Highly imaginative if not slightly unlikely aircraft designs have been common practice throughout NASA’s history. This week the agency released three new concepts designs that aim to make the future of commercial flight more environmentally friendly and efficient for the passengers in the near future.

Each design looks very different but was created to meet a very specific set of goals set up by NASA. These are very early concepts and are likely to be modified many times over before they achieve clearance to take off.

According to the website,” NASA intends for all three of these designs to produce less noise, cleaner exhaust, and consume lower amounts of fuel than modern aircraft. They also have to fly at least 85 percent of the speed of sound, have a range of 7,000 miles, and carry between 50,000 and 100,000 lbs of cargo.”

The designs were submitted by Northrop Grumman (News - Alert), Boeing and Lockheed Martin (News - Alert) and the images come courtesy of NASA.

Northrop Grumman Design


Boeing (News - Alert) Design:


Lockheed MArtin Design:

Chris DiMarco is a Web Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Chris DiMarco