MIT Team Rethinks Passenger Plane

June 19, 2014
Extra-wide fuselage and rear-mounted turbo­fan engines would allow aircraft to burn 70 percent less fuel than a Boeing 737 while producing significantly less noise.

An MIT team has turned a multi-million-dollar NASA contract into the most advanced rethink to date of the classic passenger jet. The design, nicknamed the Double Bubble, calls for an extra-wide fuselage and rear-mounted turbo­fan engines. The configuration would allow the craft to burn 70 percent less fuel than a Boeing 737 while producing significantly less noise and nitrogen oxide, a pollutant that causes acid rain.