are 500 orders for it, mainly from Chinese carriers. Release date: 2018. | ||||||||
| E2
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The Brazilian company Embraer is not even going to create a new airliner, but is simply modernizing the current model and calling it the second generation. New engines and better fuel economy are expected. Nevertheless, contracts have already been concluded for more than 300 deliveries of these aircraft. Deliveries to customers - since 2018. | ||||||||
| SSJ 100SV (Stretched Version)
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The extended Sukhoi Superjet will have up to 120 seats and will be released in 2019. In other characteristics, it will be almost like the current superjet and will probably be inferior to the Boing 737 MAX, and in 2020 the Boing 777X will also be released... in general, the main thing is that it will fly and will be extended, Aeroflot their will purchase. | ||||||||
| Bombardier Cseries
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The aircraft of the Canadian company Bombardier exceeded expectations. The manufacturer promises that the aircraft will consume 10% less fuel than the Boeing 737 MAX and MC-21. Commissioning is expected in 2016.
The champion in terms of minor improvements will be the new Boeing 777X, scheduled for release in 2020. It will have a 5% stronger engine, 12% lower fuel costs and CO2 emissions, 17 tons more payload and 18% more seats.
The Bombardier Global 8000 business jet for 8 passengers will be able to fly a record 14,600 kilometers without refueling at an average speed of 956 km/h. The company plans to begin sales in 2019 at a price of approximately $65 million. The aircraft will also compete with the Gulfstream G600 - new business jets also going on sale in 2018-2020. The planes will cost from $35 million to $55 million.
The new Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie private jet is cheaper than the competition ($600K) and the fastest in its class, but its main design innovation is that it looks exactly like Bruce Wayne's plane. It can carry up to 5 passengers at a time. Release date: mid-2017.
The SkiGull private amphibious aircraft will be able to land not only on water, but on any surface (grass, snow, ice). It made its first flight in November 2015 and will go on sale soon
Another seaplane, the two-seater Icon A5, is capable of taking off from and landing on water, can also recover from a spin, and is equipped with a parachute for the entire aircraft. It is recognized as so safe that you don’t even need a pilot’s license to be allowed to fly, just 20 hours of practice. It costs $250,000 and is already in production. The first 7 aircraft were assembled in 2016, but 1,850 orders have already been made for the aircraft.
The Cirrus Vision SF50 business jet may be the first mass-produced personal jet. It will be capable of carrying up to 7 passengers and should be significantly easier to operate than a conventional private jet. It will also have a parachute for the entire aircraft. 4 prototypes were built and the first aircraft was delivered to the customer in June 2016. In total, more than 600 of these machines have already been ordered at a price of $2 million.
The British single-seat e-Go is unique with its low price of just $70,000. Cheaper than many cars. The first buyer received the aircraft in June 2016.
At the other end of the price spectrum is the $3 million Epic E1000 six-seat private jet. The aircraft will be capable of flying at class-record speeds of up to 600 km/h over a distance of more than 3,000 kilometers and can climb to altitudes of up to 10 km. The prototype of the aircraft is currently undergoing testing, but more than 60 orders have already been placed for it. VTOLEver since the advent of the helicopter, people have wanted to create a vehicle that was as fast as an airplane, but could fly and land anywhere like a helicopter. This vehicle even received the working name VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) or simply a vertical takeoff aircraft. The persistent but unsuccessful attempts to create this device are captured in the infographic “wheel of misfortune”.
The VTOL must be “capable of everything a bird can do in the air” and fly at least 3 times faster than a conventional helicopter
Formally, the Italian company AgustaWestland came closest to creating a VTOL transport with the AW609 tiltrotor. It is indeed capable of landing vertically and flying further than conventional helicopters, but in speed (509 km/h) it is still significantly inferior to airplanes. So far, tiltrotors have been produced only for the needs of the American military. But the AW609 will be a civilian transport for businessmen and the oil industry. Certification is expected in 2017 and 70 orders have already been received.
DARPA has announced a competition to finally create a vertical take-off aircraft () and 4 large corporations (Boeing, Aurora Flight Sciences Corp, Sikorsky Aircraft Co and Karem Aircraft) will present their full-size prototypes for testing in February 2017.
Another attempt is an electric VTOL from the startup Joby Aviation. The company says it will cost $200,000 apiece, but doesn't give a release date.
