First flight permit given to aircraft with unique wing design

American company JetZeroPromising to make a splash in civil aviation, Turkish Airlines received an airworthiness certificate to test a miniaturized copy of the super-efficient jet aircraft it developed with a “mixed wing”. The future flight test program will aim to evaluate the aircraft’s flight characteristics, stability and controllability.

Almost all aircraft – both modern and past – are assembled and assembled according to three classical aerodynamic schemes. The wing is attached to pass through the upper half of the aircraft’s fuselage (high wing), the lower part of the fuselage (low wing), or the middle of the fuselage (mid wing). From a technical point of view, such aircraft have a number of design differences, in particular, this concerns the behavior of such machines in the air.

Starting from the second quarter of the 20th century (Soviet BICH-3, 1926), engineers from various countries tested another aerodynamic scheme – “flying wing”, that is, tailless aircraft without a separate fuselage. With such a scheme, all components of the machine and pilots are located in the wing plane.

It is believed that this was the most aerodynamic and efficient design possible, but the “flying wing” was not widely used in world aircraft construction. Apparently, due to two significant drawbacks: large aircraft made according to this scheme may not be stable enough, in addition, their maneuverability is low. However, modern automatic aircraft control systems have solved the first problem, and the second has never been particularly relevant for some classes of machines (passenger aircraft).

In the 2000s, engineers talked about another aerodynamic scheme, a type of “flying wing”, a “mixed wing”. Unlike the first scheme, in this case the fuselage is clearly pronounced and smoothly transitions into the triangular wing consoles. The fuselage and wing seem to merge into a single whole, forming an elegant shape that is something between an ordinary airplane and a “flying wing”.

In 2016, Canadian scientists from the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Toronto made calculations on the fuel efficiency of the “mixed wing”. They found that using such a scheme would save fuel by almost 11 percent, but only on large aircraft. Further research showed that the “mixed wing” would have a 15 percent greater carrying capacity than machines designed according to classical aerodynamic schemes.

Today, the creation of “mixed-wing” devices is carried out mainly by private aviation and military-industrial companies. Among them are Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Bombardier, Zeroavia, as well as a small startup JetZero.

In 2023, JetZero representatives announced that the company’s engineers were developing a jet airliner. Z5, made according to the “mixed wing” scheme. According to the developers, the machine will use 50 percent less fuel compared to modern passenger aircraft (which is hard to believe), which will significantly reduce operating costs and make intercontinental flights relatively inexpensive. In addition, Z5 It will be much wider than most aircraft.

The new aircraft is designed to carry 250 passengers, and its design will be able to withstand a higher pressure drop between the internal compartments and the external environment than conventional aircraft. The altitude of the cruise flight will be approximately 14,000 meters, the flight range will be approximately 10,000 kilometers, and the wingspan will be 61 meters.

Z5 It will be able to operate at any airport that can service most Airbus and Boeing aircraft. In addition, JetZero It wants to make its hybrid wing planes 100 percent compatible with all possible SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) fuels.

The wings or fuselage would also provide sufficient space to store the required amount of hydrogen as fuel (obviously subject to a significant reduction in flight range). The company plans to launch Z5 It will enter production as early as 2030; It will likely replace the Boeing 757 and Boeing 767.

JetZero shared some important news the other day. The United States Federal Aviation Administration has granted the company an airworthiness certificate for a scaled-down copy of the Z5 jetliner. This is another step towards creating a full-fledged version of the aircraft.

The name of the demonstrator has been revealed Pathfinder. This model has a scale of 1:8 (length is two meters, which is only 12.5 percent of the scale of a full-size aircraft) and has a wingspan of seven metres. Future flight test program Pathfinder The purpose of the test, which will be carried out at airports in Southern California, will be to test flight control systems and landing gear.

“In fact, all these tests are aimed at creating a full-scale demonstrator, the purpose of which is to prove the performance of an aircraft built according to the “mixed wing” scheme,” the company said.

JetZero is not only developing a passenger aircraft for civil aviation, but also cooperates closely with the US military. In August 2023, the company signed a contract worth $ 235 million with the US Air Force to develop a refueling aircraft that will be created according to the same scheme as the Z5. The company plans to produce a prototype and start flight tests in 2027. If the prototype proves to be the best, the Air Force will order mass production. Otherwise, everything will be limited only to an experienced technique.