NASA awards contract to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing to study advanced design concepts for aircraft

Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the Boeing Company have been awarded contract by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study advanced concept designs for aircraft that could take to the skies in the year 2025. At the time of the award of the contract late 2010, teams from the companies gave NASA a sneak peek of the particular design they plan to pursue.

Although each design looks different, all final designs have to meet NASA’s goals for less noise, cleaner exhaust and lower fuel consumption. Each aircraft should be able to do all of those things at the same time, which requires a complex dance of tradeoffs between all of the new advanced technologies that will be on these vehicles. The proposed aircraft will also have to operate safely in a more modernised air traffic management system. And each design has to fly up to 85 per cent of the speed of sound; cover a range of approximately 7,000 miles; and carry between 50,000 and 100,000 pounds of payload, either passengers or cargo.