Future airline passengers will no longer sit in a cabin like a long tube but inside the wings themselves in a design under development with backing from Airbus and KLM.
Shaped like a giant boomerang, a prototype scale model of the super-efficient Flying-V made its first test flight from a German airbase last week.
The long-range aircraft under development at Delft Technology University in the Netherlands is designed to carry 300 passengers as well as their baggage and its fuel in a structure that blends the wing with fuselage. The shape creates more lift and suffers less drag passing through the air than conventional designs.
“The fuselage actively contributes to the lift of the aircraft,” said Roelof Vos, assistant professor of flight performance and propulsion,
