JetZero Accelerates Fuel-Efficient Airliner Development with $235 Million Air Force Award

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Aug 16, 2023, 18:06 ET

New blended wing body aircraft addresses climate impact with unparalleled efficiency.
Commercial/military aircraft offers a 50 percent reduction in fuel burn and emissions.
The BWB fits the middle market airline segment, carrying 200-plus passengers.
Future adoption of hydrogen propulsion promises zero carbon emissions.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Air Force is investing in JetZero's aircraft design that will reduce fuel consumption, cut emissions and noise, and provide an improved airline passenger experience. The company will build a full-scale demonstrator to validate BWB performance.

Artists rendering of the JetZero commercial jetliner derivative of their Air Force BWB technology demonstrator.

As air traffic grows at a projected rate of 3.6 percent annually, decarbonizing the industry becomes even more challenging. The global airline fleet is projected to nearly double to 47,700 aircraft by 2041, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm. JetZero aircraft can play an essential role in reducing the industry's carbon footprint.

JetZero's demonstrator, the first in a proposed family of BWB aircraft, uses current engines and systems. The blended wing body aircraft, a design that has been under study by NASA and others for three decades, lends itself to conversion in the future to hydrogen propulsion, which would produce zero carbon emissions.

Under the terms of the award from DoD's Defense Innovation Unit, JetZero will receive $235 million over a four-year period, culminating in first flight of the full-scale demonstrator by the first quarter of 2027. The DIU was founded in 2015 to help the U.S. military make faster use of emerging commercial technologies.

JetZero is collaborating with Northrop Grumman and Scaled Composites, who bring extensive experience in advanced aircraft design, manufacturing, and mission systems integration to build and test the full-scale demonstrator. And Jet Zero has selected Pratt & Whitney GTF™ engines to power the demonstrator, with Pratt & Whitney GATORWORKS supporting JetZero with design and integration of the propulsion system within the demonstrator.

"The BWB is the best first step on the path to zero carbon emissions. It offers 50% lower fuel burn using today's engines and the airframe efficiency needed to support a transition to zero carbon emissions propulsion in the future," said JetZero CEO Tom O'Leary. "No other proposed aircraft comes close in terms of efficiency."

JetZero is leading efforts to expand BWB technology and demonstrate its capabilities for the future of aviation and the climate for both military and commercial markets.

About JetZero

JetZero is based at the Long Beach Airport in the Los Angeles basin. The company was founded in 2021 with the sole focus of developing the next generation of sustainable jets, accelerating the path to zero emissions.

The core of the JetZero team includes engineers who pioneered the blended wing body concept, led by JetZero founder and CTO Mark Page. As a McDonnell Douglas engineer in the 1990s", Page led a three-year NASA initiative to investigate and design future BWB properties. NASA since that time has spent more than $1 billion on research and development of blended wing technology, much of it conducted by Page and his associates.

For more information:
[email protected]
www.jetzero.aero

SOURCE JetZero