Aeronautics Engineers Design Silent, Eco-friendly Plane, page 1

posted on Nov, 7 2006 @ 03:22 PM

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Britisch and American scientis presented today a design of a silent airplane which would be the plane of the future. It's a plane for 215 passengers and would use 25% less fuel than currents airplanes.

www.sciencedaily.com
MIT and Cambridge University researchers unveiled the conceptual design for a silent, environmentally friendly passenger plane at a press conference Monday, Nov. 6, at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London.

"Public concern about noise is a major constraint on expansion of aircraft operations. The 'silent aircraft' can help address this concern and thus aid in meeting the increasing passenger demand for air transport," said Edward M. Greitzer, the H.N. Slater Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.

Greitzer and Professor Ann P. Dowling of Cambridge University are the lead principal investigators on the Silent Aircraft Initiative. This collaboration of 40 researchers from MIT and Cambridge, plus many others from more than 30 companies, was launched three years ago "to develop a conceptual design for an aircraft whose noise was almost imperceptible outside the perimeter of an airfield in an urban environment."

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I find it very odd that this plane can't fly before 2030. Flying wings are not really new and exist already for a long time. 50 years ago they already tried to design a flying wing (this proto type already flown in the air). Why does it have to take another 23 years?

soficrow

posted on Nov, 7 2006 @ 05:14 PM

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Good find.

Silent, and fuel efficient too.

About time. But holding off production until 2030? I don't think so.

The airplane industry has not taken enough heat for pollution, imo.

RedGolem

posted on Nov, 7 2006 @ 06:51 PM

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This is a neat desighn, and the abilities sound pretty good also. That all the reseachers from the big universities is great also. But I have seen many future desighns come and go, and rarely do any of them ever come to be.
I do hope the twenty fife percent increse in efishency will still be presued though.

Masisoar

posted on Nov, 7 2006 @ 11:00 PM

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Personally, I would design a rudder for the back, or else you're going to have maneuverability issues like with the B-2 Bomber. Would just seem more conventional for stability issues.