A REVOLUTIONARY batwing aircraft, which would be far quieter and more fuel efficient than any conventional airliner, is being developed by British and American scientists.
Flight tests of a scale model of the blended wing body plane, built by Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, have already begun.
It would burn a third less fuel than existing designs because the entire fuselage would be turned into a wing, resulting in much lower drag than is experienced by a conventional cigar-shaped fuselage.
The efficiency would be further improved by embedding the engines on the upper side of the fuselage.
The noise perceived from the ground would be halved because the fuselage would act as a shield, reflecting the sound upwards.
The blended-wing project will take a further step forward when Cranfield joins forces with Cambridge University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
