Can You Hear Me Now?

A consortium of two universities and 30 British and American aerospace companies has unveiled its plans for what it calls a more environmentally-friendly airliner.

The Silent Aircraft Initiative says its flying wing design would save as much as 25 percent in fuel compared to current planes... and most impressively, would be hardly noticeable to those on the ground as it sped overhead.

Contributing to the plane's "silent" qualities are advanced-technology engines mounted above the wing... which shields much of the noise the plane would make.

The group unveiled the plane Monday at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, after three years of conceptual work by Cambridge University and MIT.

Companies such as Boeing, British Airways, Rolls-Royce Engines and the UK's Civil Aviation Authority have supported the design... which the group says could be a flying reality as soon as 2030.

"SAI has been a great success in bringing many stakeholders together to study what an aircraft of the future might look like if very low noise was the primary requirement," Colin Smith, director of engineering and technology for Rolls-Royce, told the Manchester Evening News. "The teams at Cambridge and MIT have energetically pursued their task and have considered some highly innovative ideas. The study has confirmed that the solution for extremely low noise must be a highly integrated combination of engine and aircraft design and operation."

Others expressed cautious optimism for the admittedly far-reaching design.

"My first reaction on hearing of the SAI was profound skepticism," said Dr. John Green, chairman of the science and technology sub-group of the Greener by Design organization, which measures the impact aviation has on the environment. "Three years on, I have to concede that the SAI has surpassed my expectations by quite a margin."

"The team has produced a high-risk but credible design that is predicted to meet the original target," Green added. "The outcome will carry credibility only if the team is sufficiently strong and if it has the support of industry and access to modern design methods. The SAI team has shown how this can be done."

FMI: www.cambridge-mit.org/research/sai