JetZero’s Blended-Wing Bet in the Mojave
Inside a cavernous aircraft hangar in the Mojave Desert, JetZero is building a full-size demonstrator of what could be a 200-plus-seat jet, a lucrative market segment expected to be at the center of future plane strategies for Airbus and Boeing.
Key Takeaways:
- The test plane, due to fly by the end of next year, is the California startup’s long-shot bid to build the first blended-wing commercial jet, where fuselage and wings merge into a single lifting surface.
- The manta ray-shaped design could cut fuel use by as much as half, the company says, and has drawn early interest and investment from United Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
- The demonstrator is partly funded by the U.S. Air Force, built by Northrop Grumman-owned Scaled Composites, and powered by the same Pratt & Whitney engines used on the Boeing 757.
A successful first flight could unlock further investment, enabling JetZero to develop commercial jets for first production from 2030 at its newly launched manufacturing campus in Greensboro, North Carolina, though that depends on the certification timeline for the novel design. The design could also be adapted for military transport or aerial refueling.
“Nobody’s ever done this before,” JetZero CEO Tom O’Leary told Reuters of the construction of the first full-size blended-wing demonstrator, a concept NASA has researched for decades and Boeing once came close to developing. “We’re taking existing technology, 30-plus years of NASA research,” he said.
The demonstrator’s details are closely guarded, though the goal is to prove the shape can generate lift with less drag, reducing the thrust, and the fuel, needed in cruise. Only the cockpit will be pressurized, and the fuel tanks will go where the passengers would be.
Huge Hurdles to Overcome
JetZero’s Z4 aircraft targets the “middle of the market” once served by Boeing’s 757 and 767, typically 200 to 270 seats on medium- to long-haul routes. The design replaces the conventional tube fuselage with a wide, flat cabin, opening the door to new seating layouts, larger windows, and more flexible interiors with space for reconfigured galleys and lavatories. Engines mounted above the rear are intended to reduce noise on the ground and improve efficiency. Recent engineering disclosures show fuselage assembly underway and wing-skin fabrication starting, with a temporary curing oven to be built around the wing because no existing oven fits its span.
Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, said the JetZero team had surprised many in the aerospace industry but faced major hurdles: first proving the promised efficiency gains, then securing the funding needed to turn a prototype into a certified aircraft, a process likely to take many years and cost billions of dollars.
“It’s premature, but it’s not irrational,” he said of whether passengers could soon be flying on a JetZero aircraft. “We can’t rule it out.”
‘This Is Real’
Founded in 2020, JetZero was initially met with widespread skepticism. The U.S. Air Force gave the project a major boost in August 2023, selecting JetZero for a $235 million, four-year effort to build a demonstrator. The regulatory picture has also improved: the FAA recently moved JetZero out of its emerging-technologies division and into the certification office that handles Boeing, GE, and Pratt, a step toward Part 25 certification and a planned commercial entry in the early 2030s.
Skeptics remain. Aeronautical engineer Bjorn Fehrm, an analyst at Leeham News, said the promised fuel savings had yet to be proven and viewed the aircraft as a better fit for the military. “This type of design is ideal for military airplanes that need stealth and volume for cargo or fuel, but not necessarily so well suited to passenger aircraft,” he said.
Airlines, whose biggest cost is fuel, have added momentum with investments and orders conditional on the concept becoming reality. In January, JetZero raised $175 million in a funding round led by B Capital, with participation from United Airlines Ventures, Northrop Grumman, and RTX Ventures. United’s investment included a path to buy up to 100 aircraft with options for another 100.
A further funding round is planned by the end of this year, with a public listing potentially following by 2028, O’Leary said, as the company rides a surge of investor interest in aerospace supercharged by SpaceX’s Starship-boosted record IPO last month, which valued Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company at $2 trillion and made Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
“You won’t find any aerospace company CEO in the world who’s not thinking about public markets right now after the SpaceX IPO,” O’Leary said. Retail investors who piled into the SPCX listing may soon get an aviation follow-up.
He acknowledged much rests on the test flight. “After the demonstrator flies… that opens up the window for an aircraft order book because the airline industry will say: ‘This is real.’”
Written by Alius Noreika
