{"id":165487,"date":"2023-06-10T07:26:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-10T12:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/jetzeros-next-gen-aircraft-could-change-how-we-fly-for-the-first-time-in-decades"},"modified":"2023-06-10T07:26:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-10T12:26:42","slug":"jetzeros-next-gen-aircraft-could-change-how-we-fly-for-the-first-time-in-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/jetzeros-next-gen-aircraft-could-change-how-we-fly-for-the-first-time-in-decades","title":{"rendered":"JetZero\u2019s Next-Gen Aircraft Could Change How We Fly for the First Time in Decades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/jetzeros-next-gen-aircraft-could-change-how-we-fly-for-the-first-time-in-decades2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A California-based startup called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jetzero.aero\/\">JetZero<\/a> has a different idea: changing the shape of commercial planes and the material they\u2019re made of. The company unveiled its designs for the midsize commercial and military tanker-transport markets this spring, and has big plans to upend the way air travel looks and feels\u2014as well as how much it costs and how much carbon it emits. Tony Fadell, founder of venture capital firm Build Collective and a JetZero investor and strategic advisor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90902351\/how-jetzero-aims-to-be-the-spacex-of-aviation\">thinks the company<\/a> could be the \u201cSpaceX of aviation\u201d due to its potential to disrupt the existing business model.<\/p>\n<p>JetZero\u2019s planes, which are still in the concept\/prototype phase, have a blended wing body design. That means the wings merge with the main body of the aircraft, rather than being attached to a hollow tube like the planes we travel in today. Picture the body of a manta ray: wide and flat, it tapers off to a narrower fin at each side, with a head and a tail. A blended wing body aircraft isn\u2019t terribly different, though on JetZero\u2019s models the body isn\u2019t quite as wide.<\/p>\n<p>Besides providing a lot more space, this design is more aerodynamic than tube-and-wing planes. JetZero plans to fly its planes at higher altitudes than today\u2019s norm (40 to 45,000 feet rather than 30 to 35,000), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jetzero.aero\/why-jetzero\">says<\/a> its airframe will cut fuel burn and emissions in half. It plans to make its planes out of carbon fiber and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/topics\/materials-science\/kevlar\">kevlar<\/a> (a strong lightweight fiber used for things like body armor, bulletproof vests, car brakes, boats, and aircraft). The company says its planes\u2019 lighter weight and improved aerodynamics would be able to fly at the same speed and range as existing midbody jetliners, but burn half as much fuel in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A California-based startup called JetZero has a different idea: changing the shape of commercial planes and the material they\u2019re made of. The company unveiled its designs for the midsize commercial and military tanker-transport markets this spring, and has big plans to upend the way air travel looks and feels\u2014as well as how much it costs [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,45,9,1514],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-finance","category-military","category-space-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}