Boeing, NASA pause Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project
SAN FRANCISCO, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Boeing and NASA announced on Thursday the pause of work on the X-66A Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project.
Boeing will continue to study the thin-wing technology, but the aircraft project as a whole will be put on hold, Boeing and NASA said.
The project, launched in 2023, was part of a larger effort led by NASA to research fuel-efficient and sustainable designs, from wind tunnel tests to fluid dynamics models to structural design changes.
At the start of the project, NASA committed to spend 425 million U.S. dollars on the aircraft's development, while Boeing and industry partners committed to 725 million dollars. The prototype aircraft was set for test flights in 2028 and 2029.
"We have learned a lot in the past few years partnering with NASA on the X-66 program that will influence the future generations of airplane design. Going forward, we will focus efforts on the single most-promising design feature ... the thin-wing design," Boeing said in a statement.
Boeing will move engineers from the X-66A experimental project to its commercial production lines, specifically the 777X and 737 MAX factories.
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