The space agency will invest $425 million over seven years in the project, with Boeing and its partners investing approximately $725 million.
The function of the partnership is to produce future commercial aircraft that are “more fuel efficient, with benefits for the environment, the commercial aviation industry and passengers around the world,” said space agency boss Bill Nelson.
“If we are successful, we could see these technologies in the airplanes people fly in the 2030s,” he added in a statement Wednesday.
The partnership agreement calls for Nasa and Boeing to build, test and fly a full-scale single-aisle demonstrator.
“The technologies presented and tested in the program will inspire future projects and could lead to breakthroughs in aerodynamics and advances in fuel economy,” Boeing said.
Nasa is aware of pollution problems and engineers will attempt to develop an aircraft with a 30 percent reduction in fuel consumption and emissions compared to the most fuel-efficient single-aisle aircraft today.
NASA plans to complete testing of the program by the late 2020s so that the technologies and design can be applied to the next generation of single-aisle aircraft.
Single-aisle aircraft are the most common aircraft in airline fleets and account for nearly half of the global aviation emissions, according to Nasa.
The Boeing Group and Nasa plan to test an innovative wing that creates less drag and burns less fuel.
Comment here