The new aircraft looks like a giant glider with long, skinny wings propped up by diagonal struts to reduce drag. The design is a product of the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project, a NASA-Boeing partnership to produce a single-aisle plane that promises to slash fuel consumption for commercial aircraft.
NASA and Boeing announced on Tuesday that the Air Force had designated a new transonic, truss-winged aircraft as the X-66A. This one is designed to fight climate change. Unlike most of the space agency’s experimental aircraft, however, the new X-plane isn’t built to break speed barriers, carry astronauts, or test the possibilities of unmanned air combat.
There’s a new NASA X-plane in town, and like its predecessors, it’s a little bit goofy-looking.
