NASA and Boeing’s jet gets “X-plane” status as airlines feel pressure to go green
We’re soarin’, flyin’... The next gen of single-aisle planes could have super-long and -skinny wings to cut fuel consumption by 30%. That’s the design of the new jet being built by NASA and Boeing, which the US Air Force welcomed to the legendary ranks of “X-planes” this week. X-planes = basically the concept cars of the sky.
X-perimental: They feature ambitious, often wacky designs (picture: an uncrewed stealth fighting aircraft). The US gov’t has been funding companies’ X-plane projects since the 1940s. NASA and Boeing’s jet is the first to focus on the climate.
In-fly-ential: Though most X-planes don’t get commercially produced, elements of Boeing’s X-plane’s CO2-slashing design could be integrated into airliners in the 2030s.
Feeling the “flygskam”… That’s “flight shame” in Swedish. The pressure to go green is rising (with callouts from activists like Greta Thunberg). Planes account for about 4% of all US greenhouse-gas emissions, and the Biden admin says it wants to bring that down to net-zero by 2050. Airlines are making some efforts:
Fuel’s gold: Big carriers like United, American, and JetBlue buy renewable jet fuel. Delta plans to replace a tenth of its fuel with sustainable substitutes by 2030. Airlines also buy carbon credits to offset their emissions.
Discredits: Delta was sued last month for calling itself the “the world’s first carbon-neutral airline” (plaintiffs said its offsets are “junk”). United’s CEO has called offsets “greenwashing.”
Moonshot solutions may be necessary… for goals of astronomical proportions. United is backing a project to build electric air taxis and Airbus plans to fly a hydro-powered triangular plane by 2035. Meanwhile, X-planes have made some of the aviation industry’s biggest dreams a reality ever since the first X-plane broke the sound barrier in ’47. NASA expects its X-plane to “skip a generation” of design, speeding the US toward its ambitious climate goals.