N3-X airplane

The N3-X concept Eco-friendly aircraft, from Boeing and NASA, reveals how we’ll travel across the sky by 2050.

Above: The blended wing body N3-X concept from NASA and Boeing.   Credit wikimedia

Air traffic is set to increase by seven fold by 2050, so radical innovation is necessary from the aircraft industry.

The N3-X is based on a blended wing body (BWB) design intended to improve aerodynamics, fuel efficiency and noise emissions.

Is powered by a turboelectric distributed propulsion system using a mail-slot inlet/nozzle nacelle.

This design of possible future airplanes with “hybrid wing body,” the wing blends into the body of the aircraft, makes it extremely aerodynamic and promises reductions in fuel consumption.

The “N3-X,” uses a number of superconducting electric motors to drive the distributed fans to lower the fuel burn, emissions, and noise. The power to drive these electric fans is generated by two wing-tip mounted gas-turbine-driven superconducting electric generators.

Elon Musk talking about Electric Aircraft at MIT AeroAstro Centennial Symposium:

100% electric aircraft coupled to solar sourced energy = aircraft operations emissions fall to zero (CO2 & NOx).

via discovery