2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Hanneke Weitering

News and developments about airplanes, helicopters and unmanned air vehicles used in all varieties of operations, including airlines, military, business, commercial, general aviation and private.

Issues regarding financing of aircraft; aviation insurance; tax issues for aircraft operators; new companies and people in the aviation financing and insurance industries.

Series B financing round raised $175 million for full-size demonstrator

JetZero Tops $1 Billion in Funding for Z4 ‘All-wing’ Airliner

Sarah Rose

News and issues concerning general aviation, specifically airplanes and helicopters powered by piston and alternative engines (i.e., non-turbine powered aircraft). Subjects include aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

Production site to open 2026

JetZero to Build Z4 Factory in North Carolina

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

Siemens helps aerospace OEMs accelerate production while cutting costs

Digital Twins Slash Aircraft Production Costs 

News about commercial airlines, including regulations, aircraft orders, safety, acquisitions, and mergers.

News and developments about aircraft engines, including turbofan, turboprop, turboshaft and piston.

News and issues relating to international air transport and cargo carriers, national airlines and regional airlines, including aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

The BWB concept could compete with the Boeing-Airbus duopoly

JetZero’s Blended-wing-body Airliner Passes Critical Design Review 

Charles Alcock

Carrier could buy up to 200 of the 250-seat Z4 airliner

United Commits to JetZero's Blended-wing-body Airliner

JetZero aims to fly a full-scale demonstrator in 2027

Delta and JetZero Partner on Blended-wing-body Airliners

News about environmental issues relating to aircraft operations, including noise issues, emissisions, and regulations. See Fuel for biofuel.

Thales joins a group of suppliers including BAE Systems, Safran, Moog, and Woodward

JetZero Picks Suppliers for Airliner's Flight Controls

News and developments about aviation fuel, including jet fuel, aviation gasoline, and biofuel.

JetZero's aerodynamic design could get a hydrogen powertrain

EasyJet Teams With JetZero on Blended-Wing-Body Airliners

Kerry Lynch

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

A range of technologies forwarded in 2023

The Fast, the Far-reaching, and the Future

The U.S. Air Force has commissioned JetZero to build and fly a full-scale technology demonstrator for a blended-wing body (BWB) aircraft intended for military and commercial airline applications. The California&nbsp;start-up, which was today awarded a $235 million contract from the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, is developing the aircraft in partnership with Northrop Grumman and its Scaled Composites subsidiary.
Under the terms of the four-year contract, JetZero is expected to have a technology demonstrator ready to fly in the first quarter of 2027. The Pentagon is eyeing the BWB concept as a contender for its requirements for a new military airlifter and an air-to-air refueling platform.&nbsp;It is already considering other options for that usage, such as the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Rocket Cargo program, DARPA’s LibertyLifter, and Boeing’s NASA-funded Transonic Truss-braced Wing demonstrator.
According to JetZero, when deployed as a fuel tanker, its BWB aircraft would carry as much fuel as the current KC-46 workhorse over twice the distance. Alternatively, it could take on twice as much fuel load for the KC-46’s current operating radius.
<h3 class="subheading">JetZero Promises Airlines a 50 Percent Cut in Fuel Burn and Emissions</h3>
JetZero also has its sights set on the air transport industry’s need to decarbonize to meet legally binding net-zero targets. It intends to offer the design as a 200-plus-passenger replacement for Boeing’s 757 and 767 transports, and also the Airbus A330.
Rather than focusing, for now, on new, greener propulsion systems, the company intends to use Pratt &amp; Whitney’s Geared Turbofan (GTF) engines, with a view to achieving a 50 percent reduction in fuel burn and carbon emissions through a quantum leap in aerodynamics. The company has said that later versions of the BWB design could be integrated with new hydrogen propulsion technology.
Pratt &amp; Whitney has agreed to provide GTF engines for the technology demonstrator and its&nbsp; Gatorworks team is helping JetZero to design and integrate the powertrain. JetZero says it is receiving support from several tier one aerospace companies and expects to announce further systems selections in the coming months.
According to JetZero CEO Tom O’Leary, the company has already spoken with “the majority of major global airlines and they have been universally enthusiastic because they are not paying lip service to sustainability.” He maintained that the potential to deliver a 50 percent decrease in consumption of jet-A fuel means JetZero’s BWB can offer a more direct route to decarbonization than waiting for new propulsion technology, making the aircraft&nbsp;“the best first step on the path to zero carbon emissions.” The company also contends that the two engines mounted above the fuselage and wings will make the aircraft quieter than current airliners.
<figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center">
<article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default">
 
 
 <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/futureflight/import/Wetlands%20copy%202%202%20copy.png" width="2000" height="1333" alt="JetZero's blended wing body aircraft" title="JetZero says its blended wing body aircraft could offer airlines a 50 percent cut in fuel burn and carbon emissions even using current technology engines like the Pratt &amp; Whitney Geared Turbofans. (Image: JetZero)">

</div>
 
 <div class="field field--name-field-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">JetZero says its blended wing body aircraft could offer airlines a 50 percent cut in fuel burn and carbon emissions even using current technology engines like the Pratt &amp; Whitney Geared Turbofans. (Image: JetZero)</div>
 
 </article>

<figcaption>JetZero says its blended wing body aircraft could offer airlines a 50 percent cut in fuel burn and carbon emissions even using current technology engines like the Pratt &amp; Whitney Geared Turbofans. (Image: JetZero)</figcaption>
</figure>
Though not incorporated until 2022, JetZero traces its origins to McDonnell Douglas’s work on BWB concepts during the 1990s, led by JetZero founder and chief technology officer Mark Page. His company, Dzyne Technologies, continued to advance BWB technology through projects backed by NASA to the tune of more than $1 billion, and JetZero owns the intellectual property that he says will deliver an oven-ready solution to air transport’s urgent need for a quantum leap in emissions reduction.
According to the company,&nbsp;Boeing, Airbus, and Embraer, all declined offers to collaborate in a BWB program, leading JetZero to forge an alliance with Scaled Composites. After giving a first glimpse of the BWB concept earlier this year, <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2023-06-19/aviation-chases-carbon-cutting-quantum-leap">JetZero used June’s Paris Air Show</a> to step up engagement with prospective airline customers.
With a target of raising “several hundred million” more dollars, JetZero has embarked&nbsp;on a Series A funding round to support the development and testing of the technology demonstrator and subsequent prototype. It already has attracted an undisclosed investment from Tony Fadell’s Build Collective venture capital group.
According to the Long Beach Airport-based company, much of the conceptual design work for the BWB technology demonstrator is complete and JetZero’s small engineering team has been flight testing a series of scale models, as well as conducting simulator and test bench exercises. The company is now ground-testing a 12.5 percent scale model ahead of an anticipated first flight test later this year.

JetZero

News

JetZero Tops $1 Billion in Funding for Z4 ‘All-wing’ Airliner

JetZero to Build Z4 Factory in North Carolina

Digital Twins Slash Aircraft Production Costs

JetZero’s Blended-wing-body Airliner Passes Critical Design Review

United Commits to JetZero's Blended-wing-body Airliner

Delta and JetZero Partner on Blended-wing-body Airliners

JetZero Picks Suppliers for Airliner's Flight Controls

EasyJet Teams With JetZero on Blended-Wing-Body Airliners

The Fast, the Far-reaching, and the Future

JetZero's Blended-Wing Body Aircraft Boosted by U.S. Air Force Contract

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