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Meet The Sleek New Plane Of The Future

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By 2050, planes going to look totally different - that’s if a new study has anything to do with it.

The Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands along with KLM has been looking into aircraft design as part of its AHEAD programme. AHEAD stands for Advanced Hybrid Engine Aircraft Development.

Rather than the traditional tube with wings stuck on it, the AHEAD concept plane has a sleek blended wing body design, which means its wings are integrated into the main body of the plane.

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The benefit is that the aircraft’s shape is totally streamlined, which cuts down on the amount of drag it’ll experience - to compensate for drag, planes have to use a lot more fuel which makes flying both more expensive and environmentally damaging.

“A blended wing body is one of the very promising designs to minimise the drag and, is so doing, making aircraft much more fuel-efficient,” explains Rob Duivis from KLM Engine Services.

As well as changing the design, AHEAD’s engineers have come up with a new type of jet engine. Instead of the turbofan engines currently in use, the new hybrid jets can burn through two different fuel systems at once to increase the engine’s efficiency - again saving both money and emissions.

But there’s a lot more work to be done before these plane designs are ready for flight - we probably won’t see them on the runways for at least 30 years.