Scientists moves toward silent, eco-friendly plane

A team of 40 scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Cambridge University are developing a silent, environmentally friendly passenger plane, which can greatly alleviate the deafening sound of planes taking off and landing.

The team unveils the conceptual design for the "silent jet" at a press conference Monday at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, according to a statement released by MIT on Monday.

"Public concern about noise is a major constraint on expansion of aircraft operations. The silent aircraft can help address this concern and thus aid in meeting the increasing passenger demand for air transport," said Edward M. Greitzer, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.

The project, dubbed as the Silent Aircraft Initiative, originally conceived to make a huge reduction in airplane noise, the team's ultimate design also has the potential to be more fuel-efficient.

In a typical flight, the proposed plane, which is designed to carry 215 passengers, is predicted to achieve 124 passenger-miles per gallon, almost 25 percent more than current aircraft, according to Greitzer.

The project aims to develop aircraft by 2030. The conceptual design addresses both the engines and the airframe. Half of the noise from a landing plane comes from the airframe.

To turn the design into a plane by 2030, one major technical challenge is the integration of the propulsion system with the aircraft, Greitzer said.

"The propulsion system, with engines embedded in the fuselage, is different from traditional civil aircraft, in which the engines are located in nacelles below the wing. This presents a different set of issues to the designer," said Greitzer.

A second important technical challenge involves the craft's unconventional airframe. The structural integrity of a pressure vessel allowing this single wing-like shape needs to be ensured and poses a major challenge.

Greitzer noted that the collaboration between MIT, Cambridge University and their industrial partners from more than 30 companies was key to the end result. "Collaboration and teaming occurred in essentially all aspects of the project. The Silent Aircraft Initiative has been very much an enterprise in which the whole is greater than the sum of the separate parts," he said.

Source: Xinhua