Meet X-66A: NASA and Boeing team up for newest X-plane to make travel sustainable

The legacy of X-planes dates back to the 1940s, when the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), NASA's predecessor created an experimental aircraft in partnership with the US Air Force and the US Navy. Since then, NASA has designated many designs as X-planes with the recent one being the X-66A.

The Sustainable Flight Demonstrator

As it aims to reach out to planets and stars in outer space, NASA also has its eye on the problems that ail our own planet. The commercial aviation industry accounts for 2.5 percent of global carbon emissions. More than half of these emissions are emitted by single-aisle aircraft - the workhorse of the industry.

The Sustainable Flight Demonstrator Project awarded earlier this year aims to revolutionize the single-aisle aircraft design by bringing key changes to the airframe such as a new wing design.

NASA has teamed up with Boeing for this project where the latter is modifying its MD-90 aircraft to make an aircraft with a shorter fuselage, a new engine, and wing design. The aircraft is expected to have long thin wings with engines mounted underneath and aerodynamic trusses for support.

The X-66A design

NASA and Boeing sought the X-plane status as soon as the project was awarded.

"We're incredibly proud of this designation because it means that the X-66A will be the next in a long line of experimental aircraft used to validate breakthrough designs that have transformed aviation," Todd Citron, Boeing chief technology officer, said in a statement. "With the learnings gained from design, construction, and flight-testing, we'll have an opportunity to shape the future of flight and contribute to the decarbonization of aerospace."

The elements of the new aircraft such as Transonic Truss-based Wing configuration, alongside propulsion systems and architecture are expected to result in 30 percent less consumption of fuel as compared to the best-in-class aircraft available today.

Boeing is contributing an estimated $725 million to the X-plane while NASA will contribute $425 million over seven years as well as its technical expertise and facilities in this collaboration.

"To reach our goal of net zero aviation emissions by 2050, we need transformative aircraft concepts like the ones we're flying on the X-66A," said Bob Pearce, associate administrator for NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. "With this experimental aircraft, we're aiming high to demonstrate the kinds of energy-saving, emissions-reducing technologies the aviation industry needs."