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The future of aircraft may look very similar to today’s on the surface, but under the hood (or sitting next to the tail fins) it will likely be very different. This is the future that NASA hopes to nurture Five research awards worth $11.5 million.
The Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability 2050 (AACES) program is an early, long-term initiative to identify “transformative solutions” that can move the carbon-spewing air travel industry toward sustainability.
These prizes are by no means enough to make a working aircraft, of course, and these concepts are just that – but a few million dollars can easily make the difference between powerful new technology sitting on a shelf in a lab or getting something real-world-tested.
Two of the awards are more focused than others. Electra, for example, already has a prototype of its electric plane, and the prize money will go toward developing the existing technology. JetZero combines a cryogenic liquid hydrogen fuel source with the unusual blended fuselage you see in the photo above.
The other three awards are more general. Georgia Tech will investigate new fuels, propulsion systems and configurations that look promising for its ATH2ENA program. Pratt & Whitney will look at a “broad range” of propulsion technologies in an effort to reduce fuel consumption and emissions (a way to limit damage, apparently).
Aurora Flight Sciences appears to have the broadest mandate of all — the Boeing-owned company will “conduct comprehensive, ‘open-hole’ exploration of technologies and aircraft concepts.” One hopes they would be more specific in their request!
Interestingly, none of the electric propulsion and aviation startups we’ve seen raising significant amounts of investor money are here. Maybe the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze when they had venture capital money available — otherwise their visions for the future of aviation would be very different. (They mostly make personal helicopters.)
The AACES project is part of the Advanced Air Transport Technology project, itself part of the Advanced Air Vehicles programme. If there are any other layers above that, they won’t list them.
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