WASHINGTON DC – NASA and Boeing will work together on the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project to build, test and fly an emission-reducing single-aisle aircraft this decade, according to an announcement from the agency on Wednesday.

The project will be a large-scale flight demonstrator with objectives to lessen commercial aviation’s impact on climate change through reduced fuel burn and carbon dioxide emissions.

NASA has selected Boeing and its industry team to lead the development and flight testing of a full-scale Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) demonstrator airplane.

The aircraft, notionally planned to fly in 2028, will prove the benefits of new aircraft technologies for use in the next generation airliner expected in the 2030s.

Concern over climate change has created an opportunity to target new aircraft technologies for the next generation of single-aisle airliners which account for greater than 50 percent of worldwide aviation emissions.

NASA has been working with industry on advanced commercial airframe configurations for more than 20 years to reduce fuel burn, emissions, and noise.

Moving technologies from a research environment to a production environment can be a real challenge for industry manufacturers and frequently these promising technologies do not get adopted due to a variety of technical and economic risks.

NASA is tackling this challenge by partnering with industry to target a large-scale flight demonstrator aircraft that will prepare these new technologies for entry into the next generation single-aisle airliner.

NASA in partnership with industry plans to:

  • Develop and flight test an advanced airframe configuration and related technologies to dramatically reduce aircraft fuel burn and carbon dioxide emissions.
  • Obtain ground and flight data that will be used by the NASA/industry teams to validate the benefits of the new technologies.
  • Use the research results to help industry make decisions associated with next generation single-aisle airliner to meet U.S. environmental goals articulated in the U.S. Aviation Climate Action Plan.

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