The Boeing Company is the largest corporation in the market for manufacturers of aeronautical equipment, both civilian and military. In 2012, the company announced a new project and announced that it was developing a Boeing 797 aircraft, which promised to become the most spacious, comfortable and reliable passenger aircraft in the world. The main task of the designers set not only the application of new aviation ideas, but also to increase the comfort of the liner, because only in this case the development will be guaranteed success.
Fight for leadership
The main competitor of The Boeing Company is the Airbus SAS concern, which arose through the merger of several major European aircraft manufacturers. Their Airbus A380 is still the largest airliner in the world. With a cabin having three comfort classes, the aircraft can take on board 525 passengers, and with a single-class system more than eight hundred. The flight range of the A380 is 15 thousand kilometers. However, Boeing intends to beat these numbers.
Innovations
The plane uses the so-called flying wing system. This is not an innovation for aviation in general, however, technology will be implemented on a civilian airliner for the first time. Of military aircraft, the flying wing was used in the stealth bomber B-2. The new aircraft will be huge, with a capacity of about a thousand people. The wingspan of the Boeing 797 model is about eighty meters, which is thirty percent more than the Boeing 747.
The passenger liner will accommodate up to a thousand passengers and will be able to cover distances of up to 20 thousand kilometers. However, this also has its drawbacks: an aircraft of this size will not be able to overcome the sound barrier. On the other hand, such high speeds are not needed to transport passengers. The streamlined form of the Boeing 797 will allow it to better perform maneuvers in mid-air, but the lack of a tail will reduce the speed of these maneuvers. To solve this problem, special shunting engines can be applied.
Why is the wing better?
The new design of the wings allows you to increase lift by 50%, while the weight will decrease by 25%. This gives the new Boeing model the ability to cover distances of tens of thousands of kilometers. Due to the rigidity of the housing, pressure on it is reduced, as well as turbulence. All this affects not only the flight performance, but also on the comfort of passengers. Inside the liner, people will experience less overload than when flying in a standard tubular airplane. In addition, the ability to take on board such a number of passengers at lower fuel costs will lower ticket prices, which is especially important for flights over long distances, when the cost of a flight can reach several tens of thousands of rubles.
Future
It is not yet known when the new Boeing 797, whose photos are presented in this article, will appear in the sky, but it is eagerly awaited. It is also impossible to rush here, because this is the first passenger airliner using the technology of a flying wing, and designers have to consider many factors. Despite the fact that a preliminary order for 159 aircraft has been completed, one cannot expect that after the appearance of the new Boeing, all airlines will be on the “flying wing”. Local airlines, local flights are likely to use old aircraft for a long time. However, with the advent of such an economical airliner with a large capacity, one should expect a sharp drop in prices for long-haul flights. Cargo transportation will also become much more profitable, in connection with which the supply of products to far corners of the planet and various means will improve. This is especially important on a national scale.
One thing is certain for sure: the Boeing 797 will usher in an era of new civilian aircraft that will replace the outdated tubular. Despite the fact that the release date is not even officially set, experts are already trumpeting the coup in civil aviation.