Prototype Of The ‘Flying-V’ Plane Built By KLM That Burns 20% Less Fuel Than Traditional Aircraft Takes To The Skies For The First Time

The craft’s wings, which stretch diagonally from the nose to form the distinctive V, will hold the passenger cabin, cargo hold and fuel tanks.

The V-shaped plane has been developed at Delft Technology University in the Netherlands and backed by Dutch airline KLM.

A prototype model of the ‘Flying V’ aeroplane, named after Gibson’s famous electric guitar, has had a successful test flight at an airbase in Germany.

Engineers performed a successful maiden flight of the 1/20 scale model, which is 10 foot wide and weighs 50 pounds, at the secret air base.

Once scaled up for commercial flights, Flying V will carry up to 314 passengers, including some housed within its wings, and use 20 per cent less fuel.

The craft’s wings, which stretch diagonally from the nose to form the distinctive V, will hold the passenger cabin, cargo hold and fuel tanks.

During the test flight, the remote pilot succeeded in taking off, flying various test manoeuvres and approaches and landed when the batteries were nearly empty.

The successful test flight followed wind tunnel testing and a series of ground tests in the Netherlands.

It confirmed that the current design still shows too much ‘Dutch roll’, however, where it wobbles on either side, causing a slightly rough landing.

The team said the next step will be to use the data collected during the flight for an aerodynamic software model of the aircraft.

This will make it possible to programme it into a flight simulator to be used in future research and test flights.

Rotation on take-off, where the nose of the aircraft points up, was performed easily and occurred at a speed of 50 miles per hour (80 km per hour), the team reported.

The researchers are now working towards building a commercial version of the plane, which would have a total width of 215 feet and length of 180 feet.

A pair of turbofan jet engines, which combines a gas turbine engine and a fan to accelerate air, will be mounted at its rear.

The design will potentially reduce the carbon footprint of long distance air travel and the expenditure on fuel.

For fuel, it will likely burn liquid hydrogen instead of kerosene, which belches pollutants like carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and soot into the air.

Its size makes it a comparable rival to the traditional Airbus A350 and the Boeing 787 and it would be able to use existing gates, hangars and runways.