United Airlines is investing billions of dollars in funky new aircraft, including electric air taxis and a supersonic jet. Up next? A plane that’s essentially one giant wing.
The airline on Thursday unveiled a plan to buy up to 200 of the ‘blended-wing body’ aircraft from California-based aerospace startup JetZero. The startup wants to compete with Airbus and Boeing by creating a plane that burns half the fuel of a similarly sized, traditional tube-and-wing plane.
The 250-passenger “Z4” aircraft is not yet certified, but the company is aiming for a 2030 commercial launch and successfully flew a subscale prototype in 2024.
Andrew Chang, the managing director of United Airlines Ventures, the division that funds these innovation-focused investments, told Business Insider the Z4’s oversized wing could create a “living room in the sky.”
“Everything around the customer travel experience — how they sit in the plane, board, and deplane, and how [crewmembers] serve them — can be reinvented around the new space within this new aircraft design,” he said.
Chang added that the conditional purchase agreement relies on JetZero’s ability to prove its revolutionary design with a full-sized demonstrator by 2027 and meet United’s operational and business requirements on things like cost, fuel burn, and safety.
But he was confident JetZero, which the US Air Force has also backed, could deliver: “If you look at the management team, there’s a lot of institutional experience and knowledge there from companies like Airbus and Boeing.”
More wing means more cabin real estate
JetZero’s futuristic plane combines the wings and fuselage into a single lifting surface. This unique airframe dramatically widens the cabin, allowing United to accommodate over a dozen seats per row.
Widebody passenger aircraft today max out at 10-abreast rows. The densest configuration ever proposed was 11 seats across on the world’s largest commercial airliner, the Airbus A380 — though no carriers signed on.
The Z4 will be shorter than traditional dual-aisle planes. Chang said that instead of 20 or 30 rows of seats, there may be only 10 or 15.
There would also be more aisles for navigating the cabin, and up to four entry doors, improving boarding and deplaning efficiency.
Chang added that there would be economy and premium seats with Starlink WiFi and media to create a living-room-like vibe and likely some reimagined spaces: “Every square foot of real estate, you want to have revenue passengers on it,” he said.
It’s unclear what new spaces United could develop, but JetZero competitor Natilus has some ideas for its in-development 200-person blended-wing aircraft design called Horizon.
Speaking to BI in October, Natilus CEO Aleksey Matyushev said Horizon could accommodate lounge or playroom areas. He added that this could offset the possible complaint of the longer rows reducing the number of window seats.
Delta Air Lines is also working with JetZero as a partner developer. It said the cabin could accommodate accessible seats and lavatories, and dedicated overhead bin space for every passenger.
Alaska Airlines’ investment, which also has the option for plane orders, said the airframe would provide a quieter flying experience.
JetZero could replace some of United’s old Boeing planes
JetZero said its Z4 plane’s better lift and lower drag could cut fuel burn by up to 50% per passenger mile while still flying up to about 5,750 miles nonstop. It would use conventional jet engines and run on traditional or sustainable aviation fuel.
Chang said this efficiency and subsequent cost cuts could make the new jet a replacement for midsize airplanes like the Boeing 757 and the Boeing 767. United plans to retire these older aircraft by 2026 and 2030, respectively.
For example, United said in a press release that a flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, would use up to 45% less fuel than the twin-aisle aircraft flying the route today.
United’s Boeing 767 operates that summer seasonal transatlantic trek. JetZero’s new aircraft could take over, and it would fit into the existing airport infrastructure on both sides of the pond.
JetZero’s expected commercialization is years away. United plans to take on next-generation aircraft like the Airbus A321XLR and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner as more immediate and reliable replacements for the 757 and 767.
If certified, JetZero’s aircraft would provide United with another high-range, high-capacity, and cost-effective fleet option that could comfortably sit in between.
It would have more range and capacity than the A321XLR but less than United’s 787-9 and 787-10. The Z4 could hold a handful more people than the airline’s smallest Dreamliner variant, the 787-8.
“We believe [JetZero] is a game changer; this is a different way to reinvent aviation,” Chang said.
Read the full article here
