Aerospace

The future of eco-friendly flying? Groundbreaking Flying-V makes first successful flight

A scaled prototype of the futuristic Flying-V aircraft has taken flight for the first time, a pioneering event in the aerospace industry that could spark a new age of more environmentally friendly air travel.

The successful pilot flight of the remote-controlled model this September marks two years of work by engineers from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and the Dutch airline company KLM, which could eventually replace its own fleet with the Flying-Vs.

The aircraft's design is radical in that it is shaped like its namesake, Gibson's 'Flying-V' guitar, and its fuselage and wings are merged, meaning that the passengers travel inside the wings. This makes it comparatively smaller and lighter than other planes. 

And as project lead Roelof Vos told CGTN Europe, "the aeroplane itself demands 20 percent less energy to fly the same distance with the same number of passengers as a state-of-the-art aeroplane is doing right now with the same engines."