An MIT-led team has designed a plane that is estimated to use 70 percent less fuel than current planes while also reducing noise and emission of nitrogen oxides.
MIT was contracted ny NASA to evaluate the potential of quieter subsonic commercial planes that would burn 70 percent less fuel, emit 75 percent less nitrogen oxides and take off from shorter runways than todays commercial planes.
The MIT design achieves this in an aircraft similar in size to a 180-passenger Boeing 737 by reconfiguring the tube-and-wing structure. Instead of using a single fuselage cylinder, they used two partial cylinders placed side by side to create a wider structure whose cross-section resembles two soap bubbles joined together. This allows the fuselage to provide some of the lift currently provided by the wings and the design to have thinner wings and a smaller tail to reduce drag.

The team moved the engines from the usual wing-mounted locations to the rear of the fuselage. This means that the engines take in the slower moving air that is in the wake of the fuselage. As a result, they use less fuel for the same amount of thrust, although there is more engine stress. To mitigate theis, the plane is designed to fly 10% slower than a Boeing 737.
The team has also designed an aircraft similar in size to a 350-passenger Boeing 777 using the same "hybrid wing body" principles to dramatically reduce fuel consumption.