An alternative to creating a VTOL is to simply increase the speed of the helicopter. This is what Sikorsky aircraft achieves. Their new S-97 Raider helicopter is capable of flying at speeds of up to 450 km/h. The first test flight was made in May 2015. Initially, only the military will be able to use this model. Helicopters also have not stopped developing (especially military ones, but we are not talking about them here). Promising models in development are described in the table below: Helicopter table
Bottom lineTo summarize, we can note at least 3 trends in the development of aviation. Developments of electric aircraft, the return of supersonic and the creation of a hybrid aircraft-helicopter (VTOL). The implementation of at least one of these developments will be a big breakthrough for the industry. In addition to these revolutionary changes, airplanes and helicopters are gradually improving with the release of new models (more fuel efficiency, more composite materials, cheaper operation, more automation, etc.),Tags: Add tags |
The era of aircraft construction, which began more than a century ago, may change dramatically in the near future, and this will not be due to the creation of any unique aircraft, but to the modification of existing designs. Today, the cost of flying an aircraft from one point of the globe to another is determined mainly by the volume of fuel consumed, and although the world's largest aircraft manufacturers, in particular, we are talking about the Airbus and Boeing corporations, are actively investing in creating more efficient engines, however, if flights can be made cheaper, it will be by no more than 10-12%. However, not everyone realizes that the future of aviation has already arrived; in particular, today there are five different models of electric aircraft that can travel long distances while consuming 40-50% less fuel.
Airbus E-Fan
The European aircraft manufacturing corporation Airbus has achieved the greatest success in creating electric aircraft. This is primarily due to the fact that the European manufacturer is well aware that not all regions of the globe have a sufficient amount of hydrocarbon fuel, and given the constant demand for it, in the future, the cost of oil, as well as the fuel created on its basis, will only continue to grow. Based on this, the Airbus corporation has been working for several years on the creation of electric aircraft, and we are talking about both private aircraft and full-size airliners capable of carrying up to 180-150 passengers on board.
An excellent example of the engineering thought of aircraft designers from the Airbus corporation is the Vahana project, which is a single-seat aircraft that can be used for flights both within urban areas and over quite impressive distances. It is assumed that such aircraft in the near future will replace ordinary cars, since with the help of this aircraft you can freely move at distances of up to 150 kilometers at a maximum flight speed of 120 km/h.
Airbus Vahaha aircraft
An equally interesting project of the Airbus corporation is the electric aircraft CityAirbus, which is one of the types of public transport, in particular, with the help of this aircraft, it will be possible to move within a radius of 50 kilometers, with a maximum capacity on board of up to 14 people. It is assumed that after the start of mass production of these aircraft, the cost of flying them will be about $20 for every 10 kilometers of the route, which is very reasonable.
CityAirbus project
The American aircraft manufacturing company Zunum Aero has achieved no less success, which since 2013 has been developing two models of electric passenger aircraft, one of which is aimed at operation in the commercial transportation sector, and the other is aimed at business transportation. The Zunum AeroJet business jet is scheduled to be launched in 2020, and it is likely that this 10-seater aircraft will be able to successfully compete with the largest aircraft manufacturers currently engaged in the production of administrative aircraft. As for the Zunum Aero CRJ model, the timing of this project will depend on the success of the creation of the business jet, but, according to experts, this aircraft will be able to successfully take off by 2022.
Airplane Zunum Aero CRJ
Israeli engineers from the Eviation company were also able to make great progress in implementing the project to create an electric aircraft designed to transport people on board. According to representatives of the Eviation company, the Eviation Aircraft aircraft will be able to fly over distances of up to one thousand kilometers, with a maximum capacity of up to 12 people on board. At the moment, the project is still under implementation, however, it is assumed that by 2023 the aircraft will be able to make its first flight.
Eviation Aircraft
The commercial passenger airliner Wright Electric is a rather interesting project being implemented by American engineers and scientists. As follows from official data, this aircraft allows you to carry up to 186 passengers on board at distances of up to 900 kilometers, which is quite suitable for flights on local, regional and even international routes, while, compared to conventional aircraft, the cost of the flight can be reduced by 50-60%.
Wright Electric aircraft
In fact, aircraft manufacturers are actively introducing new technologies, and we will be able to see and experience the future of aviation in the next decade.
